Eye Health Tips – Straight From The Doc!

The eye doctor. Some love it, some hate it, others don’t mind going. I mean hey, it’s not like the dentist, or the gynecologist… or the butt doctor scheduling you for a dreaded exam, or even worse…. a colonoscopy check up. *shivers*

No, just the eye doctor. Unless you have a weird complex about eye stuff, it’s no big deal. Recently, I had a visit there myself. Probably about 5 years overdue for an exam and new prescription glasses… you know it’s getting bad when you can’t read street signs, late for a flight because you’re squinting the whole way through the airport, refuse to go to a concert unless you are in the front row.. or worse yet, start to sit on the floor directly in front of the TV reminiscent of your Kindergarten days (at age 33… minus the celery sticks dipped in peanut butter, juice, and cartoons) … it’s literally because I cannot see from the couch. Even with my old glasses on! So now here I am, watching episodes of Grey’s Anatomy or Scandal, with a glass of wine and my dinner, on the floor, in front of the TV, a box of tissues for those dramatic moments, and the dog. It’s a scene as if I just moved into the place and had no furniture, yet I have perfectly adequate furniture right behind me to sit on . Yeeeeaaaa. It was time.

So I made an appointment, and while there was some anticipation of maybe not so good news coming my way in test results… because with the blurred vision comes floaters, eye strain, headaches, burning, dryness, and tension —> [your mind goes straight to TUMOR]….. I put my big girl panties on and headed in there.

The exam itself didn’t even take an hour, and the doctor was very knowledgeable, easy to talk to, and very informative. SO, they ran all the tests.. I don’t even know what they are, their proper medical names, or the exact purpose, so bear with me in stumbling through this part of the explanation. First test she did blew a puff of air into each eye. So you sit there and press your forehead against the bar and chin in the strap, look into the machine, stare at a light, and when you least expect it, POOF! The assistant probably thought I was crazy because I started laughing and giggling for like 1 minute straight right after the first one. HEY, it was ticklish and invigorating at the same time.. I couldn’t help it! So she did the other eye and we were good there. She said that test measured the pressure in your eye. Next test was the same forehead/chin strap scenario, looking into the machine and identifying when you see blinking lights and something about pupil dilation. Third test she had you stare into a bright white light, do not blink, and all of a sudden the machine took a few pictures of each eyeball. The flash was circular lines, kinda hard to explain. But, whatever. You get the idea. The fourth test was 2 tests in one, doing the eye exam reading charts – one with old glasses on, one with no glasses at all.

So the doctor comes in and pulls up all of my testing imagery on their new state of the art computers. I must say, I was impressed with the technology. SO, he explained to me everything we were looking at and it was quite fascinating. Long story short, I got a clean bill of health, both eye balls were clean, clear, healthy, with no issues! And he reassured me I did not have any tumors. Woo Hoo! Next he moved on to the actual lens fitting part of the exam, figured out what my new prescription would be based off my old one, my current vision level, and my eye health. OK, easy enough. Cool, so we got all that done and now the pep talk.

He explained to me a few things about eye health I didn’t know before (other than which foods to eat to keep your eyes healthy! Which I’ll get to that in a minute). In a nutshell, he explained these things…. AND I will say, I am no doc, no eye guru, and I probably won’t even reiterate what he said in an intelligent fashion… so this is in very-basic-terms.

Eye Health TIPS straight from the Doc himself:

* If you are near sighted, your eyeball/pupil point of vision is too long, or too far away, from the back of your eyeball where your retina is to bounce that light/imagery off from in order to deliver that sight/image/vision to your eye/brain. He further explained that when people get lasik done, they shave off layers of the eye to reduce that distance between the front and back of the eye. (Interesting, no?)

*Glaucoma: Results from pressure in the eye. This built up of pressure is due to fluid not draining properly from the eye/body.. fluid builds up, gets trapped, builds pressure, presses on the optic nerve, and starts to cause vision loss.

*Cataracts: A film covering the lens of the eye. It gets cloudy, grows thicker, and impairs vision. The lens sits behind the pupil and the iris, much like the lens in a camera.

*While some people have been born with glaucoma and cataracts due to other conditions, typically these conditions affect people age 60-65 years old and older. He reassured me I’d have a good 30 years before I had to worry. 🙂

*Sun spots: Those yellow spots you see in the white part of peoples eyes. Caused by the sun! People who live close to the equator are prone to get these. He has seen patients native to Jamaica have a lot of these types of spots. They can be removed with a laser, but usually always come back.

*UVA/UVB sun glasses: You want 100% protection as not blocking these harmful rays out of your eyes will cause damage, deterioration, and pre-mature aging. It’s best to get polarized glasses designed to reduce the glare you see bounce off windshields or other parts of a car while driving. You do not want this beam of sun light reflection ZINGing you in the eye!

*Computer work: Get up every hour for at least 10 minutes.. walk around, give eyes a break from that intense light and intense need to focus during constant sight adjustment to the screen. If you are near sited, do not wear your glasses at the computer as this will cause tremendous strain on your eyeball and vision. Also, if you are closer than 5 feet to your television, it’s a good idea not to wear your (near sighted) glasses.

*Eye Exams: The rule of thumb is to get a complete eye exam done every 1-3 years, depending on your age, risk factors/family history, and whether you already wear corrective lenses. If you start to have visual changes, flashes of light, new floaters, pain, injury to the eye, any kind of tearing (known tearing to the nerves/retina), or the onset of extremely blurred vision.. then make an appointment as soon as possible!

*Foods to eat (other than carrots):
Vitamin C – Strawberries, Grapefruit, Brussel Sprouts, Oranges
Antioxidants (lutein and zeaxanthin) – Spinach, Kale, Blueberries
Vitamin E – Sunflower seeds, Almonds, Pecans

So, there ya have it! After all was said and done with him, I moved on out to the front where I spent a few hours picking through the frames they had available… it was like the Great Wall of Frames (lol) … finally got it down to three choices and we were coming into the home stretch. That was the hardest decision. I was taking pictures and texting my friend to get her opinion. It was between Brand-A (I can’t remember which), Tiffany frame, and a Prada frame.

It can be hard to pick out a frame with so many varied opinions getting flung at you in the store, especially from the folks who work there. They were talking about everything from size of frame fitting the face, to the color matching skin tone or contrasting it, to where the top of the frame landed by your brow bone and if looking at your your pupil was in the center of the frame/too high/too low, to how the frames sit on your face when you smile. If the bottom of the frames touch your cheeks when you smile, the frame size itself is too big on the face. Also, do you want a frame that will accent your eyes? Or a frame that hides your eyes? So much for a girl to consider!

After picking out the frame, I made payment, they fit the frame with my new lenses, got them fitted, and Badda Bing Badda BOOM I was outta there!

Yay! Good times at the eye doctor!

~ Leanne ♥