I've been wearing contact lenses for 22 years, give or take. I have only worn glasses as a back up. I hate the things. But hey, everything has its purpose and now with Lily, since I try to nap when she does, glasses are easier than contacts to manage. So anyway, as back ups, I never kept my glasses to prescription as much as I should have but now that I've started wearing them a lot more I thought I should go in to have them and my eyes checked. After all, it's not funny when everything's getting blurry.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right?
Wrong.
It took eight visits. EIGHT. And nearly a month.
One visit for the eye test and choosing the frames. Wasn't planning on changing frames but apparently mine are outdated and they don't cut lenses oval like that anymore... which works for me as the perfect excuse, I always wanted to try out those Easy-Clip thingies.
One visit to pick 'em up.
One visit to ask what's up. Right eye isn't as clear or sharp as the left. It's annoying and if I'm paying near $500 for new glasses, they better be right, right? So another check with the optometrist. Well, it appears the wrong prescription was given the first time around. Astigmatism wasn't accounted for. Fair enough. One mistake, it happens and with contacts that's one condition I never had to worry about. This time done by P.
I can't leave the glasses then as I don't have anything else to wear and I'm driving and I've got Lily with me, etc. I hadn't planned on having to leave them there, I was more stopping to inquire. Silly me.
So, another visit to take them in and leave them there so they can fix the whole farce.
One more visit to pick them up, with the new right lens in. Putting them on right then and there, I notice it's wrong again. (!!!) See P the opto again and he notices the frames don't contain the right lens... someone never changed it. I'm still looking through the old (new) one. ::rolls eyes:: Literally.
Excuses, assurances and embarrassed smiles. They send me off, promising me to get it right next time.
So, another visit to pick the glasses up. We're now on visit number six, over three weeks later (from initial visit). Well, guess what. I walk in there, it's a Saturday, it's late afternoon, they made me drop whatever I was doing at home to run there before closing time and I walk in there and they ask me where are my frames... puzzled, dumbfounded, I just stare at the woman. But you have my frames. You just called me to let me know it had all arrived, frames and lens, from the lab and was ready for me to pick up. But they don't have them there... they just have the one lens, the one they had to change and forgot or whatever it was that happened... they don't have the frames and they don't know where they are. So I drove all the way there for nothing, even though they supposedly double-checked that all was fine before calling me.
I must admit that while I sat there while they were running around trying to find their brains from their anus I kinda lost my top. I mean what kind of ship are they running?
Fuming I go back home and don't hear from them 'til the Wednesday. It apparently is all there now and awaiting collection. Right.
Visit number seven, nearly four weeks later in all. I show up there, to pick them up. They sweet-talked me into accepting that one lens for free, that they will reimbursed my credit card. Cool, get on with it. (Have I mentioned that each time I have to show up there I'm handled by a different person to whom I have to explain the whole goddamned story?)
So anyway, you'd think it ends here, right?
Wrong.
It's all wrong. In fact, it feels like the right lens is even worse. (???) Well, tough, they can't do anything as the optometrist side of the shop is closed. They send me home with the crap glasses and tell me to try them in the morning when my eyes are rested. If by 11am it's still a blur, to call them back and this time they'll get me in to see the head honcho.
F-ing great. Because with a six-month old baby, that's all I have to do all day.
Visit number EIGHT. Head honcho opto called B. My eye has apparently got worse than the last time P had a look at it. Look, I might be a bit idiotic at times but myopia I've lived with for a while and it doesn't change that dramatically that quickly! I can have the same prescription in my lenses for at least two years without having to update it. I know pregnancy can precipitate a few things and I figured that accounted for my left eye going to shit so much but for my right eye to get all blurry like that overnight? I don't think so.
And luckily B doesn't think so either. So she flips my eyelids and has a look... oh, god, she says. Oh, nasty, she adds. Well, wtf? I ask.
Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis. Repeat it with me five times and then try again after a few shots of tequila.
It's an allergic reaction, a common condition caused by contact lens wear yet I have never been warned about it. And funnily enough, J, who saw me first, knowing that I was a contact lens wearer and hadn't had a check up in two years, never thought to check for it. Basically, the inside of your eyelids get all grainy like, little bubbles that press against your cornea and changes the shape of your eye. So much so that it affects your vision and how it is corrected. In my case, in the month they took to find this out, it got from 20/20 vision corrected to "uncorrectable" in my right eye.
Really quickly, B picked up the phone and slotted me in with a mate ophthalmologist of hers that very same day. It's the kind of condition that if left to deteriorate to a certain point, that misshaping that is happening is irreversible.
So, go to see M, the ophthal. Dry eyes? Yes. Itchy eyes? Yes. Do you rub them often? Mostly at night. Like in a rage, maybe a few times a week. Well, have you ever heard the expression if you rub 'em any more you'll go blind? Yes, I say. Well, that's true, in your case.
Far out.
Go back a month, though all the mistakes with the frames and lens are annoying but not directly connected to the condition, if J had done her job right to start with, I wouldn't be seeing a blur and having to drop my eyes with cortisone four times a day, not knowing if and when it will ever get better.
OPSM, in Australia, is a company offering combined optician/optometrist services. Look 'em up. NOT.
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