I postponed my eye exam for two reasons. I feared that my antidepressant might be affecting my vision. There are several possible side effects involving the eyes. My medication has allowed me to be the person my family knew I could be. I didn’t want to stop it and start a trial of new antidepressants.
Also, glaucoma is prevalent in my family. My eyes water so much during the prescreening, they’re usually not able to test my pressures.
I requested the technician not to tell me when the puff of air was coming. She humored me. The test was going about as expected. When the machine got closer to my eye, I pulled away from the forehead and chin rests. I laughed and apologized. The kind tech told me to concentrate on the green light. It worked. I was no longer focusing on the barrel protruding closer to my pupil. She was able to test both eyes. My eyes only watered a little.
Another tech finished my prescreening in the office. She asked if I wanted to dilate my eyes today.
“I haven’t had the best experience with it, but I know I should.”
I wrestled with the decision for a few moments.
“Yeah, let’s do it. Just a warning. I wasted a drop or two of that before.”
I tilted my head back. I agreed to keep my eyes open, but my eyes did not. They flickered and flinched. The first drop was in and stung a little. The second drop was in, but didn’t sting as much. My cheek was a little wet from the excess.
The tech said I might need more in that eye.
“It’s in there. I felt the sting.” I nervously chuckled.
She left the room and said the doctor would be in shortly.
I started wondering if there was enough dilation fluid in both eyes. I checked the mirror. My pupil’s expanded, but not by much.
A few minutes passed. I looked in the mirror again. Both pupils looked the same. I must have enough. How awkward would that be to do it twice and possibly put too much in there? How wide can the eyes dilate without causing harm?
I distracted myself from these thoughts by naming objects. I didn’t know the medical jargon. I made up my own. I called the headset on the wall with the light and lens a VR headset.
Then, I thought about the show, Friends. It was the episode, where Monica told Rachel one of the tools was an “eye removal machine.”
I stopped naming and started counting. I looked at the hanging “clear-or-better device” and counted the lenses. Then, I counted the knobs.
A few minutes later, the doctor entered. He was kind and enjoyed my humor.
He told me to tell him when I could read the letters on the screen.
“I don’t see any letters.”
He adjusted, and adjusted, and adjusted. Finally, I saw and read the letters.
We did the clear-or-better test. Although I’ve been wearing glasses since grade school, I felt like a rookie patient. He swapped the options a few times. Sometimes, both were blurry. Sometimes, one was clearly worse. It became more challenging.
“Am I supposed to be seeing two lines of text?”
“No.” He laughed.
He adjusted the curvature of the lenses. I was no longer seeing double.
“That’s much better.” I chortled.
When he was checking my eyes, he dropped the item he was using.
I looked on the floor. “I’m not wearing my glasses.”
He laughed and said I wasn’t going to be much help finding it. I laughed in agreement.
The doctor said my eyes looked healthy. I developed another astigmatism, but my stronger prescription would correct that.
When my eye exam ended, I texted my husband and headed to the optician. I told her how friendly everyone was. She asked if I’d like to write a review on Google. I tried to enter my password, but my vision was blurred from the dilation.
I held the tablet up to my husband. “Honey, can you help me find this special character?”.
I continued to swipe between the two keyboards. I found it. That wasn’t my password. Don’t worry. I wrote a positive, honest review once I was home.
Despite all the worries I had and the trouble of differentiating between the vision options, I had a successful appointment. Even better, I can keep my current frames.
I hope you enjoyed this story. If you have a story of a memorable appointment you’d like to share, please leave it in the comments.
I wish you the best.