Eye-Poking Fun

I never like anything going into my eyes - no, not even eye-drops. It must be rather hilarious to watch me applying eye-drops into my eyes, as half of the drops would end up on my face. And it was the eye surgery documentary which I saw on television when I was young that put me off becoming a doctor.

Recently I went to the optician to get my eyesight checked, and I was told that the intra-ocular pressure (IOP), according to the puff test, was higher than normal. So got sent to see an opthalmic surgeon, who did all sorts of tests to check that the pressure was OK (one of the devices was the Goldmann Tonometer), the corneal thickness was higher than usual (that could explain the higher IOP) and I didn't have glaucoma, optic nerve damage or loss of vision. Even with the anaesthetic eyedrops, it was still quite difficult to keep the eyes open so that he could poke various instruments onto my eyes. Nevertheless, the doctor was absolutely brilliant with his patience and his steady hands.

Even went to have the fundus photography done. That was a bizarre experience as eyedrops were used to dilate the pupils, and for about 4 hours after that I could not focus anything at near-distance. So imagine not being able to read a book, nor read the menu at a restaurant, nor even tell the time on a digital watch, nor even read the computer screen. You would never have thought that something that you take it for granted could become impossible with just the dilated pupils.

So far, nothing wrong with me..... so fingers crossed. It would not be nice to lose the vision - imagine a world where you can't take photos, look at pictures, read, watch television, or even simply look at spectacular sunrise and sunset.