That’s a common misconception.

Most are clinically silent. The ones that land you in an emergency room are dangerous.

Yeah, I suppose.

A few years back, I was blinded in one eye by a retinal vein occlusion (basically a stroke in the retina). They're actually pretty common, affecting 5-10% of the population, but unless it crosses your macula, you'll probably never know it happened.

I recently suffered an occular migraine. My first and only (so far). Scariest moment of the decade for me. Thought I was going blind, thought I'd have to adjust to this new normal. Got myself to the ER just in time for it to clear out.

Eye issues terrify me and I'm not sure mental state could handle a retinal stroke. That sounds truly horrible.

I've had ocular migraines my whole life, as long as I can remember (I clearly remember them happening before kindergarten, and was seeing doctors when I was six). Luckily, they've gotten far less common and intense as I've gotten older... they were completely debilitating during my early teens.

Is it curable? Has your eyesight been restored?

It's treatable, not curable. Treatment lasted about a year, consisting of monthly injections into my eyeball (yeah), and a laser surgery that cauterized about 50 tiny veins. I have a blind spot and some unevenness, but it's usable. My bad eye is better than many people's good eye. It's about 20/40-20/80 now, depending (my good eye is 20/20).

Hooray for modern medicine! It saved my eye. When the occlusion first happened, my vision went from 20/20 to 20/500 in moments.

If "Clinically silent" is jargon for "no symptoms at all", sure.

But if it gets the point of even minor persistent chest pain or one is aware that something is not right, it's time for the emergency room.

Chest pain is not to be trifled with. One clot may be followed by others which might be serious or fatal in a very short time.

PE is common enough among people that sit for a living (most of HN), that I think it's important for folks to be aware of them and that they're dangerous.

I've had mild chest pain for years. I'm not going to live in the ER.