It’s been a few years now since I escaped from my windowless dark room and looming corporate confinement. I went rogue to develop something I always wanted to do; help people who struggle to see despite their swanky spectacles (or $2 shop hobby glasses) and drainage clogging contact lenses.
This realisation caused me to pause and take a look back through my retroscope at some of the more humorous and controversial events of what is becoming an embarrassingly long career. The greying of my patient base and incessant search for an answer to that all-important question “which is better, ‘one or two?’” also made me reflect on the changes that have occurred in the last 30 years.
Without doubt, the development of technologies such as retinal imaging has made a significant impact on our ability to prevent vision loss, but has it made our job easier? Sometimes the low-tech solution does the job.
On my first day as a new graduate, I was asked to sit in and observe Peter Barry, well-respected and soon-to-retire elder statesman of the practice, to get some real-world experience and mentoring in patient management. The second patient in the door was an elderly (everyone was elderly to me in those days) and very deaf woman who Mr Barry struggled to communicate with, despite stretching his voice to full volume. After a fruitless attempt to get some history, he rose to his feet and headed out of the room. Passing by me on the way, he said to me with a wink “watch this”. A few seconds later he returned carrying a length of plastic pipe and a funnel he had recommissioned from the optical laboratory next door. He placed the funnel into one end of the hose, put the other end to the patient’s ear and bellowed into the funnel, “Can you hear me now?” A big smile lit up her face and she nodded gleefully as they proceeded through the consultation. Needless to say, there was no in-depth discussion on the pros and cons of progressive lenses included.
The back room between practice and laboratory was often a gathering place for colleagues and sales reps to gossip and reminisce. One of my favourites was retired optometrist Hec McKenzie, who used to impress me with tales of the pioneering days of boat trips down country to provincial towns carrying the equipment to set up in the back of the local pharmacy.
