My usual bus driver was on vacation this morning. I scheduled a 7 a.m. pickup to be at the Dr. office by 8:30. Yeah it seems crazy, but I know who and what I'm dealing with, you don't. My bus drove up at 6:27 honking. I scurried to get a to-go breakfast thrown together before they would honk again and agitate my neighbors who don't have to be up when the rooster crows. I made it to the Low Vision Center about 6:40. I had 2 hours to kill. This sounds bad, but it's definitely better then being late for something so important. The area of town the Low Vision Center is in is a bustling part of the city. There are buses dropping people off every few minutes across the street. I saw doctors arriving for work, people jogging, delivery trucks unloading medical equipment, bicyclist, people walking to college classes, people leaving the office from surgery, people being rushed to the ER, and janitors putting the last touches on things. You name it, it happens in a matter of seconds downtown.
About 30 minutes before my appointment I went upstairs nearing the lobby of my Dr.'s office. I used this time to brush up on some handy practical tips I found for taking a Visual Field Test. Click here to read up on the 10 tips yourself if you're taking the test or know someone who is going to. I walked into the office signed some papers, payed my copay, and at about 8:37 my Dr. appeared. To my delight, it was the same Dr. who treated me in December at the neighboring Dr. offices. She didn't remember me at first, but I think it sank in slowly. We talked about what happened in my last visit. I did mention to this Dr. the Dr. I saw last week did not tell me I could wear my contacts while testing until after I failed the test. When questioned she had indicated it "would not matter either way." At the same time, she did not offer to test again with my contacts, but instead told me to come back today to go through this again with a different doctor. Even more shocking to me was the very paperwork she was to fill out from the State Department of Public Safety had specific instructions to measure patient's visual fields using their "carrier lens or its equivalent." Equivalent in my situation means wearing my contacts. Hopefully she just made a mistake. We all do. I never got the feeling last week she was doing anything intentionally wrong. So with that off my chest today's Dr. began prepping Humphrey for my visual field test. Who's that? Check him out below.
I thought he would give me a face tan. Oh well... While he didn't talk much he was very useful in taking my Visual Field Test. First you sit down, the lights are lowered, and you put a patch on one eye. LOL It sounds like a date I once had. :) You position your chin in the middle of that square you see in the photo, stare into a tiny black hole in the center of the dome, and press a hand held buzzer the second you see a small white light enter your field of vision. It seems straightforward. One eye is tested at a time. To me the patch that must stay on your other eye during testing makes this feel abnormal. The doctor stands behind Humphrey waving the light in and out of your field of vision while making markings on the visual field graph you see below. She used a large light at first for me to follow; then made it smaller. You'll notice the top of my visual field seems more straight across. The Dr. stated this may be caused by the way my brow is very distinctly protruded, limiting my upper visual fields.
Above is my actual Visual Field test results on one eye. The inner line represents the larger light they shine. The outer line represents the smaller light they shine.
Well before I knew it, the test was over. The outcome: I passed. I got the green light to continue my bioptic driving training! My doctor mentioned that she thought me failing last week may just be a fluke because my vision problem is not a physical one that deteriorates. It's not physical at all. Click here to read more on my diagnosis: Cone Dystrophy. So basically everything with my vision in general stays stable aside from the normal vision problems everyone faces with vision as they age.
Thanks for all your prayers, calls, emails and concern. This was a easy way for God to close the door on all this for me. He didn't. For that I thank Him. Thus the song you're listening to popped on my radar. Hope you like it. I've got a lot more new information I can't wait to share with you in the coming weeks. Hopefully I will have time to write all the stuff floating around in my head.
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