Is there something you love about your doctor's technique?
I've realized that even in my office of six or so specialists, they all have their own procedures for injections. I went to one doctor for a year or two, and then was switched me to current doc. I, along with most of her patients, am totally besotted with her. I just wanted to share some details about why.
Dr. D. waits to swab my eyelid with betadine, as before when the technicians did it, sometimes my eye would get too dry before I saw her, and the injection would hurt. Just mentioning that as it's nice to have someone pay attention to details, and want me to be as comfortable as possible.
I can't remember if she does this before or after the speculum is inserted, but my doctor goes behind me, tells me to look down at the floor, left or right, and then gives me a tiny shot of lidocaine. After that while she's waiting for it to take effect, she'll dictate information about my scans, or tell me an anecdote about her kids. (Ha.)
Again, when she's ready to do the injection, Dr. D. will go behind me, instruct me to look down at the floor in a specific direction, and even reach around and wiggle her fingers to direct my eye position if needed. I love that I get a shot from behind, and never even see the needle. Plus, in all the years (probably eight or so), that I've been going to her, I've never had a broken blood vessel, which used to be fairly common for me.
She's also the doctor that started the step that they all do now, which is rinsing the eye afterwards. Initially she did that herself, but now the technician handles that. Having my eyeball rinsed with cool water is so soothing, and I'm sure helps alleviate the betadine irritation.
Not part of her procedure, but one I've just found helpful for me through the years is having a gauze eye patch put on my eye, and also getting a steroid shot. The eye patch stops my tears from running, and helps my eye settle down. I remove it within an hour or two.
Is there something that your doctor does that you find helpful physically or in relieving some of the stress?
Thanks for sharing. My doctor has me look up for the injection not down which is the only thing that's really different
like you I have a beloved retinal specialist. My clinic has 4 retinal specialist that are MD’s. One doctor is a DO rather than an MD. He filled in for my regular doctor for an appointment. The difference was amazing. For those not familiar with a DO, they practice medicine with a holistic approach. He see’s me as a person not just another injection patient. He’s never too busy to answer questions. His injection technique is painless. He is the busiest doctor in the clinic. All the patients want him to provide their care. Warm regards, Sharon Moore patient leader I'm so glad you have an RS that you love too! I thought we had one doc who was a DO, but just checked and she's listed as OD, Doctor of Optometry. I love that you feel like a whole person with your doctor's holistic approach as a DO. For a long time I kind of felt like I was in some strange injection factory, where it was a quick wham/bam you're done, with hardly any interaction. I understand that they're busy, my experience just wasn't nearly as pleasant as it is now. What I hope that is that other doctors are curious enough about these extremely popular specialists that they want to at least observe their techniques, and perhaps adopt one or two. I know in my line of work as a graphic designer, I was continuously looking at other artists' designs in order to learn and grow. Hopefully that's true in their field as well - or becomes more common.
Take care!
AnneI share your hope that other doctors will develop the same willingness to answer questions and take steps to make the patient feel seen as an individual. One things I do is take the time to grade my doctors on health grades.com. You would hope the doctors care about the reviews enough to address any negative feedback. Warm regards, Sharon Moore patient leader
, yes, being seen as an individual and not just another eyeball is wonderful. 😀 I didn't know about that website. Am going to review my doctor now. By the way, your link didn't work, so I'm going to leave it here: https://www.healthgrades.com/
