Getting My Bitch On...
Apr. 25th, 2003 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisabetI am kind of angry in retrospect right now. I know I've bitched about my optometrist before, but I really did not understand the full magnitude of her heinousness until now. She is the evil bitch monster eye doctor from hell. I kinda want to punch her in the face. I'm sorry, was that juvenile? Silly me. I meant I want to punch her in the theoretical face. With my virtual fist.
Cutting for tremendous bitching.
My anger results from a conversation I just had with a co-worker. I have been having multiple problems with my vision of late. I have been near-sighted since I was 8 years old. I have worn contacts since I was 13. I'm 28 now, so that gives me a good 2 decades of experience waking up in a fuzzy (at best) world. Like most of the extremely myopic (I have no idea on the 20/20 scale where I fall. That big "E" at the doctor office? I can't see it. I see a faint fuzzy vertical line. My disposable contact prescription is -6.75 if anyone knows what that means) I deal. I really don't remember ever being another way - TruthSeekingWoman (who really should have an LJ, come to think of it) swears by the surgical correction. My depth perception and night vision are so limited now that I am afraid to risk it - also, the expense and my being a big weenie factor in mightily as well.
A few months ago I noticed a remarkable decline in my ability to physically focus on print (also coincides with my inability to focus period). Road signs were becoming difficult to read and this was during the day. Normally I can see during the day - at night I was becoming hazardous -or more so. So I made an appointment with an eye doctor. I didn't want to miss work and Dawn had sufficiently scared me with tales of histo so I called the place at the mall - they had evening appointments and they got me in right away.
Enter Dr. Bitch-I-Hate-You. Okay - let me explain. Once you are sitting in that chair, sans contacts, you are in a position of vulnerability. Effectively, I could not see shit. I could have made a list of issues to discuss with her, but I would not have been able to read it. My first clue that maybe my doc didn't graduate at the top of her class was when she wanted to skip dilating my eyes. I told her that I hadn't had that procedure in over 2 years and I really would prefer we do it. She told me it was after 6pm and it would take awhile to get my eyes sufficiently dilated. I told her I would not mind waiting. Score points for me, right? Nope. That was the one thing I wanted that I got out of this sham-exam.
I explained my vision problems and my worry about being exposed to histo. She asked me if I kept birds and was extremely dismissive when I advised that I did not. She never wanted to hear about the 6 months I lived next to a freaking bird park in Metairie, the 2 indoor cats I helped raise, or the fact that this is the South - everybody has been exposed. Not to mention the depressed immune system (which actually has been churning along quite well of late. ::Pats Immune System on the Back::). I know I am a hypochondriac - but normally I keep that from the doctor's attention. I really don't think my concern warranted derision.
Okay - I haven't even gotten to the best part. Finally we begin to discuss my contacts. My prescription has changed slightly, but she doesn't think enough to warrant the problems I have been having. She wants to change my brand of contacts. I have been using the current brand for 12 years and always thought Acuvue was fairly decent. I wore the extended wear disposable lenses. Wear, sleep, wear and toss em in the garbage after 2 weeks. It was the closest I was ever gonna get to normal and I worshipped at the feet of the disposable contact gods. She wanted me to try these new daily wear disposable deal - a brand new pair of contacts every day. You take them out at night, every night and throw them away and open a new pack of contacts in the morning. . What? She was taking my "pretend normal" away, ya'll! I wear my glasses when my allergies get bad, or I just need to wear them, but I hate it. I hate waking up and having no idea what the clock says. I hate the pain that develops behind my ears. I hate the greasy spots from my eyelashes that demand constant attention and cleaning (or wearing my glasses far down on the bridge of my nose), and that I feel like a big ole geek wearing them. I am a big ole geek, but that is beside the point. I hate trying to lay on a pillow wearing glasses and watch TV comfortably. It cannot be done. I hate trying to find my way around my house in the middle of the night blind. God forbid I knock my glasses into the floor, it will take a miracle and perhaps an act of congress for me to find them before I break them. I can deal with it every couple of weeks - but every day?!! No. I refuse. For 12 years I have been able to pretend as much as dry, gluey morning-eye contacts allow me to pretend and damn if I was gonna let her change that. I told her that I would prefer the extended wear disposable and she told me there really wasn't any such thing. I told her I was sure there was - been wearing them going on 12 years now. She told me that even if I was wearing so-called extended wear disposables that actually I was supposed to take those contacts out every night and clean them and then throw them away after a week. I asked what the point in that was? She asked me how long I wear my contacts without removing them. I told her about a week - then I take them out to clean them and then another week before I throw them away. She told me that was nasty, said, "You wouldn't wear the same underwear for a week would you? It is like wearing the same underwear." OMIGOD! My eye-doctor just called me a skank. I should have walked out then, and I would have, too, except for the fact that I could not have found the door without assistance. Also, the vulnerability was there. I am blind - she is the doctor, she knows what she is talking about...Oh dear I am a skank. A dirty skank. Most likely a dirty skanky ho. I have skated by on dirty skank ho luck until now, avoiding major infection. It is a wonder one of my eyeballs haven't rotted out by now (-oh god - just got a sympathy pain for someone I won't mention cause Kes reads this LJ and she is in the UK - but ya'll all know what I'm talking about). I was actually almost grateful to that Psuedo-Professional for showing me the error of my ways. I have seen the light and it was shining in my dilated pupil.
She gave me the new contacts ("these breathe - very healthy for your eyes") and sent me on my way. I was back the next day. The new contacts would not stay moist, they were drying up at an alarming rate, they hurt and I could not see shit out of them. She wondered what it was that I was doing to them. Cause it has to be my fault. She reviewed my chart and told me that in order to wear contacts I was going to need to quit taking Claritin. Huh? I explained that I enjoyed being alive and what she was proposing would most likely end in my phlegm-drenched death. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but I did want to paint a picture of the world she was proposing I inhabit. She told me that Claritin is very drying and that most likely was the problem with the new contacts. I attempted to explain to her that I have been on one form or the other of allergy medication (year-round) my entire life. This is the first time it has given me trouble keeping my contacts moist. "Well," she explained, "as the female body ages, it tends to dry out." Oh. My. God. She just called me a dried-up dirty skank ho. I should have clawed her eyes out, then and there. Instead I meekly requested the Acuvue 2 week disposable and she gave me some kind of Focus brand instead. Fine. I went back and they fit fine. I still can't see any better. She says I have 20/20 with them in, but I thought with 20/20 you could read road signs and fast food menus. Bitch.
I wasn't this angry until just now. Oh, I was mad, just not this fired up, get it out and preach it to the worlds mad. About an hour ago I was attempting to type up a police report into a claim log and I'm wearing my glasses. I should be able to read the report lying on the desk in front of me. I can't. I wanted to freaking cry. Instead I went to co-worker. She is like 2 years older than me, but this chickadee knows stuff. I knew she would know a good eye doc and she did. I told her about mine. I never realized until then that not only did my doc call me a dirty skanly ho, but she also implied that I was dried up as well. I really hate her now. She is on my shit list. Literally. I am writing a list - titled "shit" and she is the first name.
Cutting for tremendous bitching.
My anger results from a conversation I just had with a co-worker. I have been having multiple problems with my vision of late. I have been near-sighted since I was 8 years old. I have worn contacts since I was 13. I'm 28 now, so that gives me a good 2 decades of experience waking up in a fuzzy (at best) world. Like most of the extremely myopic (I have no idea on the 20/20 scale where I fall. That big "E" at the doctor office? I can't see it. I see a faint fuzzy vertical line. My disposable contact prescription is -6.75 if anyone knows what that means) I deal. I really don't remember ever being another way - TruthSeekingWoman (who really should have an LJ, come to think of it) swears by the surgical correction. My depth perception and night vision are so limited now that I am afraid to risk it - also, the expense and my being a big weenie factor in mightily as well.
A few months ago I noticed a remarkable decline in my ability to physically focus on print (also coincides with my inability to focus period). Road signs were becoming difficult to read and this was during the day. Normally I can see during the day - at night I was becoming hazardous -or more so. So I made an appointment with an eye doctor. I didn't want to miss work and Dawn had sufficiently scared me with tales of histo so I called the place at the mall - they had evening appointments and they got me in right away.
Enter Dr. Bitch-I-Hate-You. Okay - let me explain. Once you are sitting in that chair, sans contacts, you are in a position of vulnerability. Effectively, I could not see shit. I could have made a list of issues to discuss with her, but I would not have been able to read it. My first clue that maybe my doc didn't graduate at the top of her class was when she wanted to skip dilating my eyes. I told her that I hadn't had that procedure in over 2 years and I really would prefer we do it. She told me it was after 6pm and it would take awhile to get my eyes sufficiently dilated. I told her I would not mind waiting. Score points for me, right? Nope. That was the one thing I wanted that I got out of this sham-exam.
I explained my vision problems and my worry about being exposed to histo. She asked me if I kept birds and was extremely dismissive when I advised that I did not. She never wanted to hear about the 6 months I lived next to a freaking bird park in Metairie, the 2 indoor cats I helped raise, or the fact that this is the South - everybody has been exposed. Not to mention the depressed immune system (which actually has been churning along quite well of late. ::Pats Immune System on the Back::). I know I am a hypochondriac - but normally I keep that from the doctor's attention. I really don't think my concern warranted derision.
Okay - I haven't even gotten to the best part. Finally we begin to discuss my contacts. My prescription has changed slightly, but she doesn't think enough to warrant the problems I have been having. She wants to change my brand of contacts. I have been using the current brand for 12 years and always thought Acuvue was fairly decent. I wore the extended wear disposable lenses. Wear, sleep, wear and toss em in the garbage after 2 weeks. It was the closest I was ever gonna get to normal and I worshipped at the feet of the disposable contact gods. She wanted me to try these new daily wear disposable deal - a brand new pair of contacts every day. You take them out at night, every night and throw them away and open a new pack of contacts in the morning. . What? She was taking my "pretend normal" away, ya'll! I wear my glasses when my allergies get bad, or I just need to wear them, but I hate it. I hate waking up and having no idea what the clock says. I hate the pain that develops behind my ears. I hate the greasy spots from my eyelashes that demand constant attention and cleaning (or wearing my glasses far down on the bridge of my nose), and that I feel like a big ole geek wearing them. I am a big ole geek, but that is beside the point. I hate trying to lay on a pillow wearing glasses and watch TV comfortably. It cannot be done. I hate trying to find my way around my house in the middle of the night blind. God forbid I knock my glasses into the floor, it will take a miracle and perhaps an act of congress for me to find them before I break them. I can deal with it every couple of weeks - but every day?!! No. I refuse. For 12 years I have been able to pretend as much as dry, gluey morning-eye contacts allow me to pretend and damn if I was gonna let her change that. I told her that I would prefer the extended wear disposable and she told me there really wasn't any such thing. I told her I was sure there was - been wearing them going on 12 years now. She told me that even if I was wearing so-called extended wear disposables that actually I was supposed to take those contacts out every night and clean them and then throw them away after a week. I asked what the point in that was? She asked me how long I wear my contacts without removing them. I told her about a week - then I take them out to clean them and then another week before I throw them away. She told me that was nasty, said, "You wouldn't wear the same underwear for a week would you? It is like wearing the same underwear." OMIGOD! My eye-doctor just called me a skank. I should have walked out then, and I would have, too, except for the fact that I could not have found the door without assistance. Also, the vulnerability was there. I am blind - she is the doctor, she knows what she is talking about...Oh dear I am a skank. A dirty skank. Most likely a dirty skanky ho. I have skated by on dirty skank ho luck until now, avoiding major infection. It is a wonder one of my eyeballs haven't rotted out by now (-oh god - just got a sympathy pain for someone I won't mention cause Kes reads this LJ and she is in the UK - but ya'll all know what I'm talking about). I was actually almost grateful to that Psuedo-Professional for showing me the error of my ways. I have seen the light and it was shining in my dilated pupil.
She gave me the new contacts ("these breathe - very healthy for your eyes") and sent me on my way. I was back the next day. The new contacts would not stay moist, they were drying up at an alarming rate, they hurt and I could not see shit out of them. She wondered what it was that I was doing to them. Cause it has to be my fault. She reviewed my chart and told me that in order to wear contacts I was going to need to quit taking Claritin. Huh? I explained that I enjoyed being alive and what she was proposing would most likely end in my phlegm-drenched death. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but I did want to paint a picture of the world she was proposing I inhabit. She told me that Claritin is very drying and that most likely was the problem with the new contacts. I attempted to explain to her that I have been on one form or the other of allergy medication (year-round) my entire life. This is the first time it has given me trouble keeping my contacts moist. "Well," she explained, "as the female body ages, it tends to dry out." Oh. My. God. She just called me a dried-up dirty skank ho. I should have clawed her eyes out, then and there. Instead I meekly requested the Acuvue 2 week disposable and she gave me some kind of Focus brand instead. Fine. I went back and they fit fine. I still can't see any better. She says I have 20/20 with them in, but I thought with 20/20 you could read road signs and fast food menus. Bitch.
I wasn't this angry until just now. Oh, I was mad, just not this fired up, get it out and preach it to the worlds mad. About an hour ago I was attempting to type up a police report into a claim log and I'm wearing my glasses. I should be able to read the report lying on the desk in front of me. I can't. I wanted to freaking cry. Instead I went to co-worker. She is like 2 years older than me, but this chickadee knows stuff. I knew she would know a good eye doc and she did. I told her about mine. I never realized until then that not only did my doc call me a dirty skanly ho, but she also implied that I was dried up as well. I really hate her now. She is on my shit list. Literally. I am writing a list - titled "shit" and she is the first name.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 10:44 am (UTC)I should come down there and give her a piece of my mind for treating you so horribly.
You need to get a new doctor..
My disposable contact prescription is -6.75 if anyone knows what that means
I think it has something to do with the curve of the eyeball itself. But I am not sure... what i do know is that mine is -4.00... so it means you're blinder than me.. and I'm pretty blind.
I feel for you.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 10:51 am (UTC)yo?
I'm looking at my pkgs of Acuvue contacts-- OD -6.75, OS -7.75. I wear them for weeks at a time and then throw them away. I, too, have been in contacts since I was 14, and until about 5 years ago, I lamented ever being able to wake up and see the damned clock. God Bless Acuvue. AMEN.
Yes, my contacts get dry sometimes, and I have to put in Fake Tears or whatever it's called.
You need to get to another doctor. A mall optometrist, unless you really luck out, probably did graduate at the bottom of her class. That's why she's not in a partnership with the Ministry of Ophthalmology. Her JOB is to make you see correctly. She's not doing her JOB. And to have one treat you like an idiot? I know. I know. We're both GRITS, and we're trained to "be nice." Fuck that. Call her on it. If you ever go back. You can ream someone a new asshole without ever breaking a sweat. You know you can.
Now, being as ancient as I am, I'm starting with the presbyopia. Sigh. Until/less I get bifocal contacts, I'm now relegated to my marvelous brain taking one eye and giving me distance vision and the other eye getting the near vision. I think.
Go see another doctor. Your eyes are precious, and you don't need an incompetent, rude, looney even getting near them again.
pet, pet.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 12:55 pm (UTC)I think my eyes have changed more than the mall doc realizes and part of that is my fault - that anxiousness to please extends to the demand: "read the smallest line you can see." My old doc was used to me countering "Well this is the smallest line I can see clearly, but if I squint really hard I can read the line below it except I can't tell if that second to last letter is an 'O' or a 'G.'" I don't think Mall-Doc paid any attention to my qualifiers - she just marked down that I could read the bottom line. Didn't matter that I had to stare at it for 2 minutes for it to come into focus. Why do I feel it necessary to squint and stare and try to read the bottom line? Cause it would be dishonest to act like I couldn't see it at all. I mean - I am fairly certain there is a "7" and and a "H" on that row. The "H" could be an "A" - no wait - it's an "H." Do I get a cookie?
no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 03:21 pm (UTC)I agree - you need an ophthalmologist, not an optometrist. Your situation is too complex; you need evaluation by an actual medical doctor. Also? These tests are not aptitude tests, so stop trying to be a good girl, 'kay? Just the facts, missy.
Probably you know all about ocular histoplasmosis, but THIS (http://www.theretinasource.com/conditions/histoplasmosis.htm) is a good short overview.
Also, you can do that Amsler grid test for retinal screening at home. Here's THE LINK (http://www.theretinasource.com/tests/amsler.htm)
That mall optometrist probably gets incentives for pushing one brand over another. Bleaagh.
I need to get a new prescription
Date: 2003-04-25 01:38 pm (UTC)Re: I need to get a new prescription
Date: 2003-04-25 02:27 pm (UTC)Re: I need to get a new prescription
Date: 2003-04-25 04:17 pm (UTC)So am I! I tell people this, and they refuse to believe me. So I have two dominant eyes, depending on what I want to do.
I love my eye doctor. If she moved, I would have to follow her. I had a severe problem a few years ago, relating to an immune problem. I ended up with an infection, and bad eyestrain and a host of other problems. She actually came to WHERE I WORKED to see what the lighting was like, and what conditions I was in. She is also an eye-surgeon, so she didn't want to operate if there was an easier way to fix it.
Eye-yi-yi!
Yeah! Show her what it's like to be visually impaired---POKE HER IN THE EYES! ;)
I have no love for the chain store optometrists. This one time, at Cohen's Fashion Optical (aka 7th Circle of Hell), I got pricey new glasses but they just didn't feel right. I kept going back, insisting to the optometrist that one eye was still kinda blurry. Of course, he's the "doctor" and I am "not" so he kept saying that they were correct despite the incessant throbbing headache. Well, I kicked him square in the ballsack. Okay, I didn't, but I should have. Anyway, I found a charming local eye doctor which is not associated with any chain shops and whenever I go the experience is very pleasant and they give me exactly what I want. And of course, upon examanation, they noticed that one eye had indeed changed after all. There's something to be said about good old fashioned mom-and-pop type establishments where service, not sales, is the primary focus.
And dude, as a daily Claritin-D user myself, it's never affected my contact lens usage and I'm old enough to be a dried-up dirty skank ho.
Here's wishing you get true 20/20 vision!
contacts
Date: 2003-04-26 09:34 pm (UTC)One question.. you can wear contacts for several days in a row without taking them out at night?? My eye doctor told me that if I do that, they'll dry out and stick to my eye, and when I open my eye in the morning they'll rip my eye and possibly give me scars and permanent vision loss. Maybe I'm wearing the wrong kind of contacts...? I have the 2-month soft kind, Bausch & Lomb, Optima FW. (I'm so bad --I usually forget to change them and end up wearing them about 4 months.)
Re: contacts
Date: 2003-04-27 06:09 pm (UTC)