For my third eye appointment I went to a new eye doctor – a “second tier”, I suppose since my regular doctor wasn’t quite sure what was on my eye.
The new doctor, while knowledgeable, was kind of an idiot. Or at least really bad with people. He was half an hour late getting into the exam room and spent the entire time spouting medical jargon at me. Well, except for when he gave me the treatment options and said “this next part is going to scare you.”
The diagnosis is proteinaceous deposits caused by a breakdown of the membrane in my eye. The treatment is to scrape the cornea and put a contact lens in while it heals – and hope it doesn’t get infected.
I’m also “pre-glaucoma”, so, added bonus there. He didn’t find that out until they dumped a bunch of drops in my eye to dilate, then had me stare into the sun (or the eye doctor’s exam room equivalent). And then he couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.
I went in there feeling anxious and cranky – and left feeling anxious, cranky, and confused.
With throw-away sunglasses in place, I headed back to work.
For the fourth appointment, I had another follow up with my regular eye doctor. She explained that I don’t need to do the keratotomy right away and that while my optic nerve is “bigger than average” (I’m not boasting or anything), it also doesn’t mean I’m going to get glaucoma.
But, I did need to get progressive lenses for my new glasses. Sigh. I might have the butt of a 20 year old, but my eyes are almost 50.
Kinda makes you think – all that our eyes have seen and taken in. So much light over all those years.
I had narrowed down the frames to two while I was waiting for the appointment – because I’m very efficient – and had my decision in a couple minutes after sitting with the clerk. Medium progressive, no to the transitions, and yes to the anti-glare. My new glasses will arrive in a couple of weeks.
That will make 5 trips to the eye doctor before I have new glasses. Too bad they couldn’t just give me a shot of Retinax – though I’d probably turn out to be allergic.