That's How It Happened

Of all the skills I was supposed to acquire in medical school, fundoscopy was the most challenging. A fundoscope is a small torch, with a lens, that allows you to focus your eyes on the patient's retina. You get to look at the blood vessels running across the retina, and at the state of the optic disc. The only trouble is that most patients can't stop blinking and moving their eyes. Today my optometrist showed me his new retinal photographing equipment. It uses a Nikon D70, hooked up to an incredibly complex set of lenses to make these great images of your retinae. The picture is of my left retina, showing in amazing detail my macula (the darker splodge), and my optic disc (the lighter bit where the vessels converge). You can click for a much enlarged view of the part of me that is responsible for half my sight.