Risk blindness, or COVID
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 00:37 last edited by
That's the situation I'm in. I need to get my eyes checked at least once a year, but the docs have me on a 7-month schedule for testing. I was supposed to go in early May, but didn't. So, I'm going in tomorrow.
The clinic I'm going to is limiting patients, and I'm going in 10 minutes before they open tomorrow to get started. Most of the tests can be done with someone being across the room from me, but there's about a 5-minute window when basically the doc has to get eyeball to eyeball with me. I have an N95, which helps I guess, and I presume the doc will be masked too, but I'm nonetheless freaked out. I can't help it.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 00:44 last edited by
Chances are extremely good that you will be fine. Just relax, and good luck.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 00:53 last edited by
Good luck, but I agree with Axtremus. The doctor should be appropriate with his safety gear so I think you will be okay!!
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 00:58 last edited by
Maybe you could ask the office what precautions are being taken. Knowing might make you feel better.
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Maybe you could ask the office what precautions are being taken. Knowing might make you feel better.
wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:04 last edited by@Friday said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Maybe you could ask the office what precautions are being taken. Knowing might make you feel better.
Nah I'm just likely being stupid and I know that. I just wish I didn't have to do this.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:11 last edited by
What's your problem?
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:19 last edited by Aqua Letifer
@Jolly said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
What's your problem?
SERIOUS close proximity to the doc. Eyeball-to-eyeball. In the truest, Charlie-in-the-jungle sense of the phrase. They shove a prism kind of thing on my eye, he looks at it on the other end for a few minutes. His face will be an inch or so away from mine.
I'm not saying I'm being at all rational.
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@Jolly said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
What's your problem?
SERIOUS close proximity to the doc. Eyeball-to-eyeball. In the truest, Charlie-in-the-jungle sense of the phrase. They shove a prism kind of thing on my eye, he looks at it on the other end for a few minutes. His face will be an inch or so away from mine.
I'm not saying I'm being at all rational.
wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:19 last edited by@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Jolly said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
What's your problem?
SERIOUS close proximity to the doc. Eyeball-to-eyeball. In the truest, Charlie-in-the-jungle sense of the phrase.
I'm not saying I'm being at all rational.
Nah, your eye problem...
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:20 last edited by Aqua Letifer
Pigment Dispersion Syndrome. I apparently won the Scando genetic lottery there.
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Pigment Dispersion Syndrome. I apparently won the Scando genetic lottery there.
wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:27 last edited by@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Pigment Dispersion Syndrome. I apparently won the Scando genetic lottery there.
So, you're worried about an acute attack of painful glaucoma. And I'm not sure about winning the lottery...The wife said they only had about four cases in her office in thirty years.
You gotta go, dude.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:27 last edited by Horace
At my recent eye appointment with the optometrist who Trump doesn't like, I kept fogging up the machine I was looking through, because of my mask and how it directed my exhales, and the guy had to keep leaning in to wipe it off.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Pigment Dispersion Syndrome. I apparently won the Scando genetic lottery there.
So, you're worried about an acute attack of painful glaucoma. And I'm not sure about winning the lottery...The wife said they only had about four cases in her office in thirty years.
You gotta go, dude.
wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:30 last edited by@Jolly said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Pigment Dispersion Syndrome. I apparently won the Scando genetic lottery there.
So, you're worried about an acute attack of painful glaucoma. And I'm not sure about winning the lottery...The wife said they only had about four cases in her office in thirty years.
You gotta go, dude.
Yeah, I know. It's a potentially very dangerous and insidious way to lose your eyesight. I've never had a problem with it before, but I also know that doesn't mean a damn thing.
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At my recent eye appointment with the optometrist who Trump doesn't like, I kept fogging up the machine I was looking through, because of my mask and how it directed my exhales, and the guy had to keep leaning in to wipe it off.
wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:31 last edited by@Horace said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
At my recent eye appointment with the optometrist who Trump doesn't like, I kept fogging up the machine I was looking through, because of my mask and how it directed my exhales, and the guy had to keep leaning in to wipe it off.
Were they masked up?
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:32 last edited by
Yes, the whole office was pretty serious minded about it. Cloth masks.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:54 last edited by
I would take comfort in the fact that we have not read stories of people getting Covid from going to the doctor’s office. The staff are generally more concerned about the patients than patients are of the staff. They tend to take extraordinary precautions.
I personally know several clinicians who have been seeing patients for months, including one surgical nurse who’s been to Elmhurst and has been in NYC doing their job for months. Has watched patients die.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 01:56 last edited by
Couldn't find anything on TV?
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 02:03 last edited by
My experience is that doctors, dentists, optometrists all take this pretty seriously and take good precautions.
You definitely need to go.
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@Friday said in Risk blindness, or COVID:
Maybe you could ask the office what precautions are being taken. Knowing might make you feel better.
Nah I'm just likely being stupid and I know that. I just wish I didn't have to do this.
wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 02:33 last edited by@Aqua-Letifer
Not to add to your anxiety, but I think Friday's suggestion is a good one. I broke down and finally made an appointment to get my knee checked out a few weeks ago. Temperature checks at the door, patients in masks, and my initial consultation was with a masked doctor. But post-MRI I had an appointment with the doctor who owns the practice, and I was shocked to see him walk into the room to greet me mask-less, with a handshake. Great doctor, decades of practice and very highly regarded, but he was the only one in the office without a mask.Knowing ahead of time that you won't run into a similar situation (or, knowing that you will and then being able to modify your plans) may help ease a bit of those anxieties.
Good luck, Aqua!
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 02:36 last edited by
Also, I was really surprised to see the office had bowls of candy everywhere (wrapped candy, but still. . . ) and magazines in the waiting room. I thought those were things that would disappear, just as an added layer (or at least a semblance) of precaution.
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wrote on 14 Jul 2020, 02:44 last edited by
Great.
Well, I know to ditch if things aren't safe enough then. I spoke with the doc but couldn't get a bead on how seriously they were taking all this. I know the practice has drastically reduced their daily number of patients, but that's it.
Better or worse, my appointment is tomorrow, so we'll see.
