eye exams

A Special Note to Dilation Candidates

kannidubaLeave a comment

After having a day to recover from my trauma, I realized that I was a bit irresponsible in my eyeball rant yesterday…and after seeing that someone was directed here after they searched on “eye doctor dilation” I thought I probably scared the bejeezers out of whoever that was.  They were likely looking for comfort and didn’t exactly find that here.

Okay, so to those facing this dilation thing….

I’ve had it done at least five times in my lifetime.  The dilation is a piece of cake…just eye drops.  They make your eyes feel a bit odd as they work, and make your vision blurry and sensitive to light, but there is NO PAIN INVOLVED.  I have found it easier to sit with my eyes closed, and lightly pinching the inside corner of your eyes over the bridge of your nose seems to ease that odd feeling as the drops work.  So, please do not be afraid.

And this was the very first time in my 31 years of visiting an eye doctor that I have EVER had anyone poke my eyeball.  It came as a bit of a surprise, and I promise you it did not hurt at all…I barely felt anything.  It was simply the IDEA of the procedure itself that took my squeamish blood pressure down to dangerously pass-outable levels.  The procedure was measuring the thickness of the cornea, so if you don’t have to have that done, all the better for you.

So, there’s the truth.  I guess I am a wussy girl after all.  And after some thought, I will go back to the opthamologist once a year as directed.  I suppose a little, painless (albeit creepy) procedure is much preferable to blindness in the long run.

Do Not Read This if You are Squeamish About Eye Things…or if You are About to Go to the Eye Doctor for an Exam…Trust Me, You Don’t Want to Know

kanniduba7 Comments

Okay, so let me begin by saying that I am not some wussy girl.  I am pretty tough…I birthed three babies naturally and lived to tell the tale.  However, today almost saw me on the floor of the opthamologists exam room.  See this?

This is my eye, two hours after a dilation.  I have some glaucoma markers, so my optometrist wanted me to have a thorough exam to rule out any problems, and to get a baseline reading on my optic nerve.  “Will it be scary?”  I asked him.  “Nah!  No worse than you go through here.”  So, I expected easy.  I don’t like the sensation of having my eyes dilated, but I knew I could handle that.  But I do get a bit queasy at the thought of eye procedures in general, so I was a *bit* nervous…but he said it wouldn’t be scary, right?  WRONGO!!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m sorry, but if having a computer stylus pushed into your frozen eyeball 6 times per side isn’t scary, then heck on a piece of toast, I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS!!!!  “Just look straight ahead at the red dot on the chart.  I am going to measure the thickness of your cornea.”  “Oh, okay….but wait, I can’t see the red dot.  Let me put on my glasses.”  “No, you need your glasses off.  Just look in the direction of the chart then.”  “Hmm…okay.  Wait, what are you doing with that pen?  Wait!  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!”  My cries went unanswered, and she proceeded to stick that damned thing in my eye!!!  Not once, but SIX TIMES!!!!!!  AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

The good news is that my eyes are perfectly healthy, although a bit abnormally structured.  It’s a good thing too, because I am never going back to that torture chamber again.  Nevermind that in hindsight (no pun intended) the procedure wasn’t really that bad…the idea of it is worse than the actual going through it.  But still…if God had wanted a pen poking into your eye, he would’ve put it there himself.  It’s just not natural.  *shudder*

Addendum:  Please see this follow-up post!