Last Update: 12/10/2000

11/24/2000:  Eye Exam

It’s the day after Thanksgiving.  I have the day off.  What to do, what to do???  Hey, I know, I’ll try to get an eye exam appointment.  I wonder if I can fake out the Doctor again.  I’ll try to blur my eyes again, and get as strong of a prescription as I can get!  It’s the day after Thanksgiving, so I probably can’t get an appointment.  I get the phonebook out and find the number to the Dr. I faked out last time, years ago.  I make the call, expecting to get no answer, or no appointment available.  “Dr. xxxxxx’s office”.  I ask, “Do you have any appointments available today”?  The voice on the phone, to my surprise, asked, “Morning, or afternoon”?  “Uh, uh, uh, this morning will be fine”.  Wow!!!  I have an appointment!!!  I arrive at the Doctor’s office and wait for my appointment.  The receptionist asked, “Have you been here before”?  I replied, “Yes - but it’s been a while”.  She asked me to come back to the exam room.  I took my contacts out.  She asked if I had my glasses with me.  I said “No, I just brought my reading glasses for my contacts” - which are +2.00.  She said, “That’s okay, I have your information on file”.  She did the puff-of-air thing to check for glaucoma.  Then she pulled up the automatic refractor that tells your prescription auto-magically.  I put my chin on the chin rest and looked through the instrument.  She said, “Look at the image in the distance...”.  So I blurred my eyes as much as possible, like I was reading something 4 inches from my face.  I heard the instrument start focusing, and the image got clearer and clearer.  I had to keep my eyes blurred.  I had to fool this thing!  “Okay, now the other eye” she said.  So I did the same thing with my other eye”.  “Okay, sit back now” she said.  Then she said, “Wow, you have a strong prescription”!  I said, “Yeah, I’m basically blind”.  She then led me into the other examination room and asked me to have a seat.

A few minutes later, the Dr. came in.  But, it was a different Doctor!  I was a little paniced.  Could I fool him, too?  He reviewed my charts then put the eye exam tool in front of my face and turned some knobs.  I looked through the lenses.  I could tell the prescription was already pretty strong.  I had to blur my eyes quite a bit  to focus.  Then he said, “Okay, I know things are blurry, but tell me if you can read anything”.  He was showing the letters in the middle of the eye chart.  So I looked thru the lenses and blurred my eyes as much as possible, and said “I can’t make out anything.”  He said “okay, let’s try this”, and then he turned the knob a couple of times.  With my eyes fully blurred, I could start to make out some letters.  He said, “Can you make out anything now”?  I said, “barely”.  I named off a couple of letters correctly, and a couple I know I got wrong.  So he turned the knobs a 2 clicks more.  With my eyes completely blurred, things were pretty clear, so I read off all the letters on that line.  He then changed the eye chart to a smaller line, and I read it.  He then put it on the smallest line, probably the 20/20 line, and I told him it was a little blurry.  He twisted the knobs again, and said, “What can you read now”?  I read all the letters.  We went thru the same thing with the other eye.  Then he did the examination that checks for prism.  He said, “You are going to see two images now.  Tell me when they come together”.  I thought to myself, should I try to get strong glasses AND prism correction at the same time?  I decided not to.  It would be hard to fake out 2 things at the same time.  So, I gave all the right answers of when the images came together.  No prism this time.  The next step was the near vision test.  He put the little card with various sizes of small to medium print in front of the examination machine.  WOW!  I couldn’t read anything!  Not even the biggest print.  He asked how far down I could read.  I said, “Everything is blurry”.  To his amazement, he said, “You can’t read the top line”?  “No”, I replied.  He turned the knobs a few times.  It was about 6 turns.  He asked, “Is that better”?  I could read the medium-sized print now.  He turned the knobs a few more times.  “And now”?  he asked.  I could finally read the small print, so I rattled off the smallest line on the near vision chart.  He pulled the examination machine away.  He then started asking about my reading glasses I use with my contacts.  I pulled them out of the case and told him it was hard for me to see up real close, even with these reading glasses.  They were +2.00.  He lectured me on wearing them too much.  He said they made my eyes lazy, and unable to focus properly.  He then asked what I did at work.  I said, “a lot of reading, and a lot of computer work”.  He said, “You have a couple of options for your glasses.  You can either go with a tri-focal lens which will let you focus on your computer screen in the middle of the lens, and focus on reading material thru the bottom of the lens.  The other option is a multifocal lens, which will allow you to focus at all distances, but might take a little while to get used too.”  I told him I would like to think about it, and asked if he could write the prescription for both.  Somewhat reluctantly, he said, “Yes”.  The exam was complete.  I had not seen the prescription yet.  I put my contacts back in and went and paid the receptionist.  The experience was worth the $37.  She handed me my prescription.  I decided not to look at it until I got in my car.  I pulled it out of my coat pocket and looked.  I was pleased, to say the least! 

(L) -10.50 x -2.50 x 175

(R) -10.00 x -2.75 x 005

Intermediate Add:  +1.50

Reading Add: +2.75

Multifocal or Trifocal - High Index