eye tests at home

As a speccy with MS it's important to get my eyes tested regularly. It took me several years to find out why - the Central Nervous System [CNS], under attack from our overactive immune system, joins up directly to the back of our eyes.

Anatomically and developmentally, the retina is known as an extension of the CNS; it consists of retinal ganglion cells [neurons located near the inner surface of the retina], the axons of which form the optic nerve, whose fibres are, in effect, CNS axons.
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23165340

It's pathetic how I was so not curious about any of this stuff before. But I'm lucky that I've never had any instances of Optic neuritis.

*touches wood frantically*

According to the MS Trust, for around a quarter of people with MS, this is the first symptom they have.

I recently realised that it had been about 4 years since my last test. And back then my vision hadn't altered enough then to warrant the expense of new bins.

Which meant that my glasses were around eight years old. Which obviously included a number of years where they'd been under attack from a curious and 'handy' Little Ms D. After years of accidental shoves and grabs they hadn't fitted me properly for ages.

However, with my mobility being what it is, getting to the opticians can be a major operation, involving the car, someone else, as well as grudging use of the dreaded wheelchair.

So when Mrs D heard that Specsavers offered home eye tests for people in receipt of certain benefits, it seemed like the perfect solution.

It was really easy to arrange but quite odd in practice. Two guys came round to my house, got me to sit wherever I was comfortable, closed the blinds, and the whole test was done on an iPad. This was placed on the other side of the room for the standard eye chart and handed to me for the close reading tests.

Obviously they weren't able to do a full retinal scan (which I always quite liked in the past) but I didn't feel like I was being shortchanged. They really had a good look in there!

A couple of weeks later they came back round with my new specs. They even brought a little mini heater to enable them to make the usual last-minute adjustments.

It seems like, as with so many things, arranging an eye examination at home can be a bit of a postcode lottery. This page on the RNIB site offers some good information about locating this service wherever you are should you need it.

As for my new glasses? I'm really chuffed with them.

SURPRISINGLY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH SELFIES

However in researching this post, I've seen some utterly gross anatomical pictures.

We really are just fleshy bags of wires and guts, aren't we?