First time for everything!

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Stitch147

Stitch147

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I'm at my diabetes retinopathy test at the mo and I had to have the dreaded eye drops!!!! Never had them before!
OMG!!! Stingy!
The law changed a few months ago so you now have to have them apparently.
Glad I put my sunglasses in my bag as there's not a cloud in the sky where I live.
 
Hope you had nothing special planned for the afternoon. My eyes always take hours to get back to be able to focus following the drops.
 
Stitch147 said:
The law changed a few months ago so you now have to have them apparently.
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What law is that? It's your choice if you accept the drops or not.
 
Its the way the technician says.."this might sting".... after they put the drops in that really gets me!
 
Pumper_Sue said:
What law is that? It's your choice if you accept the drops or not.
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Yeah, I doubt anything much has changed.

You can certainly choose not to take the drops, but I guess they may well then decide not to bother trying to take the photos and you'll go down as having rejected the screening (which is your right but probably not what you want to do).
 
I don't think it is law, I think guidance, in 2021 they made me have them, 2022 it wasn't needed

They are horrible though. Hope they clear out soon
 
grovesy said:
My eyes always take hours to get back to be able to focus following the drops.
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It seems to vary for me. I have been right as rain and able to get back to working on my computer within 30 minutes last year but previously couldn't focus well enough to cross a road for 4 hours after the drops.
I think they are able to alter how many drops they use.
 
I think it might also depend how quick you are to blink as the drops hit your eye and that some will be deflected by your eyelid/lashes or squeezed straight out and roll down your cheek whereas other times your response can be a bit slower or the technician more adept with the dropper and the eyeball gets the full doze.... and yes it stings!
 
My daughter had her retinopathy check last week and she didn't have the drops. I think it depends entirely on whether they can see enough to get the required pictures without them. More likely in young people apparently.
 
I've never had the drops before, different staff at the clinic I go to. Oh well. Hopefully my eyes will be back to normal soon.
 
In my area policy changed a couple of years ago whereby they insist on using drops - won't even try without. Allegedly the issue was there were too many images being rejected and having to be repeated. Those failures reduce apparently if everyone is fully dilated.

Horrid. I often feel a bit queasy afterwards due to photo-sensitivity and my eyes working overtime to focus.

On the upside, @Stitch147 , it's all done now for another year.
 
Stitch147 said:
I'm at my diabetes retinopathy test at the mo and I had to have the dreaded eye drops!!!! Never had them before!
OMG!!! Stingy!
The law changed a few months ago so you now have to have them apparently.
Glad I put my sunglasses in my bag as there's not a cloud in the sky where I live.
Click to expand...
There’s no law saying you have to have eye drops. I don’t have them, pictures are fine without. You need them when you get older though so if you haven’t had them previously and now need them, perhaps you’re just getting older?
 
I've never had them and intend never to have them - being allergic to so many chemicals I can't risk having them put in my eyes. The NHS have always been fine about it (we let them know in advance, and tell them it's never been a problem). But my optician has a photo machine which is much better than the NHS ones and they don't need to use drops at all - I had my last photos done there as NHS admin mucked up my appointment time/place twice in a row and I got fed up with them!
 
Stitch147 said:
I'm at my diabetes retinopathy test at the mo and I had to have the dreaded eye drops!!!! Never had them before!
OMG!!! Stingy!
The law changed a few months ago so you now have to have them apparently.
Glad I put my sunglasses in my bag as there's not a cloud in the sky where I live.
Click to expand...
I had mine done on 15th July but I didn't need the drops as he said he got a clear picture without them (thank god) mine came back all clear.
 
In 27 years I honestly never realised I could refuse the drops, nor that the test could be done without - though perhaps that is a more recent thing as equipment has become more sophisticated?

Actually they don't bother me much and only once did we have a problem when I came out of my test to find the OH sitting in the car with a profusely bleeding hand (caught on a sharp bit as he fished under the seat for something he'd dropped) which he then had to use to drive us home as of course I couldn't!
 
JJay said:
In 27 years I honestly never realised I could refuse the drops, nor that the test could be done without - though perhaps that is a more recent thing as equipment has become more sophisticated?
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I think it may be that they can refuse to do the test if you refuse to have the eye drops..... unless you have a valid reason to refuse.
At my clinic, they have a system when they call you in, do the eye test, do the drops and sit you outside whilst they call the previous person in whose eye drops have been doing their work to take their photos and not having the drops could potentially foul their system as well as the risk of photos not being of a suitable quality. I am sure it all costs money, especially doing extra photos if the first ones aren't suitable, so getting the best quality photos first time and a system which works smoothly is probably the issue. At least I can see that being the case. If more and more people start objecting to the drops you can imagine how the system would start to break down. Just my thoughts.
However it is your body and you have the right to refuse any medication or treatment.
 
rebrascora said:
I think it may be that they can refuse to do the test if you refuse to have the eye drops..... unless you have a valid reason to refuse.
At my clinic, they have a system when they call you in, do the eye test, do the drops and sit you outside whilst they call the previous person in whose eye drops have been doing their work to take their photos and not having the drops could potentially foul their system as well as the risk of photos not being of a suitable quality. I am sure it all costs money, especially doing extra photos if the first ones aren't suitable, so getting the best quality photos first time and a system which works smoothly is probably the issue. At least I can see that being the case. If more and more people start objecting to the drops you can imagine how the system would start to break down. Just my thoughts.
However it is your body and you have the right to refuse any medication or treatment.
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Yes, this is what happens at mine.
 
They told us it takes more time to do the photos without the drops, so if too many people refuse them the problem would be that they wouldn't be able to fit everyone in - which I suppose in the long term would mean it would cost more, if they needed more staff and more vans. But if they had the money for more staff and more vans they might do better to use it to upgrade their equipment to more modern/better quality photo machines which don't require people to have drops.

They are fine with me refusing, but they recognise that I do have a valid medical reason to do so. The people doing the NHS photos have always been very good about it, and about my allergies generally.
 
Stitch147 said:
... so you now have to have them apparently.
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That's nuts!

At my first Retinopathy exam [a month or so ago] the optometrist cautioned me to warn my optician that my eyes were unusually photo-sensitive. The implication being that, in my case, applying drops to dilate the pupils would be very bad!
 
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