Second Opinion Time

I don’t want to get overly excited here….

We went to visit another PO for a second opinion today on C’s eyes.  I brought the records from our first/current PO.   My first impression is that I really liked the office / equipment for this new PO.  

C wore her glasses, and the first technician (not sure if he was an optometrist or not as he didn’t introduce himself and we didn’t ask) covered her left eye and then her right eye and had her read the letter showing on the screen.  C’s right eye had no problems.  With her left eye, she was not able to read some of the letters at a smaller size.  (I forgot to write down the 20/x size shown on the screen.).   Now, it’s hard to tell if it was because C was just messing around, but she seemed to be guessing at the letter and when the technician increased the size of the letter, she got the letter correct.   This is distance viewing and C’s farsighted, so I wonder if her prescription could be wrong causing her problems with distance in one eye.

The PO came in shortly thereafter and talked with us and observed C’s eyes.  We were scheduled to do a dialation, but the PO didn’t think it was necessary to repeat what the first PO had just done not long ago.  This PO seems to think that there can still be something to try before looking at surgery.  She seems to want to make sure that we have the right prescription for C.  She prescribed Atrophine Drops for C to be put in 3 days (once a day) before her next appointment.  Then, we’ll bring C in and have her watch a video and relax / eat while the PO observes and looks at her eyes.  We go back at the end of April for this test.

The doctor says that the Atrophine Drops effect can remain up to 2 weeks after the appointment so we’ll put back the bifocals on C (to help her see close up while her pupils are dialated) after the first drop.  I was doing some lookup on the web on Atrophine Drops.  Some people like it, some don’t.  There seems to be some side effects, but as S told me, C is only going to using them for 3 days (once a day).  I’m OK with that.

We’ll see what we find out.   In the back of my mind, I wonder if we should switch to this new PO since S and my first impressions are that we like her better.  She seems more decisive which is what we want.  Right away, she tells us that we can try atrophine drops as a course of action.  The first PO was not as decisive, and said maybe we can do surgery and that if we polled different doctors, some would think surgery was necessary for C’s case and some wouldn’t. (Hence, she suggested we get a second opinion.)   I told the second PO that the first PO thought C’s eye crossing was a borderline case, but the second PO adamantly said that there is no borderline in C’s case.  C’s eyes are still crossing with the glasses. I also think that the measurements of this new PO will be better, but we’ll see.   And, to top it off, the first/current PO is not covered by our insurance whereas this new PO is.

I’m really glad we went for a second opinion.  It’s just nice to have a new professional look at C’s eyes.  The results may end up the same (i.e. surgery) as that is where the first PO was headed, but it’s good to explore all options first.