Going to the eye doctor today. I always find vision exams a tad stressful. Is THIS better than THAT? I DUNNO! THEY LOK THE SAME! I think a part of it is from when I was a student, and was always good at tests. A part of me thinks there ought to be a RIGHT answer.
Another part is, I don’t know if I’ve ever had perfect glasses with glasses or contacts. WOre glasses since 4th grade, now in bifocals. I play golf, and guys always can say things like, “The ball is on the green,” and I have no chance of seeing it until I get much closer. So after 5 decades, I’ve just kinda gotten used to not having perfect vision, so long as I see “good enough.”
I’ve had several different optometrists over the years. Never been thrilled with the results.
I have borderline glaucoma, and baby cataracts, so I don’t enjoy going to the ophthalmologist. Before each visit, I always have to steel myself to hear bad news, like he’s going to recommend surgery. But so far, as long as I take medication, the glaucoma numbers are kept down, and the cataracts are still baby.
The assistant always tests my vision on the chart at the beginning of the visit, and though my long-distance vision has always been good, lately it seems like it’s more of a strain to see the smallest version of the letters. I have to remember not to take eye-wetting drops in the waiting room before I go in to the exam room; they make my vision a bit blurry for awhile and therefore even harder to see the letters.
Yeah - that never bothered me a bit. Always sorta seems weird that they make a big deal out of warning about what is - to me - nothing.
A couple of exams ago, the optom gave me the card to test my reading vision. I held the card in my lap and read it, and he said, “That’s not how you read!” WTF? I’ve been reading WRONG for 60 years!
I also seem to have a mental block about understanding some aspects of vision correction. The last time my vision had changed slightly, but he wasn’t changing my prescription - something about 1 measure changed one way and the other changed the other. He explained it and I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand it. Can you explain it again?” So he basically said the same thing, but slower - like I’m stupid.
My wife came in after me to help me pick out glasses. (She has stronger opinions than me over how frames should look. To me, they all lok like me wearing glasses.) I asked the doctor to explain the prescription to her. After he did, I asked her if she understood what he was saying, and she said, “Nope!”
I’d look for a different optom, but like I said, I’ve never really had what I’d consider a GREAT experience w/ and optom.
Mildly stressful? Highly stressful for me. The drivers license eye test is absolute torture for me due to my nystagmus. For the last couple of decades I have to go the the optometrist before the license test because I know I will fail the eye exam. I then pull out the prescription from the optometrist to get my license renewed.
I went to the ophthalmologist just last month. The tech kept going back and forth between lenses and seemed confused I kept picking one instead of the other. “You’re sure that looks better?” over and over again. I walked out not even needing a new prescription. The actual doctor tried to sell me on laser-eye surgery and that’s pretty much all he had to say to me. I passed on the surgery. Come back in 6 months!
Re the post about cataract operations: it really isn’t as bad as you might fear. They have all the distraction techniques to get over the icky idea of something sharp near your eyeballs, and IME - I’ve had dentistry that was far more uncomfortable.
As for stress in routine eye exams, the one that gets me is where you have to click a thing if you see a light flashing anywhere (and you only get a second or so) at random across your field of view.
As a kid, the first time I had that test, I either wasn’t warned or had no idea how sudden and emphatic a “puff” of air into my eye would be, because I must’ve jumped back about four feet in my seat. I was shaking as I pulled myself up for round two in the other eye. (These days, it doesn’t bother me, as I know what to expect.)
The “which is better” doesn’t bug me. I would assume most people get to a part of that test where they can’t tell if #1 or #2 is better, and I’m sure the eye doctor is used to this, plus “about the same” is also an acceptable answer, so no biggie. Back when I was younger and my vision was even better and I had to constantly judge critical sharpness while working by manually focusing camera lenses, there would always come a point where there is no apparent difference to me between choice 1 and choice 2.
The only mildly stressful part is telling them I am not interested in their eye glasses and would just like to get my prescription printed out and pay.
It’s probably been 2 decades since I’ve had an eye-puff, but they never bothered me. With the modern machines they put numbing eyedrops in your eyes, then poke your cornea with a blunt stick to see how springy it is or isn’t. That’s much easier; really it is.
Yes, figuring out which of example “A” or “B” is better is challenging towards the end of the refinement process; often they’re more different than better/worse. My POV is that once they’re different but functionally indistinguishable, there’s no wrong answer; that exam question is a freebie. Yaay!
For some reason, even just talking about eyes can make mine water and blink. It’s been like that since I was a kid. I do not know or understand why.
The test where they photograph the back of your eye is nearly impossible for me. Focus on the light, don’t blink, easy enough? I can barely do it. My eyes are watering and beyond blinking they want to close hard.
Sometimes they’ll tell me to relax, and they can take it slow. It’s usually not worth explaining that I’m perfectly relaxed, I’m not nervous at all, and mentally I have no fear of what is happening, my eyes are just not behaving the way I want. As for slow, I have to tell the tech not to count down or anything, if I’m lined up just take the picture.
My 10 year old got her first real eye exam a couple weeks ago, and I was so impressed. They sat down in front of the machine, and got both eyes done perfectly in about 30 seconds.
6 months, for healthy eyes? Or did they find something wrong?
I used to be told every couple of years; since the diabetes diagnosis I’m supposed to have an exam every year.
And yes, they’re stressful. First of all, they have to somehow get drops in my eyes. Both my physical blink reflexes and the back of my head strongly object to anything going into my eyes. They also object to the air puff, or the momentary contact with whatever it is, despite the drops. And for several hours after the drops I can’t see a damn thing clearly; so I have to find somebody to drive me. And I also worry that they’ll find something requiring yet more things to be done to my eyes, and/or more doctors’ appointments, of which I already have more than I want.
And yeah, I have trouble telling which one is clearer.
I’ve had that one maybe twice. Otherwise it’s still air puffing. Which is terrible for me, I super-anticipate, my eyelids slam shut, and they sort of have to sneak up on my eyes.
Most recently, I noticed distortion in the upper right quadrant of my right eye. Went to the eye doc, who diagnosed a “macular hole” and is sending me to a retina specialist. By coincidence, today is the appointment day for that. So… yes, a little concerned.
My very first real eye exam when I was maybe 18 or 19 was sort of like that. I’d always been able to immediately read the bottom of the eye chart, so had no experience with an “eye doctor.”
He started with the lens thing, and just starts going “one or two, one or two,” and I had no idea what that meant. Instead of going slower, he just went louder, “One! or Two!”
I wear contacts, have since maybe age 30, and although the idea of poking my fingers in my eyes was real aversive the first few times I did it, after that it’s a total non-event. I recall a tech putting drops in there once commenting on her own “you can always tell who wears contacts and who doesn’t. They’re the ones not fighting the drops.”
Just the other day I was having dinner with a physician, a GP. She’s just getting old enough that reading glasses are coming up. I mentioned contacts and she said that was a hard “no”. No way in hell can she poke fingers or anything else in her eyes. She really doesn’t like opto visits; not at all.
Yeah, not too bad an experience (except for coping with the effects of pupil dilation for several hours afterwards, grrr), but a bit tense. Not looking forward to the (statistically pretty inevitable) annoying bad news about my eyes some day.
Also, I have good textual memory so I can remember combinations of letters on the eye chart pretty easily, so it adds to the stress when I can’t quite tell if I’m actually seeing the letters clearly enough to read them, or just remembering what I saw with the other eye or the previous lens option.
Had my first retinal-specialist checkup last week, yay to check out a “retinal freckle”. Did you know you can get melanoma in your eyes?? Me neither, but apparently they want to watch your retina blemishes just like skin blemishes, for possible malignant changes. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be problematic, but from now on gotta go back to the retinal specialist every year so they can keep observing it. Sigh.
Yeah, I’m another one of those highly myopic middle-agers who is now being surveilled for possible forthcoming glaucoma, cataract, AND retinal-detachment issues, as well as the retinal freckle thing.
Depends on what they’re monitoring. If your eyes currently seem to be undergoing some changes, like size or shape of cataracts, or that retinal freckle business, or eye pressure levels etc., then even if they don’t think you currently need treatment they’ll want to check it out again before next year.
Family history of glaucoma. Both siblings and father have it. Doc said he didn’t detect any pressure, but I’m the youngest so it just may not be presenting yet.
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was a teenager, so for many decades (don’t ask, sigh), and the whole process doesn’t bother me. What I do find annoying is having my pupils staying dilated for hours after the visit. It makes it harder to read, and I’m a proofreader. Also, sunglasses are vital while outside till the atropine wears off. I’ve found those fitover sunglasses are great, since I can wear my regular glasses under them and they have side panels so my eyes are protected against light from the side.
What is stressful for me is getting the wrong prescription. I feel like my ophthalmologist’s office tends to rush through this part, interspersed as it is with all of the other checks for general eye health. They do the refraction in three steps: with some type of automatic device (which has you look at an image of a house in the distance which never comes into focus), then the assistant goes though a manual operation asking if option 1 or 2 looks better (and inevitably they look nearly identical but neither is great so I’m trying to pick the least bad option), then they give me eye drops to dilate my eyes (which seems like it would mess things up since I don’t normally go through life with dilated eyes), and then the ophthalmologist comes in and repeats the manual check but more perfunctorily.
A couple of years ago, during the pandemic, I got a new eyeglass prescription and proceeded to fill a script for prescription computer glasses, everyday glasses, and sunglasses. I knew right away that something was off but thought I just needed to get used to the new prescription. It took me about six months to realize that my left eye was clearly off and that I had been compensating with my right eye. So I had to get a new exam and new glasses much earlier than I typically do, which was a very expensive mistake—and because I waited too long, it was all on me.
So now I’m always stressed out making sure the ophthalmologist’s office gets my prescription right.
to check out a “retinal freckle”. Did you know you can get melanoma in your eyes?? Me neither, but apparently they want to watch your retina blemishes just like skin blemishes, for possible malignant changes. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be problematic, but from now on gotta go back to the retinal specialist every year so they can keep observing it. Sigh.