Opticians reports

[Biscuitsgalore18]

Hello,

I was wondering if I can have some advice. My 15DD has fluctuating vision. She had a referral to the hospital eye specialist who said there was nothing wrong and it’s mental health related. I was unhappy with this, as I have seen her vision struggles and that she has had to give up sports she loves and Art GCSE that she was talented at. Due to her vision issues.

We ended up seeing someone privately who after a long exam, said she has a constant accommodative spasm. So her eyes are constantly going in/out of focus. He queried when it started - definitely got worse two years ago following a sports injury. However was some fluctuation prior to this.

I have contacted past opticians to request a copy of the clinical reports to determine what her visual acuity was and when. However they will only send over the prescription. They have said they will only send the full report to the consultant if requested by him. Which he won’t do, as he thinks she is faking it. We have a follow up with him and I am desperate to be able to provide evidence and start the process of figuring out why this is happening.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can get a copy of the reports?

Thank you.

No advice on getting the report but my eyes used to go into spasm as they don't converge properly. I had to wait from aged 11 to 21 to get prism lens and they were amazing. They held off prescribing them as the eyes can get reliant on them. This didn't happen to me and the prism have improved my eyes so much I don't need to wear my glasses all of the time. I probably wear them once a week now when I can feel my eyes straining to stay focused. Until I left full time education I had to use them in lessons and for any computer work. Being in employment and not working late into the evenings seemed to coincide with not needing to wear them as much. I had to go up a prism level when I was doing my PhD and working 70+h with some 14h days at a computer.

@Superscientist thank you. She is actually getting prism glasses in the next few weeks - we went private and saw someone and she had a chronic accommodative spasm, convergence insufficiency and accommodative insufficiency. She has just finished vision therapy, she couldn’t have prisms whilst doing the therapy.

The prism lenses were over £200 and they say she will probably need them changing every 3 months for awhile, while they reduce the prism as her spasm relaxes. I am so stressed as I can’t afford it at the moment. So I am hoping I can provide lots of evidence to the consultant (we have a follow up in a few weeks - telephone so I am imagining it’s for discharge rather than any treatment discussion.

Thank you so much for sharing, it’s a relief knowing the prisms worked so well for you and that you don’t need to wear them constantly now. I was worrying how she would manage in shower etc, when she can’t wear them lol.

I have read drops help with a spasm, did you try them?

I didn't, I didn't know about them rather than making a conscious decision not too.

That's pricey! I think I usually pay an extra £15 in some sites and they are included in others. I mostly by glasses online but had them from Specsavers when I was younger and I think they were included in the price. I've not needed new glasses since I finished by PhD 7 years ago so this may have changed

For me the strain is most prominent when looking at things that are at arms length. I get double vision more often and the strain when overtired. Once the glasses relieve some of the strain she will probably find that there are times when it's there and when the eyes are less stressed such as in the shower and they aren't actively trying to focus on things it lessens then

For the prism changing, why can't they use the stick on fresnel prisms? I had those as a teenager when I was between squint surgeries and they must have been super cheap

@CMOTDibbler They didn’t mention stick on ones! They did try a few different prisms and the one that worked best for her they said was rarely used, so maybe didn’t have a stick on version. I suppose she is also 15, needed to pick frames she liked and she is super conscious so maybe they also thought it wouldn’t work for her, as she wouldn’t wear them. Would have been good to have a conversation if it’s something that could have been possible though.

Hi, optician here. She needs to write to the opticians and ask for a copy of her records. They will photocopy them and send them to you with a reasonable time frame. They will show the corrected and uncorrected visual acuity from the previous eye exams.

My son also has pseudomyopia with associated accommodative spasm.
Did they do a cycloplegic refraction (drops which would have made the pupils bigger)?

His was worst at your daughter's age, just due to the amount of studying he was doing and feeling stressed (which can reduce accommodative capacity). It's vital that she spends a significant amount of time away from close screens and does something outside at least 15 minutes every hour - we got a badminton net in the garden. We also made him do a short meditative programme after lunch every day and that helped too. Yoga is also good.

I've seen a few people with the conditions over the years and my usual management would be to give the full cycloplegic refraction, convergence exercises plus the lifestyle changes I've mentioned above.

Prisms only provide a temporary crutch, you're not going to manage to get an NHS consultant to prescribe them.

Fresnel prisms are used as a temporary measure, they blur the vision in the eye they're used on.