Saturday, May 1, 2010

Seeing? Who the F@&# needs to see? Pfft.

Now that my pupils have finally un-dilated (no retinal damage, whoo!), I felt the need to post.

I am starting to question the validity of some vision care providers. My entire experience can be summarized in the series of conversations below.

Doctor: Hello, how are you?
Me: Doing well, thanks.
Doctor: Great. Well, how are your eyes?
Me: They're Okay.
Doctor: And your contacts and glasses, how do you feel those are working for you?
Me: Well, more and more I'm finding it harder to read my computer screen, but I can't tell if that's a problem with my eyes, or...
Doctor: ...Or if you're just looking at it for too long?
Me: Yes, exactly.
Doctor: (laughs) Okay then.

The doctor proceeds to place the supervision goggles in front of my face.

Doctor: What's the lowest line you can read?
Me: Oh, I guess it's...(reading letters. the line is not very far down.)
Doctor: Any lines below that?
Me: No. Anything I say would be an outright guess.
Doctor: Okay.....(flips button on goggles) Is that any better?
Me: A little, I guess.
Doctor: Okay....(flips another switch) tell me when it starts to get clearer.
Me: (After several flips) There, I guess.
Doctor: Okay....Let's look at the other eye.

The same procedure occurs for my other eye. At no point was I able to clearly read any lines lower than my first attempt.

Doctor: Okay, I'm going to dilate your pupils.
Me: Okay.

The doctor inserts the eye drops and leaves for 10 minutes.

Doctor: Okay let's take a look at your retinas.
Me: Okay.

The doctor checks my retinas, then proceeds to type some information on the computer. She runs into a problem inputting some information, and she gestures to the screen completely oblivious to the fact that she already made me take my contacts out and dilated my pupils. From my point of view, her gestures to the computer screen are like me staring at the sun while a cloud passes in front of it.

Doctor: Okay, well, we're going to keep you at the same prescription. The lenses have a different name, but they are the same.
Me: Thank you?

And I was sent on my way.

Am I completely missing something here?

Maybe the lenses don't correct my vision. Maybe they are supposed to motivate my eyes to do a better job of seeing. In which case, that means I have lazy eyes.