Tinnitus Faded to Zero in a Month, Now Visual Snow Joined My Life

Hi all,

My tinnitus appeared just over a month ago now and at first it was hard, I had a few spikes and a few restless nights but the past week or so it has been pretty much unnoticeable.

I can now sleep without even background noise, or even put my ear on a pillow when I sleep. I was feeling so relieved.

Until a few days ago when I woke up with blurred vision, lights in my vision and seeing static. Now my first guess is that this is visual snow, because it came on suddenly and I’ve had perfect vision my entire life.

A few days before this I was highlight stressed, getting minimal sleep and staring at a laptop screen for hours on end as I had my final university deadline.

Does anyone else experience this? I’m just so confused as to why visual snow would occur when my tinnitus was fading to zero. Feeling hopeless once again

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

Did you go to an ophthalmologist? This is considered an emergency, if it happens suddenly. It can be anything from visual snow to retinal detachment. Retinal detachment is very serious, it can lead to permanent loss of vision.

(My migraines can produce symptoms like that, but it doesn't last for days and it's accompanied by pain.)

If you haven't, go to an eye doctor.

 

I have visual snow as well

Since you had the blurriness & lights in your eyes, you would see an ophthalmologist just to rule things out for peace of mind but it sounds a lot like a migrane

Tinnitus, visual snow, migraines and such are all very commonly found together, something about our brains just makes us more prone to these conditions

How blurry was your vision and how long did all of this stuff last? It sounds like it was just that morning? But if it was major blurriness like you could hardly see and persisted then that definitely calls for an ER trip.

Eye blurriness can have many different causes

 

If you cannot get to an eye doctor fast enough, just go to the ER. They will rule out anything serious. That was what my optometrist told me. First go to your GP, who will give an emergency 1 day referral to ophthalmologist (eye doctor) and if he can't do that, then go to an ER. My optometrist told me it's always better to feel silly going to an ER to rule out any serious eye issues than gambling your chances. Do not wait.

 

Thanks for your support guys. I have a hospital appointment with the eye clinic tomorrow morning.

My vision is impaired, aka blurriness and finding it harder to read text, see from afar etc. But I have also developed this static look everywhere I go - which I put down to visual snow, brilliant

I will see what they say at the doctors tomorrow.

I just don’t understand why I would develop visual snow when my tinnitus essentially went away after a month? Odd.

 

If you do have some form of retinal tear, it's especially important to minimize eye movements so that you don't agitate the tear. Take a break from the computer and don't strain your eyes further. Give your eyes some relieve for now.

Also, bring someone that can drive you back. If they do a eye dilation to look at your retina, your eyes will be especially blurry for hours. I was given this advice on my next retinal exam.

Best wishes.

 

I’ve had this for years, visual snow, severe eye floaters and flashes of lights etc. I went to A&E a couple of times and saw an ophthalmologist at my local NHS doctor and even saw an ophthalmologist at London Moorfields eye hospital and Birmingham eye hospital. They had no explanation for it.

Upon my own research I found out it was called visual snow. Good to know it’s nothing sinister but it’s annoying as fuck.

 

I get flashes of visual snow when I'm first getting up in the mornings. Never at any other time (so far). Hoping this isn't the start of something worse.

 

Bethadtr, what happened after you went to the doctor? Hopefully it was nothing serious and the issue resolved. Would like to hear an update!

 

Heya, I developed visual snow syndrome after tinnitus and just wanted to let you know that you’ll be okay, even if you don’t see it now. I was exactly where you were 4 months ago, I had a tinnitus spike which then calmed down but I started seeing static, afterimages, starbursts... pretty much every visual snow syndrome symptom under the sun. It was the scariest time of my life for 2 months I was extremely depressed, but I got help and started to do activities again and now I’m not so scared.

Saw a neurologist who says it is likely not to get worse, which put me at ease.

Sometimes it still bothers me but not even half as much as it used to (it’s more just an annoyance) and I forget it’s there when I’m focused on other things. Just wanted to tell you this because I know how scary it is and a positive anecdote can really help. PM if you feel like you need some more reassurance or anything . X

 

Hey @bethadtr, do you still have blurry vision (even without the visual snow)? Struggling with this one right now.