Ophthalmologist visit

[yarkadin]

Today I visited the eye doctor for a routine eye exam.  In the last few years I've developed hyperopia or farsightedness which has been a drag since I like to read.  I got a prescription for glasses to use when reading.  The doctor checked to see if there is anything unusual in my eyes and he said everything is otherwise normal.  Now here's the thing: I see floaters quite frequently these days and it was interesting to learn that he didn't find anything wrong, even with my pupils dilated.  Post-visit, I checked on the condition of "retinal detachment" and, unpleasant to learn, it has a lot of correspondence to HPPD symptoms including flashes of light and increase of floaters. 

Needless to say, I think anyone experiencing HPPD should get their eyes checked every once in a while, just to make sure that everything is otherwise okay and what you are experiencing is not anything directly inside the eye itself... (that is, problems in the eye outside of various entoptic noise).

I initially didn't mention HPPD to the doctor... but then as he was shining an intense light into my eye as part of the test, I felt like I needed to.  It was so insanely bright that it was almost unbearable, like staring at the sun for 30 seconds in each eye.  I told the doc that I have HPPD and am sensitive to light and he of course had no clue what HPPD was, and then just kind of shrugged it off like I never even mentioned it.  "Oh okay, yeah".  I asked him about neuroophthalmalogists he knew and he listed a bunch of names and suggestions.  Last time I mentioned HPPD to an ophthalmalogist, there was an air of shock and disbelief among the doc and his assistant... with this one, he didn't seem to care much or take it seriously.

Anyway, just putting this info out there.  I'm relieved of course I have nothing wrong with my eyes except some farsightedness with age (both my parents started losing their eyesight around their 40s as well, so it's totally genetic).  The floaters can be decreased with surgery, the doc told me, but of course that's pretty over-the-top.  I don't think any of us have floaters that bad.  But again, this is worth checking.

Would be curious to read about others' experiences...
 

Edited September 27, 2024 by yarkadin