In a message dated 3/22/2002 8:24:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:


> I had a quick question.  I was wondering how people here handle going to the
> eye doctor.  I'm mildly spastic, and I have a really hard time getting
> positioned behind each of the machines.  I don't know what it's called, but
> there's one test where they shoot air in your eyes... I spasm every time
> they try.  My dad puts me up in the doctor's chair, but I have a hard time
> staying all the way up in the slippery leather chair.  I slide down during
> the test, and can't lean all the way forward.  I feel like these problems
> are compromising

The test you're talking about reveals your interoccular pressure (the
pressure inside of your eye).  This is a test for glaucoma, and the way it
works is that the puff of air you're talking about depresses the eyeball to a
certain degree.  The amount of depression is dictated by the pressure inside
of your eye, and that's how the amount of pressure inside is revealed to your
doctor.

I don't have a tip, except that perhaps somebody can help you stay in that
necessary position while it's being administered.  As long as you are able to
be in that one position the second the puff of air is delivered, the test
results should be as accurate as that test allows.

Did the person who gave you this test indicate that he or she was uncertain
of the accuracy of the result?

The alternative is an instrument that actually touches your eye while the eye
is anesthetized.  That kind of test is only administered by ophthalmologists
(as opposed to optometrists), but I'm guessing that the air puff test for you
is the lessor of the two evils.

Please don't take this as gospel.  Can you contact an ophthalmologist to
discuss your concerns?    Too, at your age, this test might be little more
than routine.  If there are no other factors that your doctor would consider
important, like a history of glaucoma in your family or something else, this
may not be a thing for you to be concerned about just yet.

In saying these things, I do not mean to minimize the importance of glaucoma
testing.