May 12th, 2020

Tim and I had our annual eye appointments last Friday (I believe I mentioned that it was an upcoming event in our lives) and we were both fine.

It was interesting visiting a medical office during this time of virus protocols.  As I said last week, this was our first medical visit during this time.  I should have prefaced that sentence with, Thankfully, this was our first medical visit.    We have remained very healthy during this time and have every intention of remaining that way so we followed the instructions that we were given to the letter.

The instructions were to call when we arrived but to remain in the car.  We were told that we would, individually, each receive a text when we would be allowed to enter, separately, and of course, we needed to mask.  OK.

That is exactly what we did.  We pulled into the parking space and I called the office and told them that we were  both there and prepared to wait for permission to enter.  She said, "Oh you are fine, just come on in."  Hmmm.  I told her that Tim was there too.  She said that he could come in as well.   Hmm again.  That was completely opposite of what we were told when the appointment was confirmed but ok.  It's your office. You must know what we are supposed to do.

So we put on our masks and entered.  We were vetted at the desk.  The usual insurance stuff of course, but then the, "Have you been sick?" nope.  "Have you been around anyone who is sick?" nope.  And "Have you travelled outside the country?"  also nope.  The trifecta of nopes.

Next up was having our temperature taken.  I was fine.  I'm always fine.  My normal temperature is actually below normal so if I even had a low grade fever it would  not have registered as one.  But Tim popped a teensy bit high.  Well of course he did.  It was hot outside and we were sitting in the car!  So she allowed him to cool off for a few minutes, tried again and taadaaa, normal.  There we go.

We were directed to have a seat in the waiting room.  It is a large room with lots of very comfy chairs but only every third chair was turned into the room.  The others were not only turned away, but tipped forwards.  So even though we arrived together, we had to sit apart.  Actually that isn't what we did at all.  I sat, Tim stood next to me as we chatted as we waited.

But we didn't have to wait long.  I was taken back first.  The very nice lady who worked with me was professional and pleasant and endlessly patient with me as I asked her, over and over again, to repeat herself please.  It is so hard to communicate through a mask.  To add a degree of difficulty, her voice was very soft and rather high pitched.  Exactly the sort of voice I have the most difficult understanding without the assistance of visual cues (facial expression, body language and frankly, lip reading . By the way everyone does it to some extent).    No wait, that's not true.  The hardest ones are soft, high pitched and also an accent that is unfamiliar to me.  Add a mask and I have no idea what you are saying.

But we muddled through and eventually I got those drops in my eyes that dilate my eyes.  They always send their patients to a different interior waiting room for that part of the process.  Once again, comfy chairs, with only every third chair sit-able.  I wasn't sitting there very long before Tim came in for the same reason.  Again I sat (lazy butt) and he stood while we waited for the room around us to become more blurry and the overhead light to become more uncomfortable.  A sure sign of pupil dilation.

Eventually we were called back to see the doctor - together I might add.  First my eyes and then Tim's were checked by the doc.  We passed ;)  As we all three chatted for a moment at the end of the appointment, the doctor mentioned how glad he was to get back to normal and see patients, other than just for emergencies.  I said, "Normal?"  and pointed to my mask, Tim's mask and then his mask.  He laughed and said, "well almost normal"  

So that's where we are I suppose.  Stuck here for an unknown amount of time in the limbo of "almost normal".