Yesterday I had a routine, annual eye exam. As part of the exam, he put drops in my eyes which made my vision blurry for the rest of the day. I kept cleaning my glasses, but it was my eyes that needed cleaning. He told me I had great vision. Amazing vision. With a codicil.
Here’s a little quiz for we older folks. These are sentences we hear from doctors. What is the secondary clause?
- Your vision is amazing…
- Your heart is doing fine…
- Your bloodwork was good…
Answers:
- Your vision is amazing for someone your age.
- Your heart is doing fine, considering the surgery and all the medications you take.
- Your bloodwork was good, all things considered.
How about the good news without the extra clause to remind us that things could be and have been worse? Say something positive and omit the part in which you remind us we are old and infirm. We know we are old and infirm. You don’t need to remind us. We get it. Really.
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Categories: #Health, #HealthInsurance, Anecdote, Humor, Medical, Medical humor
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
…… (positive words)….. but you will die anyway! 😉
I thought he was being very kind. I would have liked to hear that in this way. (and I wouldn’t have been able NOT to finish the sentences as you did here…)
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He wasn’t being unkind, just realistic. I would appreciate once in a while a little more optimism and a bit less realism.
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😉
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There is always a but, isn’t there…
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Yes, always a “but” or and “if.” On the other hand, at least it was good news, not “your heart is failing but we can fix it.” That was a very bad “but.”
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some buts are better than others…
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They wouldn’t be in the profession they are off they said things without provisos!
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Everyone is afraid of getting sued. But really, not ALL of us have lawyers on call. Some of us just want to hear the truth without the proviso.
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I think it is become second nature for them. My doctor is too frank. He would tell me straight away, without any sugar coating.
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I had to get an eyesight test last week or lose my drivers licence due to my age, so off to the optometrist i went. I last got my eyes checked 12 years ago because I’m so pro-active with my health.
You could have knocked me over with a feather to find out that besides reading glasses my eyes are still fine. Here I was all geared up for some imagined horror result and it turned out to be good which is a relief given that as we get old we pay the price for all the dumb stuff we did when young.
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My eyes are a lot better than they were when I was younger. I can see a lot more without glasses. Apparently that’s normal for near-sighted folks, at least. I think it goes the other way for the far-sighted.
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I can relate to that as back in 1986 I had trouble with blurry vision and ended up having to do eye exercises to strengthen the eye muscles.
I kind of kept doing that sporadically since then so maybe it helped but definately did not hurt.
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Now I’m worried about what will be left out tomorrow when I have a routine doctor’s appointment. Actually not really worried, just a bit amused. Had one cataract removed a few years ago while having surgery to close a macular hole in my eye. Now I have zig zag vision in that eye, often have complete blindness due to the MS acting up, but the doc says I have healthy optic nerves. Okay, healthy, just not working well. The thing that bothers me the most with my eyes are the floaters I get at times. I keep trying to wave away gnats but they don’t leave. It still takes me a long time to realize it’s another bout of floaters.
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I think we ALL get floaters. Garry has mild glaucoma and has them. I get them sometimes and have for at least the past 20 years. I’m not sure what causes them. I love snatching the air for those gnats only to realize there’s nothing there.
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yes, just end at the beginning… less is often more
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I really think they feel the need to cover everything in case we have a lawyer waiting in the wings.
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That’s how physicians say things in the wrong way …maybe you will be OK Ha!
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I’m sure they mean well, but I’d love to get a whole sentence of good news without the reminder that I’m old. And falling apart. But hey, any good news is good.
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haha! This is so true. They always leave out the last part of that statement. I had the eye doctor tell me my eyes were great. They’d not change in 5 years. But….we are going to be watching because I have the little beginnings of cataracts. So much for being great. For someone my age.
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I have had the beginning of cataracts for more than a decade, but they’ve never gotten bad enough for me to notice. So, I have GREAT eyes — for someone my age! Actually, I’m the oldest person I know who hasn’t needed cataract surgery so I suppose that’s something.
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