SOCIAL

  the way i see it

Be the Example

Show patients you provide the thorough care they imagine you do

MARC R. BLOOMENSTEIN, O.D, F.A.A.O.

Upon the completion of a not so good Asian fusion meal (more like Asian confusion, satisfying delusion, non-gourmet elusion — I could go on, but you get the point), fortune cookies were served. Now, it’s common knowledge that when you read a fortune cookie, you add the words “in bed” at the end. This is not something I made up, right? “Get busy living, or get busy dying . . . in bed” — see, it works!

So, I had my son, Zach, a high school senior, follow suit. The fortune he opened read, “Example is better than perception . . . in bed.” After a few snickers from me, my honor student asked, “Huh?”

I could have pontificated as to why the “in bed” addition made this fortune cookie memorable. Instead, my response to my young adult prodigy was simple: “Dude, are you serious? How can you not know what this means? Hello, McFly! What are they teaching you in those hallowed halls of the Paradise Valley School System?”

Perception vs. example

As I wiped the tear that was rolling down my cheek (not from Zach’s intellectual ignorance — I had a huge dollop of wasabi on my yellow tail that hit me at the same time), I thought about how the fortune itself resonated with me in my daily actions as a doctor of the eye.

As optometrists, we are trained to know many different modalities that can help our patients vision, such as prescription medications that can treat ocular surface disease, vision therapy, timely referrals and ocular wellness strategies to help patients achieve better quality of vision to name few. That is our reality.

The perception is that when patients come to see me, they are going to get the knowledge to maintain a healthy and viable visual system. This quality of life expectation should be the Adidas Boost shoe that helps you run that 26.2-mile race. However, this is not always the case. If we, as optometrists, do not discuss the strategies to help our patients, they are limited in their ocular health prophylaxis.

So, I turn that perception that I am here to help in to a reality by providing quality care (i.e., the example). I do that by obtaining a thorough medical history, evaluating the binocular system, looking for risk factors or identifying that the patient has allergies or dry eye disease — and doing something to treat it. Every patient encounter is an opportunity to parlay that example on my patients. Perception is also enhanced by the reality of your practice, most notably adopting new technologies and embracing modern medical treatment, all the while staying true to our refractive roots.

Getting through

It was really a touching moment between father and son. Zach listened . . . for about 10.02 seconds before he looked at his Instagram feed on his phone. My perception that he wanted to hear what his old man had to say, however, was exemplified by his mumbling as he typed “in bed . . . awesome.” Well, he did hear something. OM

DR. BLOOMENSTEIN CURRENTLY PRACTICES AT SCHWARTZ LASER EYE CENTER IN SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. HE IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE OPTOMETRIC COUNCIL ON REFRACTIVE TECHNOLOGY. E-MAIL HIM AT MBLOOMENSTEIN@GMAIL.COM OR, TO COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, VISIT TINYURL.COM/OMCOMMENT.