Patients

Optometry can become routine.  I enjoy difficult cases such as diplopia, diseases, and fidgety children, although it can be stressful at times.  I especially love talking to my patients.  Initially it was really tiring...talking to 20 different people everyday and becoming emotionally connected to them.  I learned to be a little less attached, yet address their main issue and empathize with their personal struggles.

Few of the patients I encountered:
1. Shortly after the CRVO and multiple testing episodes, I had a 60ish-year-old patient who was distant and gave terse answers at the beginning of the exam.  After she was told that she may need an LPI to prevent angle closure glaucoma, she wasn't too sure if she was going to do it. She said she wasn't sure of how many days she has left--she was diagnosed with metastasizing breast cancer less than a week ago.  "Going to spend time with my grandkids now," and she just went about her normal routine. I was on a rollercoaster of emotions that week.
2. Genius elementary school brothers who wore thick glasses and read thick books about all sorts of subjects like archaeology since the age of 5.  They got bored easily and outsmarted all the loopholes doctors tell children to get them to comply, so we had to work and think quickly.  Though they were keen to what was going on, they were scared shitless when it came to drops.  The older one cried so much with his gangly legs kicking the chair.  He was in agony and shriveled up in the middle of the chair because the drops were "so painful"....He said he would rather eat potatoes for the rest of his life or something than get another drop in his eyes.  It was a spectacle to see haha.
3.  I had a three year old girl who kept showering her parents with kisses while they were talking to my staff doctor.  She climbed up her father's lap, grabbed his face downward with her small hands, kissed his cheeks once, and stayed there with her arms around his neck for a bit.  Then climbed on her mother's lap, brought her mother's face down, softly kissed her cheek, too, and clung into her for about an equal time.  Then went back to her father, repeat.  It was as though she wanted to make sure they got equal treatment of love hahah it was so adorable.
4. Another 70-something-year-old patient would not give me answers.  I would ask, "One or two?"  He would either not respond or say "Yeah."  It made me pretty frustrated because I thought he was upset at me for no reason, so I told him, "It'll be difficult to achieve the best prescription for you if there are no answers."
"Yeah."
"Okay, is one or two more readable and clear?"
"Yeah."
I learned that he had been recently diagnosed dementia when his wife came in after her own exam.
5. If you're going to get married, then really mean the vows you take at the alter.  Marriage may not be everything, because I understand that things can change...but the unconditional and undying support patients and their spouses have for each other in the exam room brings me so much hope.
  - I had a late 80 year old patient who had multiple sclerosis and was wheelchair-bound.  She came in with her 90 year old husband.  He was a retired physician, still strong and healthy enough to carry her in and out of the chair.  WOW
  - I've had a 70-ish year old patient who had Parkinsons and his wife spoke so lovingly and gently to him, and walk out linking arms.
  - I have also been with patients who had gone through traumatic marriages and are still finding strength.
6. If you are not going to get married, then that's cool too!  There was a sprightly lady who was engaged three times and never married.  She said it was the best decision she made in her life.
7. Patients who look like celebrities...and things.  I saw a Hayden Panettiere (even my staff doctor said so!) and another who...looked like a classic garden gnome...........like..he must have been the model for the first garden gnome sculpture....okay I will stop.


Reflection:
1. I am so thankful for my family's good health
2. There are a lot of twins in this world.
3. I love the two nurses who work with me.  One is a middle-aged Iranian and the things she tells me cracks me up.  We also philosophize life during break time or in between patients.  I've always had close Iranian friends, so it doesn't surprise me hehe.
4. I learned that many of my patients, both men and women, have depression and anxiety, and are on medication for that.  I do think it's because this world expects us to be superhuman and have perfect lives.
5. The women in the best conditions were housewives.
6. Sounds cliche, but definite generation gap.  I see the elderly come in with their library hard cover books and the youngins playing with parents phone/ipad.
7. I really love working with the kids.  They make my day so much better--its just the way they think and the things they say.  It's so pure and the world seems brighter, clearer, warmer....