Surfergal
06-10-2009, 04:22 PM
Since my cobra insurance will expire in 6 months, and no job in sight, I decided to schedule some dr. appts to get my $$ worth in my current free time. I have had days recently with very, very blurry vision and my reading glasses broke (lens fell out and they got bent) anyways. I had my last eye exam 2 years ago. So I went in same place a local small eyeglass chain nearby which takes my vision insurance. Now I have had glasses to see far (very mild prescrip which I rarely wear) for well over 30 years, but with age now I have had problems seeing close for the last few years. Usually cannot read magazines. books and PC. w/o the glasses. I tried bifocals but they not only made me dizzy, they hurt my neck trying to look at the pc. The last exams I just got new reading glasses, cheapest ones covered by the plan. This last place tells me. very gravely looking at me, I have astigmatism two years ago. Never heard that in the 30 years of eye exams I had had, but since many people I know have that I thought no big deal. She says I should not use the drug store readers I had been using some times as an alternative due to the astigmatism.
So when I go back to same eyeglass place this year ($20 copay) , she finds that my prescrip has "changed a lot", and she tells me the "white streaks" in my eyes she told me about last time (I was NOT told about this last time) have increased, and that I was starting to form cararacts and I was rather young for that, so she wants me to go to a specialist for a 2nd opinion and again gravely says "and you have astigmatism". They would not give me new glasses or fix my old ones until I saw the specialist. She gave me a card for a specialist she worked with to see if my HMO would send me there. So I go bacK to my medical Dr. for a referral for my HMO and they send me to another eye specialist. I set up an appt and I pay $40 copay at the specialist a week later.
I go in there with the 1st eye doctor's diagnoses on why I was there and the HMO referral. The asst. takes my old broken glasses and runs thru the some manual eye tests, no machines. First thing the irate specialist Dr. asks me when he comes in is do I have Harlequin disease? Never heard that, so I say no. So then he says so you have rosacia? confused by his questions, I say no (well I was out in the sun earlier that day and my nose was a bit sunburned I saw when I got home later). Dr. seems rather irate at my answers. He does a few eye checks on me with his machines.
and then says " so why are you here:". I said my eye dr wanted a 2nd look because she said my prescrip had changed a lot and said I had white steaks and cataracts starting to form -she has her notes on the form. He says no I do not have white streaks (gave the technical name). He loudly says I have a very mild case of astigmatism and no change in the old prescrip. We fixed your old glasses, you do not need new ones. you can even buy the reader glasses sold at most drug stores. Cataracts are starting to form but that is not unusual - you can get cataracts at any age.
Now this 2nd Dr. was quite cranky to me - he had a full office and i had to wait 45 min to get in for my 4pm "appt." they gave me. He verbally dictated a memo into a recorder in front of me to my referring doctor(the medical one, not the eye dr who sent me) that nothing was wrong and I should come back in 2-3 years to review the cataracts that were forming.
I felt quite foolish. So here I am out $60 for nothing. Was the 1st eye dr trying to get business for her associates? WTF?? So i guess I should not go back to that eyeglass chain ever again...
So when I go back to same eyeglass place this year ($20 copay) , she finds that my prescrip has "changed a lot", and she tells me the "white streaks" in my eyes she told me about last time (I was NOT told about this last time) have increased, and that I was starting to form cararacts and I was rather young for that, so she wants me to go to a specialist for a 2nd opinion and again gravely says "and you have astigmatism". They would not give me new glasses or fix my old ones until I saw the specialist. She gave me a card for a specialist she worked with to see if my HMO would send me there. So I go bacK to my medical Dr. for a referral for my HMO and they send me to another eye specialist. I set up an appt and I pay $40 copay at the specialist a week later.
I go in there with the 1st eye doctor's diagnoses on why I was there and the HMO referral. The asst. takes my old broken glasses and runs thru the some manual eye tests, no machines. First thing the irate specialist Dr. asks me when he comes in is do I have Harlequin disease? Never heard that, so I say no. So then he says so you have rosacia? confused by his questions, I say no (well I was out in the sun earlier that day and my nose was a bit sunburned I saw when I got home later). Dr. seems rather irate at my answers. He does a few eye checks on me with his machines.
and then says " so why are you here:". I said my eye dr wanted a 2nd look because she said my prescrip had changed a lot and said I had white steaks and cataracts starting to form -she has her notes on the form. He says no I do not have white streaks (gave the technical name). He loudly says I have a very mild case of astigmatism and no change in the old prescrip. We fixed your old glasses, you do not need new ones. you can even buy the reader glasses sold at most drug stores. Cataracts are starting to form but that is not unusual - you can get cataracts at any age.
Now this 2nd Dr. was quite cranky to me - he had a full office and i had to wait 45 min to get in for my 4pm "appt." they gave me. He verbally dictated a memo into a recorder in front of me to my referring doctor(the medical one, not the eye dr who sent me) that nothing was wrong and I should come back in 2-3 years to review the cataracts that were forming.
I felt quite foolish. So here I am out $60 for nothing. Was the 1st eye dr trying to get business for her associates? WTF?? So i guess I should not go back to that eyeglass chain ever again...