Pick-A-Day

June 2007
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

Gnashing and Wailing…

Yeah, so I went to the dentist and the optometrist today—and I’m happy to report that all went as well as it could have gone.

My time at the dentist’s office went very quickly: I was in and out of the office in about 35 minutes, at the most. The part of the procedure I hate the most (and why I take Valium) was, as usual, not as bad as I expected: the shot of novacaine went in with minimal actual pain, despite the larger build-up in my mind. My dentist actually warned me of impending pain that the novacaine might not actually dull, but I never noticed a thing. It was, after the shot, truly painless.

After the torture in the chair, I went over to the IU Eye Clinic where a fantastic woman checked my eyes—now if I am a bad patient when getting my teeth filled, I am a horrible patient when it comes to getting my eyes examined. The eye exam took close to two hours—probably it would have gone faster at a certified optometrist’s office, but with the student hard at work, the exam was through. Amusingly they didn’t even try to do the Glaucoma test that involves touching the blue-light on your eye-ball. I detest that test and when I am relaxed enough to give it a reasonable go, I involuntarily flinch at the critical moment; and when I am tense, it’s essentially impossible to get me to sit still in the chair with my head in the grips of medieval-esque-looking device.

I actually prefer the air-puff test that everybody else complains about—although this time I had a new machine where the puff of air came from something much closer to my eye than in an old machine.

Trips to the Optometry School are always a lot of fun, especially since one of my favorite doctors is there and because my eyes are always of interest to the students: I have Axenfeld’s Anomaly—a congenital condition that may eventually cause glaucoma. Apparently it is also rather pretty to look at and two additional students took turns looking at my eyes. The Anomaly is also associated with mental retardation (which might explain a lot).

The worst part of my time with the Optometrist was getting the drops in my eyes—the ones that dilate the pupils.

I really am a wimp.

The drops stung a little, and whilst we were waiting for the drops to take effect, we wandered into the frame store and I picked out a set of incredibly lightweight and flexible frames. And I paid through the nose for them—however I figure it is an investment. It’s been four or five years since I last bought frames (one I ended up not really liking), and a even longer since I bought the frames that I use in my day-to-day wear. The day-to-day frames are really showing their age: the screws keep coming loose amongst other faults.

My new glasses should be ready within a week—I’m hoping by Friday, since Friday I am off on an adventure of a lifetime. The genesis of this trip goes a long way back.

More on the mini-vacation trip later.

1 comment to Gnashing and Wailing…