Tag: medical Page 2 of 4

I’ve known for quite some time that I really need to go and get an eye exam. For one thing, the last time I had one was eight years ago, and that’s far too long for someone who actually wears corrective lenses. For another thing, i was finding that I couldn’t read the small text on the TiVo screen from the couch, which is only 6-8 feet away. So when one of the nose pads fell off my glasses Friday morning, I took that as a sign from the universe to stop procrastinating, and made a call down to the LensCrafters at North Point Mall, since that’s where I get a discount through my insurance.

They said they could see me pretty much anytime, and I made an appointment for 6pm, so I could go down after work and not need to try and rush it all on my lunch hour. Showed up and filled out the paperwork, and then was shown back into a room for some baseline tests, including the dreaded puff-of-air-in-the-eye glaucoma test, which I’ve detested since I was a child.

The optometrist turned out to be a very pleasant woman who checked the prescription on my old lenses, and then went through the whole “Is this one better, or this one” routine to determine what the new prescription should be. Once that was complete, I went for another test with an amazing new piece of technology they’ve gotten in since the last time I was in, a machine which took photographs of the inside of the eye! It was really cool, even if it took a while to get good shots. (I wasn’t complaining — the tech running the test was super-cute. *grin*). The amazingly cool thing about this machine is a) it means they don’t have to dilate the pupils in order to see all the things in the back of the eye they want to see, and b) they can save the images to use as a baseline for comparison from year to year, making it much easier to notice deterioration or damage. I thought this was exceptionally nifty and well worth the extra $30 or so it added to the bill. Once the images were taken, I went back in with the optometrist who explained the images to me, and said that everything looks very healthy.

Once I had a new prescription in hand, I wandered next door to the LensCrafters to pick out some new frames. I dithered a while over these or those before finally settling on a pair that I like. (I notice that big chunky frames are back in fashion again, but somehow they’re just not my style at all). I was told they could actually have them ready for me in an hour to 90 minutes, so I called kitanzi to meet me for dinner, rather than have to go home and come back. We were somewhat bemused to discover, once she’d arrived, that nearly all of the non-Food Court restaurants have closed in North Point Mall. Mick’s is gone, Atlanta Bread Company is gone…it was sad. We ended up at the little Japanese grill in the food court, for lack of better options. We then wandered down the mall, stopping briefly in the Mac Store because I like lusting after the laptops and the ipods. We finally made our way back to LensCrafters, where my glasses were waiting for me.

Wow. I actually did a double-take when I put them on. I knew that my old lenses were no longer correct, but I hadn’t realized how badly and how much I was just compensating for. I walked all the way through the mall back to my car just marveling at how much better the world looks when its in focus. (Note to self: Once a year. Stop being so lazy and get these things done.)

Left work again at 2 to try once again to see a doctor about my ear. This time, things went fairly smoothly. Ended up seeing the same ENT’s office that I saw for my ear infections last summer, but I still had to fill out all the paperwork again.

Once I finally got seen, the nice doctor was able to flush out the obstruction and I can HEAR again! yay. Being half-deaf was very alarming, and not something I really want to go through again soon.

I also got to talk to the doctor about my ongoing sinus problems, and he’s agreed to see if we can make an impact on them. I have a prescription for a nasal steroid and an appointment to see him again in a month. Going back to square one with a new doctor gives me some hope that maybe this time we’ll make some progress.

We’ll see. Meanwhile, I feel much better now that my ears are empty and unblocked. Especially since the post brought me new CDs to listen to. I now have a replacement copy for the soundtrack from Spinal Tap, the soundtrack from Avenue Q, and Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue Volume II.

Those last two I’d been looking forward to for a long time. If you haven’t heard the story, basically, they took a bunch of unrecorded Woodie Guthrie lyrics that had been found among the late folksinger’s papers and effects, set them to music, and recorded them. Some really nice stuff on the first one, so far.

When they decided to refer to me an ENT yesterday, they chose the specific doctor to refer me to based on the fact that it was an office I’d been a patient of in the past. This would be easier for everyone, since I already knew them, they already knew me, I would be in their system, and so forth. This made a lot of sense, even if it meant having to drive down to Sandy Springs rather than finding an ENT who was actually in Alpharetta.

So this morning, I drove down to the Mount Vernon Medical Centre…a familiar drive, since I went to see this particular doctor every 2-4 weeks for over six months. I parked, took the elevator to the third floor, walked around to the corner office….and they weren’t there. It was another doctor’s office.

Hrm, says I. Oh well, maybe I misremembered the floor. So I tried again on the fourth floor, the fifth, the second. Having worked my way back to the lobby, I consult the directory, and discover the reason I cannot find them.

They aren’t there. They’ve moved out of the building.

Admittedly, it’s been a year almost since the last time I was here. Checking the referral form, I find no address, but a phone number. So I call it.

Amazingly, in 2004, you cannot actually speak to a human being at a doctor’s office. Not knowing which of their several locations I wanted to get directions to from the voicemail menu, I tried to connect to their appointment line. And waited on hold. For 20 minutes. All the while being assured that there was “one call in front” of me.

Giving up, I called my primary physician’s referral coordinator and left her a message, and then drove to his office, where I sat in the lobby until she was free to see me. To her credit, she’s always been extra-special-wonderful, and managed to get me a new appointment for 2:30 pm IN Alpharetta, at a location that I actually know the address of. So life is better than it was.

But what a frustrating, and ultimately wasted, morning.

Spent a large part of today sitting in a waiting room for a doctor to take a look at my right ear, which has been stopped up since Saturday. Despite arriving 20 minutes early for my 11:30 appointment, I didn’t actually get seen by the doctor until around 1pm. After looking, he decided that I really needed to see an ENT to get the blockage scoped out. No one they could contact to refer me to had an appointment earlier than tomorrow morning, so I’m still effectively deaf in one ear. This isn’t painful, but it is somewhat disconcerting. As a musician and music lover, the thought of losing my hearing is one of the more terrifying ailments I can imagine. I imagine that a good irrigation will leave me just fine, but until then it’s strange and I don’t like it.

I must remember to take my own book tomorrow. The elderly magazine selection (According to Newsweek, there was a break-in at the Watergate building. Someone should look into that!) was barely adequate to keep me interested for a 90 minute waiting room stay.

Truth is, I just don’t like going to see doctors. I don’t actually dislike doctors. Heck, I have good friends who are doctors, but I prefer to limit my exposure to them to social occasions, and not spend much time with them in their professional capacity. I think a lot of this is a result of the continuing failure after three years to solve my sinus troubles. Nonetheless, I’ll be glad to get this done with and go back to my reasonably healthy life.