Vision

chapter three

Dr. Roon was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline the color of rust and tanned leather that almost completely matched his skin. He had a big, bright, fake smile and had been Oliver's doctor ever since his night blindness had started to develop and they realized that he had Choroideremia.

"Come on in, Oliver. Today we are going to take scans on your retinas to see how much worse the tunnel vision has gotten and try and find a way that we can slow down the process of the breaking down cells." The doctor turned around and winked at Oliver. He could almost see a little twinkle when he flashed the ridiculously-whitened smile.

The office smelled like cleaning supplies and rubber. "Sit down over there," Dr. Roon said, pointing to a beige swivel chair. Oliver slowly walked over to the chair and lowered himself into it. Dr. Roon pushed a big machine over.

"Rest your chin here," Dr. Roon said, motioning to a chin rest, "and your bring your forehead forward to touch here." He motioned to the top of the machine. Oliver did this.

"So, I know you've done this before, but I just want to run through the drill again, just so you remember." Oliver nodded and accidentally hit his forehead harder than he meant to on the forehead rest. 

"The machine is going to swivel around for a little bit so that it can find your eye." The machine made little whirring sounds as it searched for his eye. "Then, you're going to see a light. Blink a couple times and focus only on the light." Suddenly, a bright, circular light flashed, nearly blinding Oliver.

"Alright, one down, nine to go. We are going to do five pictures on the left and five on the right." The light moved to the side this time. Oliver followed it with his eyes. Once again, the bright light flashed. After a couple more flashes into his left eye, the light in different positions each time, Dr. Roon told him to close his eyes and let his pupils return to their regular size.

Five more flashes on the right side and the scans were done. Big, white circles of light appeared in Oliver's eyes every time he blinked. The doctor took a couple more tests on his eyes then told Oliver to switch seats.

Oliver stood and walked over to the chair that he was pointing to. Roon clicked around on his computer for a second, inputting data and pulling up pictures. "Oliver, you've known you've had Choroideremia for a long time, correct?" Oliver nodded, swallowing hard.

"Usually, patients with Choroideremia will lose their night vision in their childhood. Later on, as you know, they develop tunnel vision. The tunnel vision is very hard to correct with eyewear and, anyway, will later lead to blindness. Most patients don't start developing tunnel vision until they are into adulthood. These scans will tell us if anything is unusual and, possibly, how long you could keep your sight." Oliver blinked hard, trying to keep a straight face. Why was he telling him stuff that he already knew?

Dr. Roon slowly turned the computer screen around so that both of them could see it. Two pictures showed up. One looked like a blue-ish circle with veins and a light a little to the side. The other looked reddish and the outside reminded Oliver of a light that a bunch of moths and other bugs had died inside, creating a shadow around the rim. He looked at the doctor for an explanation.

"This," he said, pointing to the blue picture, "is a healthy retina. You'll notice that the outside here looks totally different from the outside on this picture." He pointed to the red picture. Oliver had noticed other differences also, the light in the healthy retina had another part of it that took up about 1/3 of the light. The light on the red one had the other piece but it covered about 3/4 of the light. 

"The red one is an unhealthy retina, your retina. The progression of your tunnel vision has been a lot faster than anyone could have predicted," Dr. Roon explained.