[Villages PL]

I had an optomap type of yearly exam last year. I thought it would be better, as advertised, and I wouldn't have to get my eyes dilated. And it only required a $20.00 co-payment.

Well, from the beginning, things didn't seem to go very well. The technician
said that one eye had to be photographed again. But when she repositioned me, I felt like it wasn't right - it didn't feel right. But I just figured she probably knew what she was doing.

By the time I got to see the optometrist, I forgot about what had happened with the picture taking. I was just concentrating on following directions, like do this do that. Then when the optomap image was put in place and lit up, I was told that everything looked fine except one area. One area was slightly darker and the doctor wasn't sure why. So I got a recommendation to see a specialist.

I never went because I felt it was just the doctor's way of practicing defensive medicine (what if it's something serious, like cancer, and I don't catch it?). Then the specialist might decide to play it safe and recommend a biopsy. No thanks! And it might have been due to bad picture taking.

So, finally, yesterday, I went to a different optometrist for my yearly eye exam. This time there was no optomap, I had my eyes dilated. He said everything was fine and nothing to worry about. And he didn't seem to have much appreciation for optomap.

It's like many other areas of testing where you get a false positive and then are expected be retested and you might end up getting a procedure, like a biopsy, you don't need. You might worry about it and get damaged in the process.