The Eyes Have it . . .

We drove 50 some odd miles to Grapevine, TX for my eye appointment.  We waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes and then I was called by the eye technician.   Nice young lady and was ushered into the room with the Goldman test apparatus.  I asked what that was for and she said it was an annual test for me.

I said, "Excuse me, I am here only 30 days from my last appointment and this was not an annual requirement that I know of."

She said, "My records showed it was due.  That as a candidate for Glaucoma you get this test annually."

I said, "I was here for a 30 day follow up not any testing for Glaucoma."

We then had a long discussion and it seems the Optometrist is off on a wild goose chase because I have high pressures in my eyes.  That is referred to as "Ocular Hypertension"  and can lead to Glaucoma.  However, my mother had the same problem for years as I do and died at 78 without any Glaucoma developing.

I said I have previously been diagnosed by this office as having high eye pressure as a normal occurrence.  The staff had rolled over and the relatively new Optometrist wanted me to have all this rigormaroll all over again.  I requested that I see the primary, Dr. Labor, an Ophthalmologist, and MD.  She said the doctor only dealt with surgery cases now days.  She could get me another Optometrist and I said no, that was the issue.

I had even been to a Retina Specialist, another Ophthalmologist some five years back.  He proclaimed at the end of the examination I had 20% chance of having a detached Retina in five years.  Five years have passed and no detached Retina, indeed not Retina problems.

So we stopped all activity and I walked out of the office.  She later chased me down in the parking lot and gave me the name of the records person so that my charts could be transferred.  I thanked her.  Like I said, she was a nice technician.

We will seek out an Ophthalmologist locally as recommended by our local physician.  And I will write a letter to our former Ophthalmologist, Dr. Kirk Labor explaining why I am leaving his service.

The problem being I went through all this testing and the former Optometrist on Dr. Labor's staff concluded that my Ocular Hypertension was normal for me.  It was readily apparent the current Optometrist had not read my past charts and if he did, he did not agree with them.  We have a term in the  USAF called "Heads up and locked."  It means a fighter pilot is not watching behind him, around him in all directions.   That is he is locked in on something and is not doing due diligence.  That gets you killed in the USAF.  It gets you more appointments from this person and I was not having it.

The thing is it has become readily apparent that as patients with solid insurance (Medicare and TRICARE for Life) we are golden in paying for services.  So they find more and more reasons to see us often when it is not really needed or required.  Judie has 14 different doctors now, I have three and the third one, the eye doctor,  has shuffled us off to his minions.

I think the young lady, the technician, got the drift of what was going on.  She was nice too.  She offered to get another Optometrist but that is the issue.  I wanted to see an Ophthalmologist, not another eye mechanic who is trained to sell glasses.

We drove home, a hundred mile round trip that was a total waste.