I had noticed a distortion of vertical lines in the center of vision in my left eye (the Amsler grid is your friend). I'm thinking "oh great, macular degeneration".

Well, the Opthalmologist sent me to a retinal specialist. I did not have a detachment but had a branch vein retinal occlussion which in english is a leaking blood vessel behind your retina causing swelling and distortion of the retina. He said if these occur out in your periphery they can go undetected and do much damage (lucky me). It took a couple years of regular retinal scans and injections to bring the swelling back to near normal.