Blind Reading the Sign
I chose some frames last week for a new pair of glasses.
Good news: My new glasses have arrived.
Bad news: The prescription is WRONG.
When I placed the order at the optical store we (OpticalStoreManager and Virge) rang my optician to get my prescription. I revealed my intimate personal details to verify my identity and got the receptionist to read out the prescription. She recited (with the phone on speaker so we could both hear):
Right: -0.50/-1.50*112
Left: +0.50/-1.0*75
pd 62
After writing it down, OpticalStoreManager read the prescription back to her to check that we had it correct. We both checked. We asked particularly about the plus and minus signs. All confirmed. I payed by plastic. Glasses due in a week. Done.
Today, I received a pair of glasses that are crystal clear for my right eye, and blurry for my left. How could they be wrong? Were my original glasses completely different from my recorded prescription? I rang my optician first and asked for my prescription. The receptionist fetched my records and read:
Right: -0.50/-1.50*112
Left: +0.50/-1.0*75
pd 62
I asked her to read them through again to make absolutely sure. She read:
Right: -0.50/-1.50*112
Left: -0.50/-1.0*75
pd 62
"So that number is negative for the left?... the oh-five-oh?" I said.
"Yes, that's what I read. Minus oh-five-oh," she replied.
"But you said 'plus' the first time, and said plus a week ago when I rang for my prescription. I've just received a new pair of glasses that I can't use based on that prescription. Is the writing unclear on the record?"
The conversation continued from there with the receptionist finally admitting that she may have been mistaken and agreeing to talk to the optometrist to see if there was anything they could do. She rang back later offering to replaced the lens for me. Apparently they are not supposed to read out prescriptions over the phone. Lesson learned.
I guess I'll wait a little longer for my new glasses.
(I took the time today to find out what each of the numbers mean. The first numbers for each eye are the spherical components. Having one positive and one negative would mean I had one nearsighted eye and one farsighted eye, which I know is not the case. I wish I'd known the meanings last week. The error would have been obvious.)
Comments
Can relate.
Have eye surgery. I wish it were available years ago. The modern kind of super-lasik is ultra cool. They bounce a light off the retina and map the distortion pattern as it reflects through the cornea. The laser then carves the cornea so the light reflects near perfectly. Took maybe 40 minutes total and I could see as I got off the table. I now see nearly 20/10 in my right eye - turns out quality of vision if the cornea is perfectly shaped is related to the # of cells in the retina.
Don't know where you live; this surgery in Canada is half US cost and has been approved for much, much longer so they have lots of experience.
To tell the truth, I hadn't thought much about getting them surgically adjusted. (My eyesight has always been just good enough that I don't legally need glasses for driving.)
Current prices here seem to be about A$2500-A$3500 per eye. The cost is not a big factor. It's more weighing the risk vs the marginal increase in convenience. Even a very low failure rate is too high for me when wearing glasses is no real burden. I do admit, the last time I looked at eye surgery was years ago. No doubt the risks are much lower now.
No real risks, but if your eyes are not really an inconvenience. . . My eyes were bad (not morally). Being able to see well has changed my attitudes toward life - literally seeing it differently means I think about it differently. I learned today the theoretical maximum eyesight is 20/8.
One dislikes this whole "Read more..." link thing. One finds it onerous and irritating. (One is too posh to refer to oneself as "I", today.)
I feel your pain on the specs, almost. I've lost mine at the moment, and am stumbling about semi-blindly. I keep bumping into stuff. Then again, I do that even with 'em on, so it's not much of a change.
One felt the whole entry was lacking in excitement. Did hiding content under the fold not imbue the story with an air of mystery? Would it not set the heart of any chartered accountant aflutter with anticipation?
If it did not, then one shall have to attempt more potent means for the setting of a sinister mood, such as injection of an augmented chord, or dare one countenance, a series of several diminished sevenths rising by ominous semitones.
I must admit, I did feel a certain sense of tremulous anticipation as I peeked under the fold. And I'm not even an accountant, chartered or otherwise.
However, I recommend some startling percussion next time. Not for before unfolding, but for after, when one is just settling in with one's coffee, all cozy in the expectation of a good read. You know: sip, sip, BOOM! Augh! Eeeeaaaagh! Curse yooooooooooou!
One would enjoy something like this, as long as one did not forget about it, and get caught, oneself. One...two, three, four, five....
Being small of brain, I didn't bother reading the rest of the post. Gods, one eye far sighted and the other near. Now that is odd, like one eye sticking out while the other pulls back, leading to the gruesome image of your head twisting about on the axis of your nose as the eye sticking out chases after the one withdrawing, becoming a death spiral up to the event horizon when you just go 'poof' and disappear into yourself.
Well, I have been accused of having a warped view (of almost everything).
I'm just about to head out to pick up my glasses. Correct this time. For sure. Please.
I'm back. I have new spectacles. They work. :-)
Thus ends a slightly cloudy spell in my teacup.
Slightly off-topic: every time I see WRONG written in capital letters, now, I think of PhaWRONGula.
And even more off-topic (but almost related to the WRONG theme) I saw the sentence "I admit, I have a thang for nekkid mole rats in surreal turnip landscapes," included in a Pharyngula comment.
http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/yet_another_godless_developm...
When I read that comment, I just KNEW it had to be connected to Ursula Vernon in some way. You should check out her site (www.metalandmagic.com)--it has the nekkid mole rat in the surreal turnip landscape.
He doesnt really need glasses being such a low pescription, except maybe for driving. My brothers eyes are worse, being -1 and -1.25 with -.5 astigmastim and he never wears glasses except to drive. I wish my eyes were as good as yours, I see 20/30 WITH glasses! -5 myopia :(
ace, -5!
Any chance of eye surgery?
I do spend most of my time glasses-less (in front of a computer). I only use the glasses for driving, outdoor activities, movies, meetings in large rooms, etc.
I feel fortunate to have reasonable sight. Even more so since I'm shortsighted and expect my sight will lengthen slightly with age.