High Eye Pressure

[CAMRAMan]

Last week I had an eye test and the pressure test results were higher than normal. A follow up test with more accurate equipment confirmed this.

Tomorrow I'm due to have a third test that involves drops to suppress the blink reflex.

Two unrelated questions:

1) Will I be able to ride home after the test?
2) The night before last week's test, I had drunk several large vodka and oranges and was slightly under the weather. Would this raise the eye pressure?

[hellymedic]

Last week I had an eye test and the pressure test results were higher than normal. A follow up test with more accurate equipment confirmed this.

Tomorrow I'm due to have a third test that involves drops to suppress the blink reflex.

Two unrelated questions:

1) Will I be able to ride home after the test?
2) The night before last week's test, I had drunk several large vodka and oranges and was slightly under the weather. Would this raise the eye pressure?

I am not an ophthalmologist but riding home when you blink less with grot/grit in your eye seems unwise.
If they also use drops to dilate the pupil, which I believe, from personal experience they will, you will not be able to focus properly so do not ride.

I doubt that a night on the tiles would raise eye pressure; it could conceivably reduce it by dehydration.

Raised eye pressure is well worth checking and treating; my sister has borderline glaucoma and is on drops for life for this.
I get free eye tests as a result.
(Not that saving £20 for the eye test makes much difference when the specs are >£400...)

[tonyh]

My experience for what little it may be worth:
Dilation drops for routine glaucoma tests: easy to ride afterwards, little difference.
Dilation drops for examination for possible retina detachment: impossible to ride; difficult to get anywhere even on foot.

[marcusjb]

Do not plan to ride home no.  I made the mistake the first time and ended up pushing a bike three miles whilst hardly being able to see to walk.

Don't panic about the high eye pressure, it may not be anything - I get it every eye test and have been to the specialists where it has been confirmed that a thicker ?cornea? than normal makes the air puff test misread.

[hellymedic]

I had a spurious high pressure reading in 1997.
Coming a few months after my optic neuritis, it made me very anxious.
I didn't have glaucoma when tested 'properly'.

[CAMRAMan]

The retinal examination was normal, as were other aspects of the test. My prescription had changed; some improvements, some deterioration. Nothing out of the ordinary. I'm not particularly concerned at this stage, so let's see what tomorrow's results bring.

[hellymedic]

Good Luck!
Looks like any problem will be nipped in the bud but there may be no problem.

My sister is on drops. They are just a minor inconvenience and it's not really certain she has anything.

[L CC]

No1Daughter walked me home after the drops. No way I'd be wanting to ride a bike like that.

[rogerzilla]

The local anaesthetic drops, which you'll probably get, don't affect your vision at all.  The pupil dilation ones make it near-impossible to cycle for about 4 hours.  I did it, being a bit too far from home to walk, and could barely stay on the psyclepath and road although I know it very well.  Also, bright sunlight hurts.

Be warned: you can't even read the time on your watch, let alone bus timetables and things, if your pupils are dilated.

[Mr Larrington]

I went to the diabetic retinopathy clinic the other week, complete with those mild-dose-of-hallucinogenics eye drops, and cycled home no problem, though previous visits have rendered my vision far more spaced-out.  Perhaps they've changed the Magic Formula?

Note to self: ring opticians for general test.

[L CC]

Be warned: you can't even read the time on your watch, let alone bus timetables and things, if your pupils are dilated.

I walked straight past No1Daughter and then struggled to get in touch with her as I couldn't read my phone...
 

[JerryS]

I have to regularly go to the eye clinic in salisbury to be checked. Most of the time the drops are the sort which do not affect driving/riding, however I'm always  prepared to wait for a few hours at the hospital if they use the other type (only happened twice in 10 years, I think they have a fancy machine to photograph the back of the eye now).

I'm been on drops for the past 4 years. After about 10 years of the hospital telling me I didn't have glaucoma and that the high eye ball pressure was normal for me, they then stated that the reason I wasn't now seeing properly with my left eye was because I did have glaucoma. I can't help thinking that if they had put me on drops earlier the vision in my left eye would be better than it is now

[CAMRAMan]

Tempted as I am to ride, there is a train, but it cuts the time very fine to get back in time to pick up Little Miss AWL. Should be OK though.

[T42]

I have to regularly go to the eye clinic in salisbury to be checked. Most of the time the drops are the sort which do not affect driving/riding, however I'm always  prepared to wait for a few hours at the hospital if they use the other type (only happened twice in 10 years, I think they have a fancy machine to photograph the back of the eye now).

I'm been on drops for the past 4 years. After about 10 years of the hospital telling me I didn't have glaucoma and that the high eye ball pressure was normal for me, they then stated that the reason I wasn't now seeing properly with my left eye was because I did have glaucoma. I can't help thinking that if they had put me on drops earlier the vision in my left eye would be better than it is now

Hah!  Wife's cousin had some kind of back problem for years and was fobbed off by his docs. 15 years after the problems began he managed to get recommended to a specialist and was told "you should have come here 15 years ago...".

[CAMRAMan]

Just back from the follow-up, contact pressure test. Within normal limits for both eyes. I had the eye drops and probably could've ridden home, but I erred on the side of caution and got the train. I can't say I'm relieved as I didn't get all that flustered anyway.

[hulver]

I was advised to carry a card around saying that I'd had eye drops, in case I got in an accident and people thought I had a brain injury. 

[CAMRAMan]

These were just the ones to numb the corneas for a short time so they could touch them with the probe. By the sound of other posters' experiences, there are ones to dilate the pupils as well.

[L CC]

I had the full set- numbs, dyes, dilation. I was there for hours!

[CAMRAMan]

Blimey, I was in and out in 20 minutes!

[hellymedic]

Glad it was a false alarm!
These things happen!

[Jakob]

The pupil dilation ones make it near-impossible to cycle for about 4 hours.  I did it, being a bit too far from home to walk, and could barely stay on the psyclepath and road although I know it very well.  Also, bright sunlight hurts.

Be warned: you can't even read the time on your watch, let alone bus timetables and things, if your pupils are dilated.

I had this last year, as the bacteria I was infected with had a history of also attacking the eyes and it was not fun. It fell just short of having a needle inserted in my liver and more comfortable than the colonoscopy*. I could do nothing afterwards, as I could not see anything and the bright lights triggered a major migraine.

*ok, so I may have exagerated a bit.

[rafletcher]

Around (gulp!) 45 years ago when I was 12, I was given pupil dilation drops on a visit to the optician. As I couldn't see anything afterwards, he took me for a drive in his MG and then dropped me home. Oh innocent days!!!!

[fields5069]

My pressure readings are always high with the blowy thing (technical term), but never with the Clockwork Orange test. I think it's only useful as a positive test, if the pressures are OK with this test then they will be OK with the contact test.