I did finally remember to call to ask about my cataract surgery. The phone always goes to voice mail. I finally called back my referring optometrist and asked if they could refer me to another specialist at the Eye Institute. I actually couldn't find her name on the list of specialists there so am beginning to wonder what was happening that day that I went. Was she just a student and I slipped through the cracks. No idea on that for sure. My eye measurements tests (two of them) were certainly booked and completed. Anyway will see how this goes as I suspect I am in need of the cataract surgery rather sooner than later. Certainly my Dad was in his early 80s as they did do them later then. My father had no problems reading after the surgery as he did his crossword puzzles quite faithfully every day and that was fourty years ago! Students do a great job; no reflection there but generally a specialist comes in to finish it all off. An interesting experience for sure; just have to get the cataract surgery done now and hopefully I do not have to go all through that again but time will tell. I hope that I have a male doctor this time although my family doctor is a female and she is fine. My daughter and two nieces are all family physicians and I know they are great. But I have only ever dealt with male specialists and they tend to give you lots of information. I did find her rushing and not a great deal of information. She was committed to the expensive lens it appeared and did not provide enough information so I had to read up afterwards and then let her office know that day that I wanted the OHIP lens since the other lens does require calculations and I did not want to waste her time but I am like that! Plus I felt a little like I was being treated as a second class citizen since I was referred by an optometrist. I did inform her that I had been looked after by an ophthalmologist since I was one year of age until I was in my early fifties when I opted to go with an optometrist as my specialist was going into surgery and not doing these regular office calls. He was great actually, Dr Sullivan, as was my childhood specialist Dr Dyson. It can be a problem dealing with people who have not been raised in Canada which is one reason that I remain opposed to accepting physicians not trained in this country without retraining. They do not understand the clientele they are dealing with and come with whatever influences from their native countries. Being a doctor is as much a personal experience in the life of a patient as it is a medical experience. Having physicians who have grown up here is a good idea and I know that some of our applicants in Canada who have studied all their years in Canada (and born here) did not get accepted into Canadian Medical Schools this year (they should be accepted first) and have had to go to other countries for a place. That should be one of the criteria of acceptance as a physician is a personal helper in one's life and they need to know the people with whom they are dealing.
I had such good luck with the internist who did the colonoscopy in May, he was great and I actually do not know if he was trained here but likely he was, but my trusting soul just went in and had my eye appointment, let the office know the lens I wanted, did my eye tests and waited to be called. Time will tell. I do not like complications to be honest and when I worked at the hospital I always followed through on any telephone calls that same day. But I gave them the benefit of the possible busyness and waited until today; left another message and then called the referring optometrist to let them investigate.
It isn't like having a baby; you do not need absolute immediate care! But fitting it into the tight schedule I have would be nice but I could always get a PSW to look after me instead of bothering my daughters or a private nurse. The insurance would cover some of that presumably although would need to investigate. I really should have noticed that this person wasn't listed on the Eye Institute website. I am not that curious about people; after all I saw her at the Eye Institute. Time will tell. I have a lot of work to do and this is a nuisance! When I mentioned that it would work well for me to have a mid December appointment back in June that did seem to be a reasonable thing to do. I did learn from her assistant later that she does not do appointments into mid December (I made the mistake of assuming that it was not a problem since she had not said anything) which the specialist could have told me then and referred me to someone else. Rather annoying actually in retrospect. Too busy I guess but hopefully a remedy is in the works. A new referral to the Eye Institute. Why did I choose the Eye Institute, I worked at the General Campus longer than I worked at the Riverside mostly (there is an Eye group there as well). I know where things are at the General!
Back working on the Siderfin book.
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