I walked in for my eye exam this morning feeling pretty good. Nausia from the plaquinel was under control-joint pain not so bad. So I walk in get signed in look around the waiting room.
Okay so far, the chairs although hard and plastic have arm rests, I was running a little late so should only have to wait a few minutes. I sit down, notice that the arm rests are four inches below my actual arms still if its only a few minutes I should be okay. Half an hour later my shoulder is starting to throb and I am squirming in the hard plastic chairs. Finally they call my name.
I follow the not unpleasant nurse back to the small room where they do the visual field tests (have I mentioned that its 62 degrees in the offices and the cold is seeping into my muscles and joints.) The nurse knows two people with RA and mentions what a horrible disease it is then says now lean forward and put your chin on this (two inches higher than my actual chin) and stare at this light. Then she leaves me in that position while having a brief chat with someone in the hallway.
She comes back in and starts the test-have you ever had to take a visual field test while nausous from plaquinel. This particular torture lasts fifteen chin jarring nausia inducing minutes.
Then they take me into another rooom to dialate my eyes and leave me to freeze on another hard plastic chair with no funcitonal arm rests while the drops work.
Once my eyes are dialated to the point where I can no longer see anything I am led, limping now, down the hall to another room where I am told to sit in the big exam chair and wait for the doctor. So, I am hunched over (the chairs back is too far away for me to use it for support) feet dangling, freezing and nausious. The doctor has three seperate exam rooms going and I am the third patient. I wait a long time.
I would go into torturous detail about bright lights and retinal photography but the post is getting quite long suffice it to say that as I leave the office leaning heavily on a rolling walker (okay wishing I had a rolling walker) my shoulder throbbing etc. The thought goes through my mind that I have put up with all of this to get permission to take the drug that is responsible for the overwhelming urge to hurl on the doctors shoes.
Please feel free to share your tales of torture via medical equipment. Hope this makes you smile.
SJ