Trips to the optician are usually quite an entertaining experience. My eye condition isn’t very common, so the optician usually likes to have a good nose around, do a few extra tests and get all the students to come and have a good look around my diseased optic nerves.
I’d recently moved to a new city and around the same time, became quickly aware that my prescription happened to have changed. I made an appointment at my new, local opticians.
It was part of quite a well-known chain but I’d never had an experience with them before, so I quickly informed the, I assume qualified, optician of my visual impairment before she got a fun surprise when she began the tests.
She quickly brushed off my eye condition, telling me it wasn’t that big a deal and began the eye exam. I found this odd, but decided that she would probably realise the extent of my impairment as she moved through the examination. Besides, this was unlikely to affect the outcome of my new prescription anyway.
I dutifully read the snellen wall chart. I prepared for her to examine the back of my eye. I anticipated her shock when she saw the pale and lumpy bumpy surface of my optic nerve… But, no. She made no particular comment and quickly moved on to write out my prescription.
I thought for sure that she would send me for a visual field test - which is pretty standard procedure these days and takes forever on me because I can’t see most of the test - but she didn’t. Fair enough. Would’ve been a waste of my time anyway.
I stood to leave and attempted to centre myself in the doorway (surprisingly difficult). Unfortunately, I was minorly unsuccessful and the right side of my body collided loudly with the doorframe. Awkward.
The optician, however, did not see the funny side. She responded quite abruptly. “There is very little wrong with your eyesight. You’re lucky to be able to see so well. Clumsiness isn’t the same as blindness.”
Needless to say I walked straight out of Specsavers and went to Boots instead.
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