In my eyes. Apparently, my optic nerves (also known as ‘cups’ to ophthalmologist types) are huge. This can be a sign of pathology, but for me, it’s just how I am. So, hey, yeah, genetics? When I wished for a pair of big cups when I was ten? This is not what I meant. You are a jerk, genetics.
As someone who used to work in ophthalmology, I’m trying and failing to come up with a good cup-to-disc ratio pun. Anyway, glad to hear those cups are in proper working order even if they weren’t the big cups you were hoping for. (As gravity starts having effects on me, I’m less disappointed about having smaller other-cups, myself.)
“Hey, my Boobs are Down Here!”
…the better to see us with?
As I understand it, whoever or whatever granted your wish saved you from some back problems.
The ophthalmologist evaluating my husband’s keratitis (inflammation of a clear outer layer of the eye, caused in his case by a bacterial infection) commented wryly on my husband’s rather large pannus*. Since I worked in that department at the time, I decided to leave that comment alone.
- In ophthalmic terms, it means there are blood vessels growing into the periphery of the cornea, which is not normal. It can be caused by long-term overuse of contact lenses (basically starving the cornea for oxygen so it attempts to get oxygen by other means) or by inflammation.
It’s “cup to disc ratio”, and it is important to be aware of. If you have an extreme ratio, your eyes are highly susceptible to NAION (a kind of optic neuropathy) that can cause instant and irreversible blindness in one-half the field of view of one eye.
Things to be concerned about are very low blood pressure or sudden drops in blood pressure. If your doctor ever prescribes medication to lower high blood pressure, tell him to consult your ophthalmologist and discuss with him a target BP. And absolutely never, never, never take anything like Viagra, which can cause sudden reduction in blood pressure and would place you at very high risk.
IANAD, but I lost the sight in one eye from NAION shortly after my doctor prescribed hypertension medication, and all this was then explained to me by my ophthalmologist.
I have big cups, too, according to my opthalmologist. This factor, paired with thin corneas, puts me at risk for glaucoma. My eye goo pressure is normal, but that’s not the only factor to measure when it comes to glaucoma risk, he says.
Thin corneas mess with the eye pressure reading, IIRC, so a regular eye checkup involving eye dilation and a fundus (back of the eye) exam can be helpful in catching issues like that.
You’ve got big cups…I’ve got shallow chambers! Thus proclaimed my ophthalmologist after diagnosing me with acute angle-closure glaucoma when I was twenty-something.
I apparently have a pale cup and disc. Can I join your club?
I have apparently normal cups, but do have optic nerve head drusen. My optometrist has a new gadget that can take pictures of the drusen, he was excited to use it, so took pics for no charge last month. We’ll see if he wants to take pics yearly to keep tabs on it, and whether he will include it in the exam or not. I have small grey areas in my peripheral vision, that I don’t notice and have remained unchanged for over a decade now, and we’re hoping it stays that way.
So, yay! Weird eye stuff club?
We’ve been watching my son for glaucoma due to unusually large optic nerves since he was twelve. So far it looks like “that is the way he is built” but we see a specialist every year - no trips to Lenscrafters for him - he gets an opthamologist who specialized in glaucoma.
The strange thing - they don’t apparently have any studies on whether large optic nerves as a kid are an indicator of glaucoma. They don’t even have good optic nerve data for people under 21.
How timely! And starting today, I must go on a daily regime of eye drops to stave off glaucoma, due to the above-described risk factors. Poop.