Tag Archives: Eye Glasses

I see….no wait, I don’t see……

Brain Injury, Caregivers, Humor, , , , , , , ,

Last week I took my friend, Lisa, to the eye doctor. This is the Scheie Eye Institute, a very prestigious hospital dedicated to eye care.

We’ve been there many times over the last five years. Our last visit was six months ago and now we were back for a follow-up visit. But something was new.

When we arrived at the Institute, as usual, we went to the front desk.  In the past, the front desk checked you in and then you waited to go to an attendant at a numbered station to confirm your insurance, appointment time and any other preliminary questions.

As we approached the front desk on this day, we were told to immediately go over to the standing computer terminals and check ourselves in.

Now the average age of the patients in this rather expansive waiting room seemed to be about 79 years old. I have no doubt that the senior community has many computer savvy members, but not everyone can adjust to any computer that is thrown in front of them.  As one who continues to discover that ‘user friendly’ and ‘intuitive’ are really just adjectives for “get me a 12 year-old over here, stat!”, I was certain that many of these patients were struggling with this new set-up.

Add to that,these computers were at standing stations. I would say at least in an unscientific review of the crowd…. and by that I mean looking at them,  half of the patients were in wheelchairs or using canes or walkers. Standing at a computer terminal would be, at the very least, uncomfortable, at most, impossible.

One more thing.

You may recall this is the Scheie Eye Institute. So……this is a place where people go who are having trouble seeing.  You know, eye patches, eye surgery, eye pain, eye problems.

Based on my knowledge of the scientific method, which I learned from my kids when they had to study fourth grade science, this new system may experience a few glitches.

Hmm. Something's Fishy!
Hmm. Something’s Fishy!

I will say this, Lisa and I were laughing hysterically for hours, even on the way home when we just kept saying but it’s the Scheie Eye Institute!

That’s all it took to make us giggle, ’cause………….

“You Just Have to Laugh…….”

©2016 Cathy Sikorski

I can see clearly now… the pain is gone…..

Caregivers, Humor, Uncategorized, , ,

This is why you have to start taking care of yourself ASAP. And, admit maybe you should just go the old fashioned way.

My friend has always enjoyed perfect vision. As she beautifully progressed into middle age, she admired all those fancy reading glasses her friends were flaunting in hopes of looking fashionable (instead of old), and bought a pair for herself. Voila! She, herself could view ever so much better her books, her Kindle, her tax returns. Okay, she thought, not so bad. These glasses are super cute. Like when we all wanted to sport those sparkly cat’s eye glasses in the 50’s and 60’s because, well, they were just peachy keen, right?

Then she began to notice that looking far away was not all that productive either. Relenting, she went to the optometrist. Lo and behold…she needed glasses. Since her vision declined both near and far, she was encouraged to get bifocals.

“But wait!” she said, “what about contact lenses?”

“Well, of course,” said her doctor, “that’s no problem. You have to come in to be fitted.”

When fitting day arrived, my friend was beaming with happiness that modern technology gave her the opportunity to keep those old lady glasses at bay.

“Here we go!” said the perky technician. “Now, open wide, put one contact lens in each eye. We will let you get used to them for a bit, and then practice a couple of times putting them in and taking them out.”

In and out the contacts went. She was impressed that the contacts felt okay in her eyes with no real discomfort.

“Oh, that’s because they are soft lenses, so easy peasy,” the technician told her. “Let’s just do it one more time and then you’re good to go.”

In they go. Out they do not go. She pinches, she pulls, she tugs at imaginary things in her left eye. Nothing happens.

The lens was still in there. It had to be. Her eyes were watering like Niagara Falls, her fingers were giving her eye a proctology exam. She poked and prodded around desperately seeking a foreign object. Her eye was really hurting now and no lens appeared on her finger.

“Oh my!” said the tech as she leaped out of her chair to get the doctor.

“Well,” the doctor said, “I must say we’ve never had this before.”

He gazed at her eye in the special machine.

“Oh, oh my, oh that can’t be good,” said the doctor.

“What? what?” said my friend, mildly in a panic, okay probably not so mildly.

“Well, it looks like you broke the lens into three pieces in your eye. So we’re going to have to numb your eye and flip your eyelid so we can fish those pieces out of there.”

Yea…………

Her new bifocals are really quite fashion forward.

“You just have to Laugh….”

Cathy Sikorski