Yesterday was my appointment with the neuro-ophthalmologist. My oncologist has been insisting that I see the neuro-ophthalmology team to follow up on the improvement in my vision since my surgery and diagnosis. Since I had my surgery back in April my double-vision has totally disappeared. However, because it’s obviously not healthy to have double-vision my oncologist wanted to see how healthy my eyes are now.
When I arrived at the ophthalmology suite I checked in and then had to wait around forty minutes before going back to meet with the doctor. The appointment began by meeting with one of the ophthalmology fellows who had me recap my diagnosis and previous medical treatment. She did a very thorough recap of everything that was going on and put the recap in my medical records. She quickly looked in my eyes and did some simple tests before the head neuro-ophthalmologist came in. When the neuro-ophthalmologist came in he decided that because I hadn’t previously see the neuro-ophthalmology team he wanted to do a full exam. This meant that I would have to do a visual field test and then receive dilating drops so that the team could look into the back of my eyes.
I had previously done a visual field test when I was an inpatient in the ICU. My last visual field test was done when I was just hours out of neurosurgery and still experiencing very apparent double-vision. During a visual field test a technician covers one eye and then places your head in a machine. In the machine there is one light where you focus your uncovered eye. As you focus on the light other little white dots appear throughout the machine and you click a button every time you see a dot. The test both eyes. Believe it or not this test is really hard!
After the test the technician put the dilating drops in my eyes and then sent me back to the waiting room. I went and got a snack and before I knew it I was called back to meet with the doctor. My doctor, dad, and I went over the results and looked into the back of my eyes. The doctor was shocked! Apparently when you’re diagnosed with a tumor like mine (because of it’s location) and experience double-vision you expect to see some vision loss. The doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with my eyes! When they looked into the back of my eyes they saw the equivalent of scaring around my retinal nerves, which is normal when you’ve had double-vision, but this has no effect on vision.
The team of doctors was actually really surprised. They were looking for something wrong; either vision loss or loss in depth of field. However, they couldn’t find anything wrong! This was awesome news!
The appointment took roughly two hours. It took a few hours before the dilating drops wore off. Now I’m just getting ready for chemotherapy on Thursday. One more round before a two week break!
Thank you for following my journey.
-Josh
Josh's Journey 
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