Went for my annual eye exam a few weeks ago and the dr said my peripheral vision in my right eye was fine but not so great in my left eye. He said that the year before it wasn't so great either. So he wanted me to take a more in-depth peripheral vision test. I went and had that done (six minutes on the right and and 7 1/2 on the left...LONG test!) and my left eye was still not very good. Now he wants me to go see my family physician and have him prescribe further tests. He didn't really give any clues as to what the problem could be besides saying that now the family dr would probably start with neurological tests.

My question to anyone out there.....what COULD this loss of peripheral vision be? I'm not the type of person to worry about things until there is actually something wrong, but I'm just curious as to what could be going on with me. I am a 36 year old, very healthy female, btw!

There is such a range of conditions that could cause it, best wait until you have more tests. Please get back to us, I'm interested in what it could be.

Hi

Just wondering if you heard anything yet?

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Update....

Went to see my doctor last week. He said it sounds very unusual at my age and general good health that anything serious would be wrong, but that he wanted to send me for and MRI/MRE just to double check. He said it COULD be a whole list of things (MS, stroke, etc) but, again, at my age, highly unlikely. I went for the MRI/MRE last night so I won't know anything for a few days. I will post again after I talk to doc.

Just wanted to let you know I was in your shoes a few months ago. Doctors scared the you know what out of me, and reading all the possible things it could be on the internet was even worse.

Turns out that I have tilted optic nerves. The point the optic nerve meets the eye is elongated, not round like everyone else, thus a larger blind spot. Doctor said if they did a larger FVT it would show up in the other eye, as well.
Hope your dx is as simple as mine. The lack of peripheral vision in the one eye is a pain in the neck, but liveable.

Update again!

My MRI/MRE turned out fine :) ! There is nothing that showed up to cause any alarm. My physician would like me to see an opthomologist now, though, for the peripheral vision problem. Hopefully it will turn out as well as the above poster!

Hi,

Great news about your MRI!

Not to scare you but did the dr. mention glaucoma to you as a possible cause? Loss of peripheral vision is often the first symptom of glaucoma although you seem to be young to have something like that. I'm about 20 yrs. older than you and have it in both eyes, diagnosed 3 yrs. ago. Loss of my inner peripheral vision is the only symptom (aside from the optic nerve in my eyes "looking funny" to my optho in my exam) that I have. My eye pressure was always normal range so I have the "normal tension" type of glaucoma. Eyedrops keep it from getting worse so far but I'll never get the lost vision back. Anyway, just wondering if that was mentioned to you. Good luck and hope it's nothing serious!

Robin

so what exactly does a optic disk mean, a tilted one? i also found out I have that, and for some reason I have optic nerve swelling.

A blind spot occurs where your optic nerve meets your eye. If it is normal, the nerve comes in straight on and it looks like a circle. If the nerve is tilted, like mine, it comes in at an angle so at the point of attachment the shape is elliptical. That creates a larger blind spot.
Also, glaucoma will show up on a field vision test. They were worried I may have it as well, but the doctor told me the blind spot for a glaucoma patient looks different than the blind spots that showed on my field vision test.
Best of luck to you both.