Visual Field Test -- Eye Test

[George Bokros]

My eye doctor has me take a visual field test annually, is this normal? He is not giving me any reason for it. How often will Medicare pay for one? He also want to check the pressures in my eyes every six months. The same doctor does not give my wife the visual field annually nor does he check the pressures every six months.

My eye pressures have been in the normal range for a couple of years, they were higher than he would like but have come down. Today they were in the middle of the normal range.

Anyone here an eye doctor of know anything about these items.

Thanks

[Mike Henderson]

I doubt if a woodworking forum is the best place to ask medical questions. Even if there was a doctor here, they would need to know your medical history and the facts of your situation. Perhaps you should get a second opinion from another eye doctor.

Mike

[Wade Lippman]

I get one every 4 months. I don't know about Medicare, but Obamacare insurance does.
My pressure is a bit high and I have an odd looking optic nerve. The doctor doesn't think anything is wrong, but just wants to catch it as early as possible if something happens.

You should have asked him why he was recommending it.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

My MIL and I have to have our pressure levels checked on a regular basis because we have certain markers that could potentially lead to glaucoma. What our doctors are doing, is creating a baseline & history to reference and see how much our eyes have changed.

Like others have suggested. Ask your doctor why you are having so many tests.

This web site has a lot of great info on all sorts of vision-related issues. http://www.allaboutvision.com/

[Bruce Page]

Why not ask your doctor for an explanation?

[Jon Nuckles]

My optic nerves are dissimilar, so I have to take the visual field test every other year. Used to be every year, but my tests have been normal and there was no change in the appearance of my optic nerve so my opthalmologist decided it was ok to go longer between tests. Ask your doctor why you are getting the tests and, if he or she won't tell you, see someone else.

[Rich Engelhardt]

My eye doctor has me take a visual field test annually, is this normal?

I just got fitted for new glasses last week and they gave me that test.
I figured it was something new they came up with to extract an extra $15 from everyone.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I assume since you ask about Medicare that you are over 50, and in that case regular screening for Glaucoma is recommended (the pressure test). I am not a doctor, so I can't tell you how frequent, but actually my reason for commenting is to say take care of your eyes. You only have two. I was in a kayak surfing accident and bashed my head on a rock, jamming my sunglass temple into my eye, causing damage inside my eye. I had to have laser surgery to repair a leaking vessel. Now when I look out of one eye I see a different sized image than the other. I also have a curve to my vision. If I look at a grid on graph paper, for example, the grid bends and looks humped. I do not get a stereo view of the world because one eye sees different than the other, so the images don't match up. I live with it, and it's so normal to me now I don't notice it except when reading.

[Brian Tymchak]

I'm not a eye doctor, and never played one on TV, and never stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, for that matter. I would guess that you mentioned something to indicate a history of glaucoma in the family.

[George Bokros]

I'm not a eye doctor, and never played one on TV, and never stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, for that matter. I would guess that you mentioned something to indicate a history of glaucoma in the family.

No glaucoma in the family that I am aware of.

[Jim Matthews]

Yup. That's why I'm being screened, and take drops to control intraocular pressure.

I hate that test, passionately.
Now I know how dogs feel about the "Cone of Shame".

If you're over 50, it's not something to get anxious about.
If treatment for glaucoma is recommened, you'll get an extra 5-15 years
out of the 'stock' lens that comes as original issue.

I'm on the other side of the fence, so progressively myopic
that I've been agitating to get a new lens installed, and chuck the glasses.

[Myk Rian]

Why not ask your doctor for an explanation?

That's too easy.

[Chris Parks]

My wife was having the field test every six months as part of her optical check up. She moved to another doctor who thinks it is a waste of time so it seems to be the preference of each doctor.

[Steve Baumgartner]

There is an aspect of this topic that is troubling me: what sort of relationship do you have with your doctor if you are not willing/able to ask him/her this question but are willing to ask it of unqualified strangers on a woodworking forum?

[Jim Matthews]

Consultations are always fraught, when a topic that dares mention age related decline is raised.

Just a SWAG, but I think this is like one of the Car Talk reruns, where the caller
asks Click and Clack to settle a dispute, without the spouse hearing about it.

Lots of us consider the inexorable erosion of our faculties as if it were a personal failing, or character flaw.