Are there any opticians/ophthalmologists on Mumsnet?

[CountessDracula]

I have a question....

My father & brother are both ophthalmologists & easy to contact. What's the question? I may even know the answer (worked for my dad, and grew up around eye speak every day. . .) and if not I'll ask one of them.

oooh thanks expatkat, you are kind

Just been to the optician and been given the following referral

CD presented for routine eye exam today and ophthalmoscopy revealed a lesion adjacent to the optic nerve head of the right eye. The lesion was small, circular, yellow and flat and was positioned at 1 O'Clock to the disc. It may only be an optic disk pit or drusen howver could she pls have an ophthalmological check as it has never been mentioned on previous examinations.

So of course I now think I have brain tumour or eye cancer.

Can your dad/brother enlighten me, I was so excited when I was in there at FINALLY getting reading glasses that I didn't ask much.

CD, lesions on the retina are extremely common & 99% of the time nothing to worry about. BIL (in Spain) just went through this & he, too, wanted me to ask my father for advice, having jumped to the same dramatic conclusions that you had. But as my father predicted, his lesion was nothing to worry about.

The fact is that opticians don't have the training to diagnoseor dismissretinal peculiarities, so they always refer the patient on to an ophthalmologist. I know that getting the referral is scary for you as the patient, but that have to do it.

Nevertheless, I will e-mail my dad with the specific details of your report. . .and we'll see if I'm right! I may not be able to get back to you with this immediately, though--depends on when he gets the e-mail etc.

Thanks so much for that - I feel a right idiot not having quizzed the optician properly, not like me at all.

Of course I then got home and started looking things up on the web which resulted in lots of scary looking things I didn't understand a word of! Modern version of the scene in Three Men and a Boat where the bloke sits down with the medical encyclopaedia and discovers he has every ailment therein!

I feel very comforted by your post - please thank your dad/bro for me! CD xx

In the meantime, CD, while I'm waiting for a response from my dad. . .I've been wondering for some time how your glandular fever has been. Are you over it & strong again? I had it when ds was 1 & it was awful. . .I really sympathize.

Oh did you? Exactly the same as me then - dd was 1 and 1 month when I got it. Poor poor you too, it is hell isn't it?

Feeling better but not completely, I still have days where I just can't physically do anything. working a bit, but luckily they are being great. Been to see a good herbalist and she seems to be sorting me out a bit.

Thanks for asking. It just seems to be one thing after another, first GF, then shingles, then a couple of weeks ago high BP followed by a raised cholestoral reading and now f*cking eye lesions. I feel like I'm falling apart

(sorry for self-indulgent whinge )

How long did yours last?

CD, i didn't know about the other ailments--the shingles, etc. How awful.

Though it's unusual to get gf twice, I did. First time I was 25, pre-kids, and sadly I didn't feel myself for about a year. The second time I had it, age 29 (when ds was 1) it lasted 7 weeks. Seven rough weeks of pretty acute illness & exhaustion which then went away.

I think recovery time varies a great deal, & it's just important to remember that you really will feel better again.

Oh god a year! I remember scoffing at princesspeahead when she suggested in Nov that I wouldn't be back at work until the new year - and I'm still not back properly now!

Thank god yours only lasted a couple of months second time. Bad luck getting it twice

CD--My dad just rang. (He's so sweet.) The upshot is that you shouldn't worry.

He said if it's a drusan it's nothing to worry--they're completely harmless. And he finds it highly unlikley that it would be a pit, because pits tend to happen to men not women. But he found it strange that that the optician couldn't tell the difference between a drusan and a pit because the former is elevated and the latter is excavated (that's why it's called a "pit" ) He said it probably has always been there, but no one noticed it because of its position. So he's not impressed by the statement "has never been mentioned on previous examinations" because that doesn't mean that it definitely wasn't there before.

So he says DON'T WORRY!

Thanks kat and to your LOVELY dad! xxx

Dear Mr EPT

Thank you so much for putting my mind at rest. I appreciate your time and that of your wonderful daughter.

Love Countess Drac xx

EPK should have been

CD--Am wondering if you still plan to get the retina looked at by a proper ophthalmologist. I'm sure it's nothing, but would feel terrible if my father's word-of-mouth diagnosis from overseas inspired you not to pursue it further, just in case it IS a problem. Also I'd be curious to hear if my dad was right. He almost always is, by the way.

CD--Am wondering if you still plan to get the retina looked at by a proper ophthalmologist. I'm sure it's nothing, but would feel terrible if my father's word-of-mouth diagnosis from overseas inspired you not to pursue it further, just in case it IS a problem. Also I'd be curious to hear if my dad was right. He almost always is, by the way.