A Followup With My Optometrist
Over the past 14 months I've had outpatient corrective surgical work on an eye, including a related follow-up. There was no functional impairment other than I wasn't allowed to drive and had to make work accommodations for a few days. I think the driving abstention was probably most annoying because they administered some local anesthesia and wouldn't let me drive for 24 hours afterwards, including a mandatory follow-up return visit within that window and a mandatory nurse escort back on my initial drive home. All of this out of my own pocket, of course. I ended up blowing like $200 in transportation over a 1 day period, including that 15-minute mandatory follow-up. (I'm not complaining too much; one's eyesight is important, and you need to take care of yourself.) And thank God for Uber. But it was annoying watching the driver pay attention to GPS directions for an inverted U-shaped horseshoe approach to the clinic, which was just beyond a strip mall off the next intersection. (I've sometimes ranted about weird GPS directions in my practical computing blog.)I had all but forgotten that I had a 3-month followup scheduled after March (before all the local shutdown activities). In part, I thought I would likely have to relocate in the near future. And the clinic where my personal physician works still isn't accepting routine appointments in-person yet. (They do provide televisits, but in my case, I'm fairly sure they want to do some routine bloodwork for checking my prescriptions, so they've been extending my prescriptions 30 days at a time until they accommodate normal in-person appointment visits. Not yet, visiting their online portal this morning.) I'm not sure of the specifics of Maryland's phased re-opening. As I mentioned, I was finally able to get a haircut a couple of weeks back. Apparently as of late yesterday, limited capacity in-person dining is now allowed.
Not that in practice I've normally eaten out anyway; I eat out while traveling. The last time I remember eating out locally was when my physician wanted me to check into a hospital 15 miles away; it was mid-afternoon, I hadn't had lunch yet, and I stopped at a McDonald's near the clinic on the way. It probably didn't help my blood tests soon thereafter, and they confiscated my half-full Diet Coke. I also forgot my overcoat at the McDonald's, never to be seen again.
So I got an email notification earlier this week reminding me of the eye appointment. I had to make an accommodation with my current work situation. I usually try to give a fudge factor, say, in case I run into slow traffic on the interstate. So I get to the institute 15 minutes early. "Sir, we're not ready for you; you'll have to go back to your car and wait there." That's the first time that's ever happened. They have a fairly large waiting room with plenty of seating. So when I finally check in and finally get to the waiting area, I see what they've done. Basically they spread out seating to enforce social distancing, maybe one seat in every row of 5 available. Other than the fact everyone is wearing face masks, everything was usual; generally speaking it was a good checkup and I have another scheduled about 6 months down the line.
