APPARENTLY, I'M SCREWED

The visit to the eye specialist and surgeon who did my cataract surgery was not satisfactory at all.  In fact, the worst customer service ever.

The surgeon was over an HOUR late in seeing me.  The front desk told me she was running 20-30 minutes behind.  My WLLO driver lives close so she went home to rake leaves.  After waiting and then waiting even more in the little office, I texted her that I would just take an Uber home.  Fortunately, she insisted she wanted to retrieve me to escape leaf duty.

The vision in my "new" eye is 20/50 (actually, I think it is worse than that).  The technician who checked my vision started with the excuses before the Dr even came in.  It's not an exact science, not everyone gets 20/20 vision, yada yada yada.  My high school buddy's husband just had two cataracts removed and he has 20/20.  My driver's friend just had hers done and SHE has 15/20 in one eye and 20/20 in the other.  Finally the Dr came in.  First off, she said 20/50 is "not that bad" and it qualifies to be "drivable" vision per the Department of Motor Vehicles.  I explained there is no way on earth I could drive safely with that vision.  And I didn't think she would drive with that poor of vision either.

Then she said well, you do have astigmatism.  Yes, less than 1 diopter I told her.  I asked her months ago when I was deciding which kind of lens to have implanted and she said no need for a toric lens.  I reminded her of that conversation and reiterated that what I asked for was long distance vision so I could drive safely without specs.

Her next topic was "it's not an exact science" in choosing the lens.  Honestly?  I think she chose the wrong lens.  But she would not admit it.  So, I asked how do we fix this?  She "could" remove the lens and insert a different strength.  She "could" do laser surgery to correct the vision.  She "could" insert a stronger lens in the other eye.  But wearing glasses for driving is the only affordable option for me.  ALL of her "coulds" would be out of pocket procedures ... thousands of dollars.

Fortunately, my driver is a retired doctor!  She reaffirmed my thinking that the surgeon just made a mistake in choosing the lens.  She should have just fessed up.  Offered her time for free to fix it.

The good news is my eye is fine and healthy.  I have asked my Dr for a referral and my driver doctor gave me a referral.  And I'll Google my eyes out researching.

A simple apology would go a long way.