Eye Test

I have been having problems with my eyes at work for a while now and I needed to get them checked out to see if I was right about a self diagnoses.

In the warehouse I work in, a few years ago the company decided to upgrade their lighting. These lights are alot brighter than before and they installed more of them. But because of this many people, including myself, started suffering from eye problems. Especially when I am tired, I get eye strain and if it persists I end up with painful eyes which could then lead to migraines. I originally started last year to try and help myself with the problem by buying some cheap over-glasses from eBay. They are brown tinted and have helped alot. I had to get a doctors note and permission from a senior manager so I could wear them. This was due to hearing that sunglasses weren’t allowed in the warehouse. And I needed to have something to cover myself from the odd Karen. But generally I have been okay.

I do now get the piss taken out of me. Comparing myself to the likes of Roy Orbison, Stevie Wonder, Bono and also ZZ top. They seem to have this uncontrollable urge to serenade me. Which is nice. Plus the occasional stare. But at the end of the day my health is more important than my eye fashion sense.

Anyway. My eye problems still persists and I have been doing some research in to what the problem could be. When I started I found out about light sensitivity, Photophobia. Which fit my symptoms. I then went on to look at glasses to help and found out about a thing in America called FL-41. This is a type of rose/pink tinted lens that could help with my problem. The only problem being that I have to buy from certain companies in America with no real idea if it would work. Or if the lenses I would get would be legit.

I kept on researching until I found something called Irlen Syndrome. This is mainly for kids that have dyslexia. When kids have dyslexia they may see things differently to others. When reading they have problems with words moving or being jumbled. In adults it can be the same problem but also with problems with eye strain from bright lights and migraines.

So, if you have kids and they are having problems at school. Ask them what they see when reading, describe how the words look. Because to them, they may think it’s normal.

I decided that I should have a test done to see if I have it. So I had the massive task of finding a place to do the test. This again is a rare thing due to it being mainly an American thing. I was searching for a couple of days when I found out that in the U.K it also goes by the name of Visual Stress. This helped alot and my search went from going across the country or the other side of London to a couple of miles away.

Euin & Steele was the place I found in Grays, Essex. It also was the place the my late father in law use to use.

As far as I know this is an independent optician. A family run practice. So I knew from the start that it was going to be expensive. But little did I know.

So I booked an appointment and when the day arrived I headed on over. They were still practicing the use of masks. So, of course I complied, as I am a good little boy. I was a little early so I sat and waited.

The doctor finally arrived wearing scrubs, for some reason. So we headed upstairs and I told the doctor my problems and I was getting the vibe through the whole proceedings that he was a bit dubious about my problems but when he started the various tests he knew I had something wrong. He started with a book of lines of different thickness. The lines were inside a circle. He asked me to stare at the tiny square in the middle. I was to tell him what I saw. After a few seconds the lines on the edges changed shape and on some of the images I started see colours aswell. He then went on to check my eyes and this followed up with looking at the computer screen and picking colours I preferred to look at when looking at some words on the screen.

The tests finally over. The results were, in his mind, I was on the fringes of the syndrome but I didn’t quite have it. Being that the results from the screen test brought up a coloured lens he felt would have no benefit to me. So he decided that the best course would be for me to have set of lenses that had a tint pretty much the same as the over-glasses I was already wearing. But with a slightly lighter tint. He didn’t quite understand the amount of light I was dealing with until I showed him the glasses I was wearing and telling him that I could see pretty much as normally, just with a change of colour. So he changed the percentage of the tint.

The staff were helpful in working out what I wanted and even tried to get some of the frames I was already wearing, to no avail.

The only problem with the over-glasses I was wearing is that it they have polarised lenses. This means the lenses don’t like computer screens. Having some normally lenses will hopefully deal with this. So I decided to purchase some new glasses from them and lets just say I felt abit screwed over by the price in the end. But if it helps in the long run I now know what to buy next time and know in a couple of years I can try and get them cheaper next time elsewhere.

So now I am waiting for my new glasses to be made.