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The "balloon" wasn't in focus...was my eye test done wrong?

Today I had my eyes measured for IOL.  One of the machines does two things, each it's own procedure.  1st, it reads curvature of the eye.  2nd, it provides a prescription for glasses/contacts.

When you look into the machine, you see a green field with a long straight road going into the distance.  At the end of the road is a huge balloon, the kind you take a balloon ride in.

Every time I've had this exam with this machine, the machine somehow, automatically makes the balloon come into clear, sharp focus before the machine starts taking both 1st (eye curvature) and 2nd (diopter/prescription) measurements.

Today I went to a new eye doctor.  When his technician used the "balloon machine", as I call it, the balloon didn't come into focus for either the 1st or 2nd measurement, as noted above.

At the start of the 1st test, I told the tech "the balloon's not in focus".  She said the balloon won't come into focus for the eye curvature test.  I thought that odd.

Same happened for the 2nd test.  By that time I was preoccupied with other thoughts and didn't say "Hey!  The darn balloon's not in focus!".

Am I correct to say the balloon needs to be focused to the patient's eye for accurate testing?
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Avatar universal
Thank you Dr. Hagan.  Maybe I didn't explain the machine/test device very well.  Does this description help?

With the machine/test device I'm talking about, you rest your chin on a bar and the machine presents what looks like binocular eyepieces to your eyes.is against your eyes, where an icon is presented to the eye.  This is done one eye at a time.

The icon looks like a picture from a child's picture book.  It's a bright green field with a blue sky.  There's a road, yellow in color, that goes from foreground of the picture to the end of the green field, which is the horizon.  At the end of the road is a two story, red house.

The icon is out of focus when you first see it.  When the machine is turned on, it automatically focuses the icon to each eye.  The focus is clear and sharp.

I've had my eyes examined by this type of machine for - literally - years.  The icon always comes into focus for my good eye.  Not for my bad eye.

In the machine used on me yesterday, a big balloon (Wizard of Oz kind of balloon) replaced the farmhouse.  Nothing in the icon- green field, blue sky, road, balloon - came into focus for my good eye.

That's odd and it has me worried the IOL measurement is incorrect.

I've left a message for the doctor to call me.
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1 Comments
I'm familiar with the test but I don't know the answer.
177275 tn?1511755244
I'm sorry I can't answer that question. You should ask it of the ophthalmologist that ordered the test.
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177275 tn?1511755244
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