The Time I Was An Eye Doctor

when autumn guest posted for me a little while ago, she talked about how she pretended to need glasses even though she actually didn't. so while i was thinking about what to write for her, i thought about my own experience with glasses.

now while my orthodontic history, for instance, would require an amount of paper equivalent to a small tree, my optometric history is pretty short and standard.

my eyes weren't too good when they were first examined, but i got the glasses, and while my eyesight has steadily decreased, it's not by too much each time and i still see pretty well.

enter: the inexperienced intern

two years ago i went in for a standard check-up. i’d been urging my mother to schedule me this appointment because i could tell my eyes weren't as good anymore, even with contacts in.

nothing out of the ordinary there.

so i went to my appointment, and the person who showed me into the room asked if i minded the intern coming in with the doctor. {remember those words.} i said no, i didn't mind. people have to learn, and the best way to learn is through experience, and the doctor was going to be there anyway.

i should've known things were going to go haywire from the moment the intern walked into the room, sans doctor.

i'd been to the eye doctor enough times by then to know that everything he did was routine. the appointment itself went smoothly. at the end, the intern said, "well, your eyesight's decreased a little, but not by too much. i'd keep your prescription where it is."

i didn't need a high school diploma, b.a., or degree in optometry to tell him i knew i was going to need an increase in prescription strength. so i asked him how much my eyesight had decreased by. it had gone down from -2.50 in the left eye to -2.75, and from -2.25 in the right eye to -2.50.

every time before that that my eyesight had gone down by .25 {which essentially was every time before that}, my prescription had increased. so obviously, knowing my own history, i told the intern i disagreed with him and wanted a higher prescription.

after all, he might have taken all the measurements, but i'm the only one who can say that i can't see.

well, he didn't agree. and i'm not sure how, but i ended up losing the argument.

i went home having ordered more contact lenses, and new lenses for an older pair of glasses {so that i had two pairs of actual glasses}, but without any improved vision.

if that were not frustrating enough, read this:

i went back last year to get my eyes checked. between the visit i just wrote about and the one last year, my eyesight didn't change at all. and you know what the doctor recommended? an increase in prescription.

hey, mr. intern?

i told you so.