Feel The Air...

....Shot into your eyes.

.....I "thought" I'd "volunteer" to be patient for third year optom students (I actually had no choice... it's compulsary!). The University's clinic is rather posh....nothing like what you'd find in the clinical labs - the playground for us inexperienced first years. It gave me quite a discomforting feeling; I had to act sort of "formal-ish".

I walked into the waiting area and it was all filled with old people...old, retired people who probably have nothing better to do but to become a student's guinea pig for a couple of hours...oh and they get a free eye test out of it!. So I waited. An old women sat opposite me kept staring at me. So I smiled at her... she just stared back...so I looked away, but I knew she was still staring. A few minutes went by and a women with a toddler walked in. The little boy stood in the doorway and refused to move. He'd probably had some traumatic experience with student's in the past. After a few words of encouragement from the receptionist he walked in and sat beside me (only because the toy box was on the other side!). Within moments he was on the floor with huge building blocks, learning his colours. He entertained me for the remaining time.

It was finally my turn. It was quite amusing. Four students, smartly dressed in suits with lab coats, walked in (when have you EVER seen an optometrist in a lab coat?!...they're only for doctors!). They all stood in a line, clinging on to their clipboards, each waiting for the other to call out for their patient first. Their supervisor suddenly came in, and they all four of them quickly called out their patient's name...hehe!

This guy was gonna test my eyes. I can't even remember his name, but the badge on his lab coat didn't belong to him. I later found out that he left his lab coat at home, so had to borrow someone else's (why didn't he just take the badge off?!).But I did feel sorry for him....his supervisor was the guy who helps out in my visual optics practicals; Dr I'm-smart-your're-daft.

He started off by confirming all my details and asking about family history etc.... and well, my optician has ever asked me soooo many questions. It did get to the stage where I didn't feel like answering... but I had no choice! Oh and the comment he got from his supervisor was, "Be more specific, ask more questions if you have to." (what!?!).....AND he (the supervisor) was suprised that I spend about 3-4 hours a day on the computer; it probably explains why I can't answer his questions in practicals!

I think he tested my eyes using every possible technique, but it wasn't bad cos I did learn lots. In the end he said he was gonna check the pressure in my eyes... I wasn't sure how this was going to be done, but it didn't sound very nice!

He held this thing near my eye - it looked like an extra large sized stapler. I looked at the red light inside and waited... and waited... and then all of a sudden air shot into my eye. It made me jump (which was embarrasing!)..and..and it hurt! :'( . He did this four times in each eye..... That test should be illegal!..It's not safe! What if it punctured my cornea?!

I was there for two hours. Overall it wasn't bad...well other than the pressure thing... But it was very time consuming and I missed my extra lab practice! (yes I'm a swot!)