The Eyes Have It

It's that time of year again. Time for the Sleepy family to head off to the eye doctor and get our eyeballs examined. And, as is seeming to be an ongoing trend, the pressure in my eyes is borderline high. So I was scheduled to come back for the routine rigamarole to see if there was any deterioration or damage to my eye. (Interestingly enough, my prescription was less again this year as well, so now that it's two prescriptions less, I went ahead and had new glasses made. My astigmatism grew and shifted as well. On seeing the new glasses, my sister had only negative things to say, so...I may be also looking for another, cheaper pair to wear in her presence.)

Anyway, today found me in a dark room in the back of the optometrist's office staring into a white bowl, clicker in hand, while little lights flashed randomly. The visual field test is probably the second most annoying test the eye doctor does (the first being the air puff. I hates the air puff.) You stare at the yellow light. You're not supposed to blink or look around. It's the one yellow light in a sea of white. Then there are little blinking lights that turn on and off. You click the clicker when you see one. Or when you think you see one. Or when you start to black out because you're trying so hard not to look around. Or when your thumb randomly twitches. Then you cover the other eye and do the whole thing again.

They have another new test now, too. I don't recall what it was called. But basically you look into a viewfinder of sorts and there is a blinking light and lots of red lines and you stare at it without blinking while the tech does something on the other side with the machine - lots of whirring and blinking. Then they slide the lens and do the other eye.

Both are painless, so that's something. But really it feels like so much voodoo. How does this help, really? Regardless, I passed both with flying colors. Then I got to have my eyes dilated. Oh the joy. (Tim had his dilated when we all went for the checkups. It was a nice, cloudy day. Today was bright and it seemed like the sun was bouncing off everything. Can I just say ow?) He looked at the optic nerve, did the pressure again (the one where they numb and then touch your eye), did a few other things, and pronounced my eyes healthy, just with borderline pressure. And so we'll continue to watch it.

It occurs to me that, given the history of thyroid issues my family has, maybe I ought to toddle off to an endocrinologist and get a full thyroid work up. (My primary doctor only checks TSH, which is one piece of the larger thyroid puzzle.) Given that one symptom of a thyroid disorder is bulging eyes, I wonder if higher eye pressure might go along with that. (Dr. Google suggests that yes, it might.)

In other ocular news, the elder boy left his eye appointment with a prescription for glasses himself. They're very cute, I just wonder how many times they'll be broken in the first four months. But as I've noticed he reads really well when I hold the book super close to his face (rather than in my lap where I can help him point to the words) I suspected there might be an issue and was not surprised. (He also has an astigmatism. Who knew you could have an astigmatism at five?)