I'm glad I was sitting down

Of all the different medical professional people I have to see I will say that the eye doctor is one of my least favourites.  I've ALWAYS hated going to the eye doctor, well, almost always.

It all stems back to my freshman year high school.  One day during PE we were inside playing soccer.  I didn't run real well so no one wanted me on their team out on the 'field', so I usually ended up as the goalie.  There is nothing wrong with goalie, until someone from the other team doesn't like you (I don't know why.. it was high school after all so it could have been any reason.)  The ball came into the goal area, but not hard enough to actually score.  So, as the goalie, I did my part and bent down to pick up the ball to throw it back in the game.  That's when it happened.  The girl on the other team came up to the ball and kicked as hard as she could.  My face was on the other side of that ball.  It hurt.  A lot. 

I was taken to the eye doctor to see if there had been any damage done.  I had so many tests ran, images done, things stuck to my eye, etc.  I was NOT a happy camper.  Thankfully there was no damage but I wasn't off scott free.  The pressure in my eye was rather elevated because of the swelling.  Think glaucoma levels of pressure.  For the next year, I had to go back every few months to have it checked.  Each time I went the pressure was tested, and the back of my eye looked at.  My eyes were dilated, numbed, and had a something stuck to it so the doctor could see inside it.  The thing that was stuck to my eye reminded me of a small jewelers microscope.  Even though I couldn't feel it, I didn't like it. 

At the end of the year, the pressure in my eye had finally gone down enough to be in normal range.  Whew!!  The lasting effect was my hatred of the eye doctor.

Fast forward to yesterday.  My annual eye exam was once again on my calendar.  I knew the dilation would last 8+ hours so I scheduled the appointment as late in the day as possible.  (I really should think about moving it to the winter time, the sun sets earlier.)  My doctor is a great doctor and very competent.  He just needs to work on his sense of humour.  In fact, everyone in his office does, in my opinion.  Everyone is pleasant enough.  It's just that they are so serious and are rarely smiling or laughing. 

At my last year's eye appointment my A1C had been up from the previous year.  Dr. Eye wasn't pleased and said, "You need to work on that.  We don't want complications."  Duh!!  I wanted to throw something at him.  This year, my A1C was lower (and below 7.0 *woohoo*) and I was wondering if he would comment on it.  He did... with a smile.  I'm glad I was sitting down.  In fact, he was rather pleasant.  He smiled and was more chatty than normal.  He even chuckled at some funny response I had made to one of his questions. 

As his assistance was walking me back to the front after the exam, she commented that I was his favourite patient of the day.  Evidently, he'd been having a really rough day up to that point.  I don't know what made it rough.  Maybe he'd seen nothing but complications all day.  Maybe he'd been griped at by just about everyone.  Maybe the equipment had been giving him fits.  Who knows.  All I know is that he smiled and laughed during my visit, and I hope that the rest of his day went better.

Don't we ALL feel better after a good smile and a laugh?

{To answer your question, my exam came back with a clean bill of health.  No complications, or even signs of possible issues.}