I Got That Feeling....

I always knew that my kids would need glasses. Vision problems run in both families. So I was not at all surprised that last year Jorden had to start wearing them. I was surprised, however, that she was given bifocals. I had never heard of kids needed them except in special cases of severe vision problems and I didn't think Jorden fit that profile. But I didn't question it because I thought the doctor knew best. Until now.

At Jorden's eye exam last week, I stated that I didn't think the bifocals were helping her and in fact, they were making things like reading worse. I noticed when she reads that she's holding things up in front of her instead of down low where the bifocal is. When she takes them off, things are a bit smoother but she can't see because of her astigmatism. So the bifocal was reduced from a .75 to a .5 which is the lowest you can go. I also had the chance to take a peek at some of the frames. Well, there was no way I was paying $200 just for frames so I opted to shop around. When I said this, the doctor basically said that we'll be coming back anyway because no one else would be able to fill this perscription. That's when my red flags went up for sure.

I went around to several places and sure enough, I was told that they can't fill the .5 bifocal. I found a place that would do it at a fairly reasonable price but the optic shop called me this morning and said they could not make the .5 bifocal with a transitions lens. After calling the doctor telling him the problem, he said to bump it back up to a .75. I called the optic shop back and Rick (the optic guy) told me that something seemed fishy. First of all, he sees many perscriptions come from that particular doctor that are almost impossible to fill and if they are filled, would result in some pricey glasses. Second, after looking at Jorden's perscription, he noticed that the .5 would make absolutely no difference with the particular strength of the lenses. He then said that even though he's just the "pharmacist" and required to be non-biased, he recommended getting a second opinion.

So today I took Jorden to the eye place where I go and sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed. After several tests that were run twice, the second doctor said that yes, she does need glasses but there was no reason whatsoever for her to have bifocals. That other eye place was just trying to suck us out of money by dealing out ridiculous perscriptions in the hope that we would by their overpriced glasses.

So we got her the right kind of specs that resulted in a $90 refund and I feel much, much better. As for the other place, I figure that since they are privately owned the worst thing that I could do is just tell people not to go there and inform anyone who did go there to get a second opinion.