I've had this with both eyes. The first time it was really scary as it was so dramatic. I could not get an appointment at an opticians and was told by Specsavers that their appointments that afternoon were only for children! They are meant to see people as an emergency, as PVD can cause a detached retina, as you know. In the end I had to go to a local eye department and had to go back several times to make sure my eye had healed.We stream channel 4 and watch 24 hours in A&E. The number of people who come in for minor scrapes and then moan about the wait is mind boggling. That is in addition to the number of drink related accidents. I had a problem with my eye a few years ago and I couldn't get an emergency eye exam at any optician in our town. Each one told me to go to A&E even the walk in centre told me to do that as I needed to see an eye doctor. I reluctantly went and was eventually sent to the Eye Clinic. The doctor said it was the correct thing as I had Posterior Vitreous Detachment but the symptoms were very similar to a detached retina.
It then happened with my right eye and I took myself off to A & E, as I had lost a bit of vision in my eye. I had to wait 4 hours to be seen, and a junior doctor had a quick look at my eye, and said it looked OK to her. I said she needed to put drops in my eye so she could see if there was any damage at the back of my eye, rather than just looking at my eye! She was quite happy to send me home, but in the end because I wasn't happy with her examination, she double checked with her boss, who then did an ultra sound on my eye. He referred me to the Eye Clinic and I had an appointment the next day. I had a bleed behind my eye, and had to attend several times over the next couple of months whilst it healed. To say I was unimpressed with the junior doctor is an understatement, I knew more about my eye than she did. She had never heard of PVD.