I had an appointment with a specialist today that my eye care doctor had referred me. I had been to this office before to get pictures of eyes taken. My doctor told me he wanted the retina specialist to do an evaluation to determine if changes he had seen were anything to be concerned about.
Things were going along as expected, the nurse ran me through some eye charts, and then put the drops in my eyes, and I settled back to wait for the the doctor. When he came in he got out the bright lights and looked into the back of the eyes, told me to sit back and relax. He did not find anything that he thought was wrong. But he said he wanted pictures taken of my eyes, told he the nurse would put an IV in my arm and then take the pictures. WAIT A MINUTE...lets go back over that again....why an IV to take pictures (have had this done before and no needles were involved). He proceeds to explain that they put dye in the IV and it runs through the eye and they get a good picture of whether anything is going on.
He must have got the idea from my expression, that I was about to go over him to get out the door. The last time I had an IV was about 1978 when I had a tubal ligation. Anyhow he said that if I did not want it he would not do the IV, just take the picture. The dye just let them get a better picture. I let him think he was "letting" me get out of it, and hopped right up to go with the nurse to get another big light flashed in my eye.
I have always had anxiety bouts before going to doctors, and dentists. But I have always felt fairly safe and calm at the eye doctor because there are no body cavities they need access to, or places they need to drill and fill. From now on I will always ask what an "evaluation" entails.
1 comment:
Medical testing has reached a point that's way beyond extreme. Just because they CAN do a test, they do it, whether or not it's absurd, uncomfortable or whatever.
The eye illustration is great!
Thank you so much for coming to visit the Gold Puppy. It's great to "meet" you!
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