Vision Changes

A few months ago, E. went to the eye doctor and discovered that he needed stronger prescription glasses.  Such is life as you get older, eh?  He was also due for another yearly "threshold test."  So, last week, he completed the threshold tests and brought home the results.  Here are the side-by-side comparisons.  Now, I'm not an optometrist, but I'm thinking there's a pretty big difference here.  And I'm guessing the black spots aren't good.

Threshold Tests

Left eye 2011 on top

Left eye 2012 on bottom

 Right eye 2011 on top

Right eye 2012 on bottom

I might have freaked out just a tad.  Holy crap!  Are you blind?  Can you see?  Can you drive?  What do we do?  Is there anything we can do?  As usual, E. was very calm about the whole deal.  "We're supposed to make an appointment with the neurologist about it, I guess."  I called the neurologist and explained the situation and asked to make an appointment.  I think they were as confused as I was.  "Are you sure you weren't supposed to make an appointment with a neuro-opthamologist?  We deal with his seizures.  They would deal with any eye issues."  Ummm, let me make some phone calls and call you back.

I called the optometrist's office back and had a very entertaining conversation (after getting the introduction information out of the way).

Me:  "These threshold test results seem concerning.  What are we supposed to do from here?"
Office staff:  "Make an appointment with your neurologist.  We told your husband that."
Me:  "Yes, but we called the neurologist and they said they only deal with seizures and not eyes."
Office staff:  "Oh."
Me:  "They said that perhaps we were supposed to be referred to a neuro-opthamologist?"
Office staff:  "If you were supposed to have been referred to a neuro-opthamologist, we would have told you that."
Me:  "Okay then.  So we do nothing?"
Office staff:  "I guess not.  We'll see you again in a year for another threshold test."
Me:  "Can he drive?"
Office staff:  "The doctor didn't say otherwise."

Allrightythen.  Everyone feel better now?


Just to let you know, a couple of the kids had eye appointments yesterday, so I was able to talk to the optometrist directly.  E.'s field of vision has definitely been effected but his eyes have probably compensated with extra movement and what-have-you.  He was surprised that E.'s neurologist didn't want to see him, but agreed that it would be more of an informational meeting than anything.  He didn't think a referral to the neuro-opthamologist was necessary because typically they want to try to figure out the CAUSE of the loss of the field of vision.  We know the cause ... brain tumors, brain surgery, brain radiation, and diabetes on top of all that.  It's not really a shocker.  There isn't anything that can be done about it.  It may eventually get to the point where E. cannot drive.  He suggested that E. be careful driving, especially at night.  I expressed how shocked I was at the dramatic difference between last year's test and this year's test.  The optometrist agreed, but told me that he was surprised that last year's test showed so little loss.  He had expected more decline at that time.  Perhaps E. is making up for lost time then.  Yikes.