so i have my 1st’ eye doctor appt on Friday. for my right eye, it been bugging me.
so since i never, been to one is there anything, i should ask her ??.
Be sure you get your eyes diluted for a complete examination. Then once diluted be sure you can drive or have a way home. For me the funky stupid rolled up sun shade at check out is plenty dark enough to get home.
rick
Make sure you take some sunglasses with you
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i think my mom, is going with me.
If it’s a really bright sunny day, wear a baseball cap in addition to sunglasses.
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My eye doctor’s office calls the day before to make sure I have someone drive me. Then when I get to the office, they double check that someone is driving me. This is really important imo. You really can’t drive when you are dialated.
ask them if you should see a retina specialist too. I know you haven’t had diabetes for very long, but unfortunately, one of the complications many of us get is diabetic retinopathy.
Hi Eric,
I just went to the eye doctor today. Here’s what happens at this practice (although yours may be different). At some practices, you see one person, at other practices you see two. I saw two (and it wasn’t a case of double vision)!
A technician took me into a room and asked me questions about my health and my eyes. Then he looked at my eyes. Then I had to cover one eye and look at numbers and letters projected on the wall. He kept showing me smaller and smaller ones until I couldn’t read them, so that he could evaluate my vision. Then he did the same for the other eye. He looked at my eyes with different kinds of lights. Next, he used a machine to measure the pressure in each eye. It used to be that this test blew a little puff of air into my eye, but this time, they had a new machine and I didn’t feel anything. Finally, he positioned a machine with a lot of lenses in front of one eye, and kept changing the lenses and asking me how good they were until he got the mix of lenses that gave me the best vision. Same for the other eye.
Then he put drops in my eyes to dilate the pupils. Then I sat out in the waiting room for about 10 minutes while my pupils got bigger and bigger.
After that, I saw an ophthalmologist. She asked me a few more questions about my eyes, and then examined them. She used several different types of lights to examine my eyes in different ways, and then told me what she observed.
The reason you need to take sunglasses is that when your pupils get dilated, all lights seem very, very bright and everything looks blurry. That’s also why you need someone else to drive. Some people’s eyes recover from this fairly quickly, and others are slow (I think). It took about five hours for my eyes to recover. So don’t plan to do anything complicated with your eyes for several hours after your appointment.
It’s great that you’re going to get your eyes examined! We want to keep our eyes as healthy as we can!
Best wishes for an easy and informative appointment!
marty1492
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Last time I went to the eye doctor, I drove myself - no one asked if I’d done that… They dumped every type of drops that they have (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but it seemed like it!). Doc said everything looked good and sent me on my merry way…
As I passed the receptionist, I thought I’d better ask for the disposable sunglasses they have… Theirs are a LOT darker than anything I own. Still had to sit for around half an hour until I felt safe driving home.
They have stopped doing “visuals” in the UK. Everyone gets a yearly retinal scan using camera-based equipment. If you have any signs of retinopathy they move you to a 6-monthly scan. It’s much more reilable and consistent than having the someone peer into your eyes with a biright light, and the scans are available on your records so they can compare any progression over time. The other BIG advantage is that often they don’t need to do the dilation. They can usually get a good photograph without.
I am a bit surprised this is not standard everywhere.
Added in edit: Duh, should have read the post above…
i through, i let you all know, how it went, it was ok, he asked me questions about my health, and my eyes.
looked at my eyes,. & did a thing with different kinds of lights,. & he dilate the pupils,. & he wants me to see a retina specialist,. & my mom took me, & drive me home,.
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I went to my normal eye doctor in the fall. When he dilated my eyes he found macular edema and retinopathy. They then used a machine to take pictures of my macular… I was then referred to a Retina Specialist. They did more tests and felt the retinopathy was in its early stsges, non proliferative. So no injections or laser treatments yet. I do Have to go back every 6 months.
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they do, want, to take, pictures of my macular, but i want, to get, my Contacts, First, don’t know, if a good thing, not to do it,.