Gawwwwdddd....

Today's visit to the Famous Eye Clinic named after a state in which I may or may not live was deja vu all over again.

23 years ago Girl was an infant and suffered from blocked tear ducts. Many attempts to clear them by non-surgical means had failed, and by the time she was a year old, she was a beautiful baby with runny eyes. It was gross, and our pediatrician sent us to this Famous Eye Clinic to see a surgeon. Silly me, I came with baby and a diaper bag with a couple of toys and a couple of diapers, because it was only 4 miles from our house.

OVER FOUR HOURS LATER we spent 10 minutes with the Great Doctor, who was I am sure well educated, but treated my baby like a piece of meat with blocked tear ducts. I took my exhausted and soggy-bottomed baby and my rage home, and informed my ped that he would have to refer us to someone else, because the McDonald's-like, theme park line, multiple waiting rooms like the rings of hell, move 'em in, move 'em out, cattle drive setup of the Famous Eye Clinic was not something I would ever endure again.

So, 23 years later, I think hey, that was 23 years ago, they have to be better now. So though I flinched when my eye dr. referred me to a specialist there, I said okay.

They are not better. I'll cut to the chase - after 2.5 hours, 5 different waiting rooms and two testing sessions with different techs, I was escorted into the room of the Great Doctor. He spent less than 10 minutes with me, pronounced me fine (I already expected this - I would have noticed visual field issues, I'm not senile) and sent me on my way. These doctors must all be multimillionaires, the shop is run by (pleasant, skilled) techs and such, which allows these guys to see at least 10 patients an hour. The building is not nice, it's not a dump but is hardly state of the art, so when I think about the volume of insurance payments pouring in per hour, a figure that I am sure would bring us to our knees, you'd expect a better ambiance, or at least softer toilet paper in the restrooms. After hour one, I had already sworn a blood oath that if I needed further treatment it would not be done by these clowns. I know they really are highly regarded and respected doctors, they are the big names, heavy hitters, and pleasant too, their staff is nice, but 2.5 hours to get 10 minutes with one is NOT worth it. Retina Guy is as high powered as neuro guy, but his office was efficient and pleasant, and I was in and out in half the time, and HE did the real testing himself, he didn't hand it off to techs. This Famous Eye Clinic just sucks. They put volume and dollars over all.

But the good news is I have no nerve damage and I never have to go there again. Yay!!