eye exam

[cellio]

I saw my opthamologist for my regular checkup today and was surprised to learn that medicine's understanding of glaucoma has changed since it was last explained to me. I guess I think of glaucoma as an old, well-understood disease that doesn't change much

Comments

[mikekn]

I wonder if it's sound-based; how else would you measure the thickness of something like that?

Good guess. It was probably a Pachymeter which uses ultrasound to measure the thickness.

[cellio]

Thanks. Some of the search results on that term have images consistent with what I saw today. The part that touched my eye -- recognizing that my glasses were off at the time -- looked like a short black pen. It had a cord that connected to some sort of small console that I couldn't see.

[schulman]

Aha! You need to see the Best Glaucoma Website Ever, http://www.globalaigs.org/.

(Do this at home, not at work; there's sound, and you really need to hear the sound to appreciate the site.)

[cellio]

Oh. My. Thanks for the warning about the sound. :-)

[rectangularcat]

that site is the second best site evar. *crying from laughter. I have to write an LJ entry on that one...

(stuff on my cat is still the best...)

[dmnsqrl]

I once had to do this test where I looked straight ahead into a device and pushed a button every time I saw a light. It's supposed to measure sensitivity at different points of the eye and I was told it has to do with glaucoma.

[cellio]

That's a test of your visual field. It's not directly tied to glaucoma so far as I know, though a decrease in your visual field could be a symptom of possible glaucoma, I suppose, so maybe that's what your doctor meant.

[dmnsqrl]

I remember he was concerned because of spots where the light had to be really bright for me to see it and he was concerned that there may be some damaged places on of one of my eyes... (yes, once my insurance situation is a touch more stable, another eye checkup is high on the list)