Is seeing swirls in my vision normal after an eye injection?

What's normal

Many people describe seeing something move through their vision in the minutes and hours after the shot: a dark blob, a round dot, a shimmer, or shapes that drift when they move their eye. The medicine and a small amount of air are sitting in the clear gel inside the eye and they move as your eye moves, so you see them until they settle and disperse.

The NEI describes this as seeing floating air bubbles which look similar to floaters, and lists it among the short-term effects that usually go away within one to two days. The AAO adds that you may see spots in your vision after an injection, that they may be more noticeable in certain lighting or when you look a certain way, and that they usually do not affect vision.

The reassuring pattern is that these shapes appear immediately or within the first hours, get smaller and less noticeable as time passes, and are gone within a day or two.

Shapes and bubbles appear right after the injection and usually clear within 1 to 2 days. Anything new after day 1 needs a call.

When it stops being normal

The pattern that matters is anything that starts later or increases. The ASRS lists increased floaters after the first day as a reason to contact your retina specialist. A sudden shower of many new floaters, flashing lights, a shadow in your side vision or a gray curtain over part of your vision is a retinal tear or detachment warning, and the AAO says to call an ophthalmologist immediately if you have any of those symptoms.

Shapes in your vision that come with increasing pain and worsening vision in the first week can also point to infection inside the eye, which is an urgent call to your retina office.