Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffSet an appointment with a doctor who specializes in eye care — an optometrist or an ophthalmologist — who can evaluate your condition and perform a complete eye exam.
What you can do
Make the best use of limited time with your doctor by preparing beforehand.
- Be aware of any pre-appointment restrictions. When you make the appointment, ask if there's anything you need to do in advance.
- Write down your symptoms, including any that may seem unrelated to your vision problem.
- Make a list of all medications, as well as any vitamins or supplements, that you're taking.
- Ask a family member or friend to accompany you, if possible. Having your pupils dilated for the eye exam will affect your vision for a time afterward. You may need someone else to drive or accompany you after your appointment.
Questions to ask your eye doctor
- Can iritis permanently affect my vision?
- Do I need to come back for any follow up exams? When?
- What should I do if my symptoms don't go away or seem to worsen?
Questions your eye doctor may ask
- When did you first notice symptoms?
- Are symptoms present in one or both eyes?
- Do you feel pain in your eye after touching your eyelid?
- Do you have headaches?
- Does bright light worsen your eye pain?
- Do you have blurred vision?
- Do you have trouble seeing things near you, at a distance or both?
- Have you recently experienced an injury or other trauma to your eye?
- Have you recently had a viral-like illness?
- Do you have symptoms of arthritis, such as joint pain?
- Do you have any sores in your mouth or on your genitals?
- Have you been diagnosed or treated for iritis before?
- Have you been diagnosed or treated for any other eye condition?
- Care of the patient with anterior uveitis. St. Louis, Mo.: American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/documents/CPG-7.pdf. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Cunningham ET Jr. Uveal tract. In: Riordan-Eva P, et al. Vaughan & Asbury's General Ophthalmology. 17th ed. United States: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3091280. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Forster DJ. General approach to the uveitis patient and treatment strategies. In: Yanoff M, et al. Ophthalmology. 2nd ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby, Inc.; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/116823936-3/0/1197/69.html?tocnode=50823224&fromURL=69.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Jacobs DS. Evaluation of the red eye. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Rosenbaum JT. Uveitis: Etiology; clinical manifestations; and diagnosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Rosenbaum JT. Uveitis: Treatment. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
