Visual Cuts

[RedFlame]

Have any of you heard of 'Vision/Visual Cuts'?  My Occupational Therapist was here to bring me the hand controls for my car.  She started a conversation about my driving where I explained exactly what is happening.  The fact that angry drivers seem to come out of nowhere and either yell, flip me off or try to 'give me a lesson' by purposely driving towards me.  These things happen and I truly truly don't know why.  They come from nowhere.  I have run red lights 4 or more times and driven into the intersections.  Then the 'can't feel the pedal' thing.  I don't drive anymore.

She suggested that I get the eye thing covered before driving.

She thinks I may have 'visual cuts' in my eyes where I have areas of blindness.  She suggested that my PCP refer me to a neuro-ophthalmologist

Do any of you know what that is or have you heard about it?  I googled it but kept coming up with optic neuritis.

Any thoughts?    Thanks guys

Red

[michelleric]

Hi Red,

The only person that can check your visual fields is an Ophthalmologist.  You need a visual field test.  They do each eye separately and can see if and what kind of visual field defect you might have.

There are MANY reasons one might have a visual field defect. (Glaucoma, Dense cataracts, some neurological diseases, brain injuries, etc.  

A hemianopsia, is only 1 type of defect.  That is generally from a brain injury, tumor etc.  It is both eyes together that are affected.  There are no exercises that can "fix" this, however if it is a homonymous hemianopsia, you sometimes can you prisms to move objects that are on your side vision and place them more centrally.  That is confusing and a bit difficult to understand I know. (what homonymous hemianopsia is that both of your eyes are affected the exact same way.  For example, if you cant see the right side of your right eye, you will also be missing the right side of your left eye.)

There are lots and lots of different field defects.  I would highly recommend you see a neuro-ophthalmologist, or a general ophthalmologist for this.

Michelle

[RedFlame]

She didn't put the controls on--she just brought them over.  We had the conversation about driving becuase we weren't sure hand controls were going to help.  Time will tell

Red

[jensequitur]

You know, I don't drive any more because I feel like I'm not making the right decisions.  If I felt more confident about my cognitive abilities, I would go ahead and get some hand controls - I have the same problem with my right foot.

[Sumanadevii]

Red, was she qualified to install the hand controls?

[RedFlame]

WOW Thanks

[daisy.girl]

A visual field cut is technically called hemianopsia.

Did your OT give you any exercises? You can read here for information and eye exercises.

Read more: Eye Exercises for a Visual Field Cut | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5365124_eye-exercises-visual-field-cut.html#ixzz169VUb85h

http://www.rancho.org/ot0033.pdf

http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/PatientEd/Materials/PDFDocs/dis-cond/braininury/visual-perceptual.pdf