Gary and I recently had our eye exams, and I said to him after, “Why is the eye doctor still manually flipping the lenses and asking, ‘Which is better, one, or two?’”
Gary laughed, and said, “What would they do instead?”
I said, “You would think they could do some kind of scan.” Then I pantomimed a scan of an device moving over an eyeball, zooooop, zooooop, modem sounds. “Then it spits out a prescription.”
Turns out there are already machines that do exactly that, and some eye doctors are using them. Just not my eye doctor here in the midwest.
What about you? Is your eye doctor using the manual “Which is better” device or have they moved on?
14 responses to “TWIL: Eye Exams Are Outdated”
Brilliant. I look forward to not having to make that ‘Better? Or worse?’ decision and feeling so stupid when I don’t know the answer.
Big Dot – I wonder if there will be more complaints when they phase out Better / Worse. Perhaps having some say in our prescription makes us loyal to it.
… I think *one* round of “better/worse?” composed of exactly the prescription the scan has decided is right for your eyes might be a nice double-check before you get a prescription, and might be enough to allow agency? But also I don’t (yet) wear glasses…
KC – really? You are a unicorn!
Of the four members of my immediate family, I am the one person who does not wear glasses (my sister started wearing glasses before she was a teenager, at least), and I can’t think of an aunt or uncle who didn’t wear glasses (or contacts) at least part-time by the time they were my age, so yeah, basically a unicorn. (good vision has been one of the advantages of this body, which has some number of… other features… which are not advantages)
Oddly, my spouse also doesn’t have glasses.
That said, my detail/close-up vision especially has been going downhill noticeably over the past couple of years, and actual-glass glasses make me seasick (a friend gave me a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses and wheeew that is not feasible), so that’s going to get interesting when I do finally crack and go in for testing or buy some of the basic drugstore magnifiers… (spouse’s vision: still fine)
KC – You need to nip the declining vision in the bud! Could be a cataract. That said, I do have a friend who has better than 20/20 vision. I suppose he could slide to 20/20 with no concerns.
It’s probably ye olde dysautonomia, honestly, since a lot of it is difficulty forcing the focusing-muscles to focus.
(also yes, exactly; spouse and I both had better-than vision, so eh, okay, look, I can’t read the numbers off watch batteries anymore, this is an annoying but acceptable state of affairs.)
KC – That seems like a good attitude. I hope your dysautonomia is stable … or improves? Can it do that?
In theory, yes, the dysautonomia could be either stable or improve (probably with whatever the correct treatment is)(that has most likely not yet been discovered or at least not yet FDA approved, although I’m doing a funky experimental treatment at present that did improve a few measures of health for some people in a study that came out in December, so we’ll see). Some people with particular autoantibodies get better with IVIG; I do not have those particular autoantibodies, so no IVIG for me. 🙂 (which: there’s an international shortage and some people who need it to stay *alive* rather than just be *less sick* so I would have qualms about that anyway although I would probably still want to try it out? But it’s kind of nice not having to wrangle with myself re: qualms.)
(aka: I hope, and I do a research search through the NIH database every so often in addition to seeing one of the main specialists in the country [who does keep on top of the research and occasionally contributes to it], but I’m deeeefinitely not holding my breath)
KC – your doctor sounds like my doctor. And with MS, every great treatment just seems to prove “This doesn’t work the way we thought it did.” Still, the treatments are much better than they were at first.
That is fascinating, re: the treatments demonstrating that MS doesn’t work the way we thought it did. I remember your plaques (?) going away, or at least some of them going away-ish, and from everything I’d heard about MS that was *definitely* not supposed to be reversible and yet…
And presumably some treatments have targeted a theoretical mechanism of action and: oh hey, that’s weird, MS doesn’t work like that.
Anyway! May treatments continue to improve and be available to all!
KC – well, the plaques go away because they are dissolving into cerebral fluid, so reducing brain volume. Probably exciting to the researchers the first time they saw it, though. But I have to say, if anyone is going to be up to date on research, it is my doctor.
I am *so glad* you have a doctor whose retains contact with research instead of 1. assuming everything relevant was in med school/residency [… sometimes 40+ years ago] and, after that, 2. pharma sales reps.
Hm Well, in theory we don’t use all our brain anyway, but yes, that is less exciting. I think I saw something about some brain regression being capable of amelioration via stimulation, though? (where brain capacity shrinks due to, say, coma and a lack of stimulation, but then can regrow with strenuous activity?) Anyway. You’ve got a lot of the brain left, obviously, so that’s good…
KC – Neuroplasticity! Rewiring your brain. My guy’s the expert.