THE SIXTH EYE TEST

It turns out that I failed the ‘fields test’ during last time’s intensive visit to the hospital’s eye clinic. So I went back today to try to pass it.

Just to recap: in July my eyes went funny - as though the world was jiggling around. It was less than pleasant, and through the long hot summer, it didn’t seem to be improving. So I ended up having lots of tests, including having bright lights beamed into my retinas, poking a stick across a whiteboard, focusing and de-focusing on a picture of a parrot, and pretending I was an astronaut inside the MRI machine.

The fields test measures peripheral vision. You put your head in a box and focus on a spot, one eye at a time. Then you have to click a button whenever a bright dot flashes in your peripheral vision.

My appointment didn’t get off to the best start when I responded to the nurse calling someone else’s name, thinking it was mine. I was sure she’d said my name. Perhaps I need my hearing checked also.

Anyway, it didn’t take long to do the fields test, and even though I’m pretty sure I missed some flashes at the edge of my peripherals, and imagined some others that weren’t there at all, I think I did okay. Crucially, my eyes have settled down anyway and I haven’t had any episodes for quite some time now.

Perhaps it was stress migraines after all, brought on by the heatwave. I clearly have an upper-operating temperature and stress limit, beyond which I start to shut down, and will be of no use to anyone.

I have to go back in February to find out, especially whether my peripheral vision has been affected. Either way, I don’t want to get to next Summer and go through all this again.