I've been having retinal scans for a few years now due to diabetes and was having annual eye tests every year until two years ago when the rules changed.
About 4 years ago the optician refered me to hospital as he was concerned about my left eye in particular. I had a couple of appointments and on the second one I was told my eyes were okay. When I had my annual eye test the optician was still concerned so took a closer look then he said I had an early stage cataract. That doesn't worry me as my mum had cataracts in both eyes back in the days when eyes were operated on so there was a slim chance my sister and I would get them.
A couple of months ago I had my annual retinal scan and got a letter through with another appointment for a slit lamp scan which is better than the other one. As my eye test appointment was before the second appointment I took the letter with me just in case it was important and showed it to the (female) optician. She did a good job not just doing the standard eye test but also looked using different equipment to tell me that yes my eyesight is worse which I was expecting but the cataract is bigger. She warned me that they wouldn't pick up on the cataract as they have a habit of missing stuff. Not surprisingly it wasn't picked up on but it has left me wondering what the point is of having a retinal scan when they can't pick up an obvious cataract so what do they see?
According to the hospital my eyes are healthy but I prefer to belief my optician.
