Mysterious eye damage from 1W 445 laser

Hello,

I want to share this here both as a question and as an alarm to anyone reading this who uses or will use lasers.

When I went on to buy my first blue 1W 445 nm laser, it was off an internet post. The guy selling it proceeded to show it to me, us both unprotected, in a bright sunlight situation as he burned some paper and a plastic cap on the ground. The dot was observed from about 1-1.5 meters unprotected.

I got some eye pain, no after images or dark spots. Later on though (4 weeks in) I am noticing that i see an onset of either changes; or I have became too observant of those:

-Some floaters (I had some before, but I notice them more now)
-Halos around bright lights at night, including rainbow-colored rings around bright leds
-Increased daytime glare from any source. Even just the sky being bright makes all objects on the ground to appear as if seen through a thin light veil.

You will say this is not a medical forum, go see a doctor. Well, I did. Six times to be exact.

I got checked by six different optometrists. I had three separate OCT scans done, one with many layers and data. I was done a dilated eye exam too, a goldman test, six checkups and a detailed pictures of the back of my eyes.

Everyone said that I have dodged the bullet and I am OK.

This makes it a million times crazier, as I don’t see like I did before and obviously what is done is done. Modern medicine can’t even find a reason. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy it’s not anything worse. But living in a new world governed by halos and glare is saddening.

Has anyone seen such change in their vision?

If six professional optometrists couldn't detect any damage, then your eyes are probably fine and you're likely just suffering the nocebo effect and it's all in your brain.

IceF,
as every single one of your posts "39 of them" are about your eye's getting or possibly getting damaged questions I would suggest you leave the laser hobby alone.. Wouldn't you think thats a correct answer..
To not tempt fate, I would destroy the laser you have now..

I never thought to look, but you're right, every one of them is related to eye safety.
We're all eye safety concious, but this is obsessive behavior for sure.
I agree with GSS, this hobby is probably not for you.

I am not a doctor but I think it could be psychosomatic or could be something in your brainstem/brain such as multiple sclerosis, have you had a MRI of your cervical spine and brain ?
Lasers may have nothing to do with any of it except maybe you became concerned because of lasers and started noticing things that we typically ignore as our brains are involved in creating our vision, it's possible to stress yourself into seeing and feeling all kinds of things, however you should talk to a doctor about any symptom that concern you.

This image is not moving, it's all in our heads.
I am not saying that your symptoms aren't real, it's just something to think about.

I agree that it's probably brain related. My grandmother had perfect eyes yet she couldn't see well. Doctors said it was an issue in the brain. Are you on any medication? That could affect vision also. Same with fatigue.