The wonderful wizard of eyes

Yeah, I'm cool like that.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about making an appointment with the ophthalmologist.  Yesterday was the day, and the day went surprisingly well.

Making the walk from my house to the office was easy – it took about 10 minutes.  It was also kind of cloudy.  This is good, I thought.  It’ll make my walk home that much easier.  I brought my laptop with me to pass the time.

The initial formalities were pretty standard.  I meet with the receptionist, reciting my name, address, phone number, birth date, and so on – deliberately spelling every word and repeating every number so there are no mistakes – then taking a clipboard of paperwork to fill out with the exact same information, as well as medical history, allergies, and HIPAA garbage.  I wrote my wife’s name and phone number three times (under “spouse”, “insurance guarantor”, and “emergency contact”), disclosed my diabetes and underactive thyroid, and stated my allergy to penicillin.

Then I sat down in the waiting room and opened my laptop to check my favorite D-blogs (thank you Optimum WiFi).  Without much of a wait, the doctor called me in.   She was pleasant and soft-spoken, and seemed to understand diabetes rather well.  Understanding the new computer system, though, was a bit challenging for her.  A few rumbles of thunder came from outside.  Uh oh, my walk home might not be much fun.  Then I got the drops and went back to the waiting room.

Back to the waiting room, I peered between the closed blinds to see the rain pouring down, then I sat to begin preparing tomorrow’s blog post, first zoomed in at 150%, then 175%, then 200%, until being called back in.  Since I discovered free WiFi there, I decided I could hang around until the rain stopped, as long as I could still see the screen,

But when I was called back in, and the good doctor looked in my left eye, she saw no signs of diabetes at all.  Not whatsoever.  NONE.  I do have a rather large optic nerve, though.  Apparently that can lead to glaucoma, but has nothing to do with diabetes.  It’s just the way it is; I was born this way.  On my right eye, she saw one little spot that she described as “tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny”, but certainly not a concern.  Overall, it seems I’m getting a good report, which she’ll send on to my endo.  I’m happy.

This is better than anything that any other doctor has reported after looking into my eyes.  So either I’m doing really well, or she’s just not looking hard enough.   (In her defense, I also had the chance to look at a photo of the back of my eyeballs on the computer screen, and I didn’t see anything either – with my dilated-eye super-blurry vision).

We then bid each other adieu, I promised to return next year, and I prepared for my easy walk home in what had now become a drizzle.  But before leaving, I was given a lovely parting gift.  You can see that at the top of this post.