Retina Checks, Eye Lubrication And An Evil Eye Owner…

So im back in Doha. I had a lot of things I wanted to blog about while I was in Spain but mentally I was too exhausted and just did not have time to think, let alone blog, so I apologise for being gone so long. If I do remember some of the things that are blog worthy from the year in Spain I will let you know, and I definitely will let you know what school was like there!

I was only here a year on/off before giving birth to Adam and then moving to Spain for a year so everything is still quite new. Been here nearly two months now after an international summer in Spain, Norway and Egypt! I was so excited before coming here for the amazing hot weather and the long days we could spend at the beaches swimming in the beautiful sea. Lets just be honest, I think ive spent a total of 1,5 hours outdoors since I arrived two months ago and that is mostly in garages, leaving malls/our building going to the car! I have however spent ALOT of time in the car stuck in traffic, because its crowded here, but more on traffic in another post.

In this post id like to take you on a journey with me to the Opthamodldifofgnist, or whatever the eye doctor is called… I wear contact lenses everyday and haven’t updated my glasses, well I actually don’t have glasses, for years and years… So I decide to go the hospital, I know sounds scary, but that is where you go here in Doha for anything body related… I made an appointment and off I went with my little man to the eye doctor (I can’t say the official name!).

I registered and waited for the nurse to call my name. Now in this case I don’t even know why they have an eye doctor because I spent more time with the nurse, so basically I should have made an appointment with the nurse… Anyways followed the nurse to the eye testing room, or whatever its called. I informed her that I was wearing contact lenses and I needed them tested and new lenses for glasses. I did the standard A G H E D bla bla thing where she tests my reading skills. Last time I did this check was a few years back in Egypt and the nurse here informed me that I’ve been wearing contact lenses with -1.00 more than necessary… So obviously the guy who checked in Egypt doesn’t know his alphabet because when I was reading the letters and he was marking them wrong! Anyways she checked and then I had to take my contact lenses off to check the glass lenses strength. So I took them off and without them im basically blind, I mean I can see colored blurry shapes only…I had to sit 20 min with a frustrated and whining child in a room without vision waiting for my eyes to get ‘normal’!

So this is how it went after the 20 min… Please have a seat here… OKEY remember how you asked me to take my contact lenses off, and we are here because im visually impaired and need glasses to see RIGHT??? THEN how the hell am I supposed to see which chair you are talking about???? I told her, I can’t see… So I see she moves and says here, right here, like I suddenly had a moment of vision and could see where she was pointing again! Like I should have just walked out of the appointment then and there, this was obviously not going anywhere… But I put my brave face on with no vision and slowly slid across the room using the pram with my son in as my walking stick… when the pram stopped and my son shouted, it meant I hit something…. Until I found something that had a similar shape to a chair and I saw a shadow of a stupid inconsiderate nurse standing next to it! What does stupid and inconsiderate look like, no idea as I was basically blind in that room! I sat down and did the bla S bla D bla E and she wrote down the prescription for my glasses…

Now you may see the doctor, oh wow, thank you so much, that’s very kind of you after all I did pay AND book an appointment to see her… So its out the door, down the corridor and the second door to your left…. WAIT, ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! are you sure you guys are supposed to be working here in the eye specialist section, or did I just enter the joint and muscle department? Do you not realize that im STILL blind, you didn’t miraculously heal me while I was in this room, STILL CANT SEEE……. STILL NEED CONTACT LENSES OR GLASSES!!!! So I asked may I put my lenses on yet.. NO NO NO, the doctor will see you first…. THATS GREAT… I’m so glad the doctor can see, because I can’t see SHIT, so maybe she can come to me…??? I mean seriously…. I had to tell the nurse I CANT SEE…. Like I didn’t feel stupid enough not being able to see her and make eye contact with her, I have to also tell her I can’t see after we just did an eye test to CONFIRM THIS!!! Okey (in the most annoyed voice ever, like my blindness was irritating the hell out of her!) the nurse will meet you there… GREAT!! Thanks, where the hell is there, and how to I get there.????

I was getting so tired of explaining that I couldn’t see to someone who obviously could see very well, so I just started walking, using the pram and my son as my sensor… I counted the dark objects on the left side of the wall and went towards the second dark shadow, which to people who could see was most likely a door… Milimeters from my face the door slams opens and hits the pram, and a nurse says in here Kristine… AGAIN, like im here playing a Marco, Polo game with the nurses in this department… Nobody seems to believe I can’t see, weird since I was given a prescription for glasses and told I need contact lenses!

Anyways a woman FINALLY shows me towards a chair with some large metal things connected to it… The doctor starts: Okey why are you here? Wow, okey we are really starting the appointment in this tone, okey, im so sorry for inconveniencing you with my eyes that are not functioning properly… I explained its been a while since my last test and I just wanted to check everything is okey.

Doctor: So when was your last check?

Me: Maybe a few years?

Doctor: Ufff, no, no, no, no, this is not good…. So when was the last time you checked your Retina?

Me: Hmmm, (what the hell is my retina? I mean I studied the eye when I was like 11, but thats 20 years ago, and how the hell you check this?) I’m not sure, what kind of test is that?

Doctor: WHATT?? No, no, no, you have to, have to, have to check your retina AT LEAST once a year…. This is not good, it’s so important to check this…

Me: googling for a good lawyer to write my will, as clearly me not checking my retina is a death wish! I felt as I was going to die any minute because I hadn’t checked my retina for years and years… Her tone was horrendous, and thank God I was nearly blind so I couldn’t see her scowling eyes giving me the evils for disappointing my retinas!

Doctor: Are you driving?

Me: Yes…

Doctor: Okey then we cannot do the retina check today, but you MUST, MUST, MUST schedule a retina check before you leave here today…

Doctor checks a few thing with lights and dust blowing machines and some eyes drops that hurt so much I wanted to rip my eyeballs out… Okey we are done, let me just mention some important things to you about contact lenses…

You MUST NEVER be in contact with water when you are wearing contact lenses… I laughed a little because I thought she was joking, you know remember I couldn’t see her face! NO, it’s too important that when you do anything with water, excercise with a lot of sweat, swimming, bath, shower or wash your face, you MUST ALWAYS take your lenses out!

OH LORD… WHY DONT YOU JUST KILL ME NOW….. WHAT?? Okey let’s go through this step by step… Why do I wear contact lenses? so that I can see comfortably without restriction of glasses, or in situations where I can’t use glasses, I use contact lenses… These situations include swimming, showering and being alive in general… I live in Doha, if I ever exit my house I WILL SWEAT, so should I take my contact lenses out before leaving the house, and then put them on in the car? You can’t wear glasses here because of the humidity everything goes foggy outside, so if I can’t wear contact lenses either, would it be better that I walk around blind? When I shower my kids bathe in the bath next to me, should I take my lenses out to take a shower and let my kids try to drown each other because I can’t see? So ill not take showers then! Can you even imagine me swimming with the kids in a swimming pool with glasses? Glasses get wet or fall off to the bottom of the pool and we can all go happily home to the neighbours because mommy can’t see and can’t find her way home… Anyways I didn’t go through years of sticking my fingers in my eyes to master the contact lenses game to be told I can’t wear them during 70% of my life…

Oh one last thing, do you lubricate your eyes…. Okey, that’s it, open the window, guide me to it and push me out, im done! OH GOD, WOMAN, DO YOU EVER SHUT UP… I mean I was only in her room about 10 min and was leaving feeling like the shittiest EYE owner in the world, like I have been mistreating my eyes for years and years and they now hate me, and I don’t deserve to have eyes for wearing contact lenses when I shouldnt, not checking my retina once a week and now not LUBRICATING my eyes!!! So she prescribed eye drops that I should apply a minimum of 4 times a day for the next 3 months. After 3 months I go back to get another prescription!

Anyways I was done, so I asked if I could finally put my contact lenses back on, and assured her I was not going to go swimming nor take a shower and DEFINATELY NOT SWEAT…. and all the way home I would be lubricating my eyes…

Now where is the mirror, so I can put my contact lenses on? Over there…. AHHHHHH YOU GUYS, IM HERE BECAUSE I CANT FREAKING SEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

 

Now that I can see, and you probably can too, ill show you some photos!