Saturday, July 24, 2010

I can see!

At home alone blogging on a Friday night. Don't be too jealous now! I am very happy to say that I found the cheesy bean enchilada recipe I lost. I'm super excited since I can now make them again :) You can go here to check it out.


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For as long as I can remember I've always seen an opthamologist yearly to check my eyes. My brother was cross eyed as a baby so the doctor (I believe) who fixed his eyes continued to be our eye doctor up until he retired years ago. We still continued to go to the same place, just new doctor. So an opthamologist is what I was used to. I new nothing else.

Last year while in Virginia I was due for my yearly check (I'd gotten lucky and was at home the year before when I was due, so I just went there). A friend had recommended this optometrist who she said helped her out with her migraines and other problems. I was nervous about seeing an optometrist but figured he must be good by what she had told me.

Boy was I wrong. It was the worst experience of my life! He was retired Navy and it practices were at least 30 years outdated. Not only that but he was extremely rude to me and made me feel like I knew nothing. He didn't check my eyes much which was making me nervous, and he came up and just took  my contacts out without asking. Now I don't mind if he wanted to do, he was fast and good at it, but really what a surprise. I would have been much more comfortable taking them out myself.  I had remembered to bring my glasses since I sometimes forget (for after getting dilated) but he never even dilated my eyes. He did however pretty much yell at me for not bringing a box of my contacts with me, I'd never had to before how as I suppose to know!

The biggest shock of all is when he took me down from a -4.50 to -4.00 I was not happy about this but he insisted that I don't need to be at -4.50. He told me to give it a few weeks and I'll be seeing better. Well it's been over a year and I have yet to see better. Not being able to see road signs while driving is not fun when you are suppose to be wearing the "right" prescription. I had thought about paying out of pocket to see another eye doctor, but couldn't afford it. So instead I suffered.

A few weeks ago I ran out of contacts since looking for an opthamologist was taking so long. I also found out that TRICARE will only let you see an opthamologist if you have a written referral from your doctor that you need to see one. Well I have no reason, I just prefer them. I finally gave up the search for either eye doctors and with my luck Mikey found an awesome optometrist that takes TRICARE! I was nervous when I went, but from what Mikey had told me everything this lady does is what I'm used to. The appointment went well, I was upset that I had to wait 40 - 45 minutes after my scheduled time even though I go there early. The eye doctor (I can't remember her name) was quite surprised to see that the meany from last year took me down so far. Once she checked me she said it's really obvious that I needed to be back up to -4.50. YAY!

I couldn't have been happier! I was a little annoyed that I couldn't get contacts right away though. She has this policy that she has you try the prescription out for 30 first to make sure it's right for you. And of course they don't carry my contacts in the store so they are having to order them. I know it will work for me, it's what I had and it was perfect. Either way I believe the 30 day trial pairs are free so I won't complain about that. So I'm still stuck wearing glasses. Boo.

All in all I am able to say there are some good optometrist out there. It just took me awhile to find one. And boy am I glad I did.


4 comments:

Kelly Loy Gilbert said...

What!!! That is so ridiculous. Actually, at most of the practices I've been to they don't distinguish bw opto/opth unless you need like surgery or something (the ones who are MDs are licensed to do more I think...) and I've always had great experiences with both. Sounds like you got a really bad seed!!! That's so frustrating about the contacts. Yay for the new good ones.

I did have a horrible, horrible experience with a new dentist last year though. Ugh. I think it's always so important to have someone you trust.

Kelsey Claire said...

Glad you found an ophthalmologist that you like. They are very hard to find! I am an ophthalmologist girl myself.

Mrs. Ma'am said...

You have an award on my page!

So glad you found a good optometrist, and you can see now!

Ms. Emmy N said...

Wow, what a crazy ride - but glad you can finally see! ... Super cure blog! You and your hubby are adorable :)