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My dad has diabetic retinopathy, is legally blind and is seeing snowflakes in his vision. He has past history of a carotid artery due to TIA last summer. Several months before his stroke, his eyes were doing this. He did go to eye doctor last May and she just shrugged it off.

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Floaters are black. They're microscopic motes of matter that have worked their way inside the eyeball, and create a shadow between the pupil and the retina, which is why they look much, much bigger than they really are - you're seeing the shadow, not the thing itself. I know because I got one a couple of years ago and ran all the way to my optician in a cold sweat about it. He examined my eye very carefully, patted me on the head and explained. No more yanking down dusty creepers in the garden without wearing goggles for me.
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Gershun: Floaters were the start of my late mother's Macular Degeneration.
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Thanks all!
Dad's has severe diabetic retinopathy which led to almost complete blindness. Now I wonder about silent strokes
occurring in the past making vision worse along with retinopathy. Could very well be floaters or detached retina.

I've been reading a lot about Charles Bonnet Syndrome, very interesting, sounds just like how dad tries to desribe it to me. :(
Hard to watch a once strong man slowly deteriorate....

I need to quit playing inspector gadget 
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Yes, Llamalover I was going to say the same thing. When I'm in a really white room or outside on a bright day I notice floaters. They say the only time you need to worry about floaters is if you suddenly see a whole cloudburst of them cause that could mean a possible detached retina.
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Are you sure they aren't "floaters," seen by some people with MD.
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Look into Charles Bonnet Syndrome. On line you can find a good video through the TED Network with Oliver Sachs narrating it. I work for Braille Institute and this is a common thing many primary doctors do not recognize. Just as an aside my Mother had issues seeing tubes of lights and never had them after her artery was cleared. But my guess Charles Bonnet syndrome. Only happens to those who had vision and lose it to some extent whether legally blind or not. And it can happen long after the vision loss occurs.
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My sister had a stroke a year and a half ago, and is now totally blind. She was seeing flashes of light and was told there is a condition called Bonet's or Bonnet's Syndrome ( not sure of the spelling ) which causes hallucinations and was told it is very normal and she wasn't going crazy. They can be very realistic and scary, but nothing to worry about.
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Not going to worry about it. Taking a day at a time 😊

Thankyou
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Dad is diagnosed legally blind although he some eye sight and can navigate fairly well so yes it does matter to him!

he says it's like he's driving in a snowstorm
he had this 4 months before his stroke
Eye doc and his neurologist said it was not related
he doesn't seem awfully worried about it but I will look up what you mentioned, just I am I guess

we visited his new Endo chronologist today and she suggested he lower his units of insulin to 25 so he was very happy about that
she was very nice, talked quietly to him instead of yelling like most doctors have done, he really liked her and thank her and cried a little bit

She sent him for a A1 C test and it came back a little bit ago a 6.2, that's the lowest it has ever been since he has had diabetes and, I was thrilled ! it's always been 8 or above! just shows to me that being in assisted-living has helped him bunches but not sure he realizes that.

I think he may be having hallucinations. he says someone wakes him up about every night calling his name and no one is there and sometimes they have a face that looks like a pig snout 🤔😜
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Bella I don't know about snowflakes particularly, but I'd guess the culprit will be the blood supply. If you Google "blood supply to the retina" you'll see all sorts of useful diagrams which explain how it all works. Some of them say things like "choroidal epithelial vascular cells are fenestrated" which are probably a wee bit above our (unpaid) pay grade - but just bleep over those and look at how the blood reaches the retina, and how the retina connects with the optic nerve.

So, if you then imagine how cacked up some of these really tiny vessels will be, and then picture how closely connected it all is, it wouldn't be surprising if, as well as the damage to the retina itself, your father was getting disturbances in the nerve which could cause strange optical illusions. Still - better an optical illusion than a hallucination? And I suppose it could also be caused by continual interruptions to the blood flow, too.

Are you worried that this might be a warning of something? You could ask a neurologist, if you've got one handy? It could be. But really all you can do is hold his hand and report what he's told you; and encourage your father to keep speaking up if anything is worrying him.

Unfortunately that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything to be done about it :(

Hugs, I hope you're able to reassure him. Is it bothering him much?
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Snowflakes or something like sparkles? The latter can be a symptom of a detached retina.

But as your dad is already blind, would that matter?
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