I’ve been referred to a neuro-ophthalmologist and a neurologist because of a long list of symptoms. The ophthalmologist one has been brought forward to Sat. They said I’m having a field vision test atehen see the consultant. Does anyone know what this involves.
Well Angmw55, your test will involve putting your head into something like the inside of a football - yes, honestly!
It is the inside of a dome with a light in the centre that you fixate (concentrate) on. Then little lights will appear briefly around the surface of the dome - varying in number and in brightness, and you say how many you can see. It is done one eye at a time.
It tests for problems in your central and/or peripheral vision, and can also help with assessing ehe effects of glaucoma.
Worst case - if you have big gaps in your peripheral vision to one or both sides, this may impact on your fitness to drive.
If you miss one or two little lights, it is no big deal.
It is really a way for the consultant to find out more data than he/she can see with their visual instruments.
Report back after the test, please.
Geoff
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Yes, it isn’t scary and it doesn’t hurt. All they are doing is finding out how well you are seeing things that should be visible in your field of vision and thereby identifying any patchy or blind spots. You can have very big blind spots and not be aware because, in the absence of real visual input, your brain just unconsciously has a (very good and convincing) guess at what is probably there. So a person doesn’t really know what he/she is (literally!) seeing until a visual field test measures how well he/she is doing with identifying random things that the brain is unable to make intelligent guesses about.
Alison