my friend freaks out at the glaucoma air puff thing and so she hasn't had the test actually done in quite some time.

she asked the eye doc if she should come back again, taking klonopin first so that she wouldn't freak.

the doctor told her no, and that klonopin would affect the test results.

this sounds really strange to me. i'm getting an eye exam soonish and i'm wondering if this is horseshit or if i really should wait till after the exam to take my meds.

anyone heard anything about eyes and benzos? maybe it's just the glaucoma test?

if they affect your vision then i guess i'm seeing the world wrong...

Benzos? Of course.

Benzos relax muscles, and your eye has plenty of muscles, even though they are quite small.

So, what could be affected?

- The iris might not be able to fully close down
- Give a false low eye pressure due to overall eyeball relaxation
- Skew near focus measurement due to not being able to fully compress eyeball length
- Skew near compensation due to eyes not being able to fully cross for close tracking
- Skew strabismus measurements (muscle imbalance between side muscles of eyeball)

those are the items off the top of my head.


a.m.


[Edit: BTW, other things to avoid include the stronger NSAIDS like Ibuprofen and Naproxen. They have muscle relaxant effects too. When I was still flying I avoided them because they noticeable affected my vision, making it hard to focus, and to a lesser degree my general muscular tension.]

More importantly, benzos can cause amnesia or amnesic like affects. This is more likely to impact on exam performance than anything.

Of course you need to strike a balance here because there is nothing worse than a panic attack during an exam.

Hi All,

AM, thanks for the info. ive been having wierd eye things, especially:



and yes, i realize it may be other things in my body/head as well. Ive got a lot going on.

as for the glaucoma test & eye doctors in general - I FREAK. I dont like people touching my face and I especially dont like people's fingers & hands around and/or touching my eyes.

Im glad to feel not so alone in this,
december

yeah, like DB brought up, what would the trade-off be between taking a benzo so you don't freak out and having it effect the tests?

i think that would be up to the eye doc and pdoc. hopefully they'd both be of the same opinion. if not, it is your body, your choice in my opinion. you can take your benzo and know that your eye exam will be inacurrate to some degree, or not take it and face the possibility of freaking out.

i had the great experience of poking myself in the eye with my mascara wand a couple of years ago! there was just this black blob in my vision, so i went to work like that, thinking it would clear up. but it didn't. so i called around and found an eye doctor who could do the emergency surgery, and drove to him. he had to put my chin on this thing, look into my eye with a magnifying glass, and use a needle to pick it out of my eye ewwwwwwww!!!!!!!!! lucky, i had sedation eye drops in my eye. i had to keep alternating between letting him do it and lying on the floor so i wouldn't faint. finally i let him finish. i had to take 2 weeks off of work and wear this patch over both eyes (because when one moves the other does, and i couldn't move my right eye due to the surgery, my mom took me to borders books and i was walking around with her holding my hand and alerting me to what i'd run into. i needed her help to get around the house. i got some books on tape so i'd be entertained.

now, THAT was worse than any eye exam i've ever had, and was hell if i've ever experienced physical hell, and i had no klonopin. that's why i was freaking out. had i had klonopin, maybe i could have let him pick at my eye a little better before almost throwing up on him.

loon

ps- edited to say that i won't let them do the glacoma test because it gives me migraines

i can tell you only that i had blurry vision on cogentin and benedryll. don't know where those fall.

I'm on a fairly high dose of clonazepam and i find that it does not affect my vision. So i guess results may vary.

Tom