So I'm going to see the eye doctor tomorrow, and I have a little anxiety: http://dellazine.com/covergirl/060700.html

Been to the doctor lately? How'd it go? Share yer stories, kids.

-- sarahjane (sarahjane@dellazine.com), June 07, 2000

Answers

This is the only regularly scheduled medical appointment that I manage to keep, since I wear contacts and the Federal Bureau of Contact Lenses has decided that these "prescriptions" expire after a year. It's obviously a big conspiracy (saw it on Dateline last year so it's not just my paranoia here) but what can I do? If anyone knows of any illegal underground supplier of contact lenses, let me know so I can forgo this annual torture. For years I had this great optometrist in the LA basin who was obviously a fake doctor, because I'd give him 90 bucks and he'd spend about 10 minutes on the exam then give me my lenses. Dr. Katz. He was my hero. But then I moved to the bay area and had to switch optometrists. Somehow I ended up going to this *bitch in El Cerrito..who subjected me to about 3 hours of ocular probing. Then, just to top it off, she tells me that I have some kind of *genetic defect* that might cause my retina to tear at some inopportune moment.. but not to worry, she tells me, if I suddenly go blind I should give her office a call to schedule an appointment. Then of course there's my more recent surgery trauma.. the nurse who couldn't find a vein. Not that she didn't try, and try, and try.

-- cfg (cfgatlin@hotmail.com), June 07, 2000.

Well, ya all better call me sad, sick and demented, because I like my dentist.

He's a nice guy, I've known him for years (through his son, one of my best friends), but that is not the rub that thrills me. Nope this man is on top of it all when it comes to comfort... he gasses you up before torture.

I recall my first dentist, who loved to stick you with the needle just to see how brave you really were (I was nine and not so brave). Instead, Russ (the good dentist) snaps the gas on and waits for you to get good and numb before sticking you. My man.

Last fall, when I had to have a crown, Russ told me to "bring a walkman... you'll be in the chair for a while and I don't want you to get too bored." Jonatha Brooke's Live is quite good normally, but even better when you are gassed up. Pink Floyd's The Wall, however, is now permanently banned from the dentist's chair. Seems I get a bit antsy with that one.

-- Chris Hansen (tchansen@xmission.com), June 08, 2000.