I (29F) am severely nearsighted, and it’s been a huge insecurity for me my entire life.
For context, I’ve never met anyone with worse vision than mine. Whenever I tell people my prescription, it’s always met by ‘WHAAAT’, ‘No way!, ‘Are you legally blind?’ and it’s always made me feel embarrassed and singled out.
When I was younger, I started lying about my prescription and telling people it was much lower than it actually is, just so I wouldn’t feel so different.
Recently, I needed new glasses, and since I live out of town and just visitng back home, my mom took me to the optician she goes to regularly. At the store, the woman working there took my current glasses to measure the prescription. She looked at them and immediately chuckled and said, ‘These are quite thick, aren’t they?’ Then, after she checked them and saw the prescription printed out, she chuckled again and said, ‘Wow, you’re VERY blind’.
I was already uncomfortable, but then I saw her take my glasses and the measurement slip to the back and briefly show them to a few coworkers. They leaned in, looked at it, and giggled. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was pretty clear they were reacting to how strong my prescription was.
At that point, I was genuinely upset. When she came back, I snapped and told her that I found her comments about my vision, and laughing about a patient’s prescription and showing it to other staff like it was a joke, rude and unprofessional.
She looked shocked and said she was “just fascinated” because it’s not often she sees someone so young with eyesight this bad. My mom got uncomfortable and tried to smooth things over.
After we left, my mom told me that this is her local optician and that I embarrassed her. She said I overreacted, that the woman didn’t mean anything by it, and that I should’ve just ignored it or laughed it off instead of making a scene. She also said that if someone points out that she has thick glasses and horrible eyesight, she wouldn’t be upset as those are just facts, and you “can’t get upset about facts,” and that I need to get over this childhood insecurity.
I’m honestly hurt that she doesn’t have my back too. It feels easy for her to say when her prescription is only around -7 and her glasses look pretty normal. Mine is -15. My lenses are soo thick, my eyes look tiny, and the distortion from the lenses just screams to the world how bad my eyes are and I hate how self-conscious I am of them.
But I just feel like a medical professional should know better than to mock or gossip about a patient, especially right in front of them as what they joke about could be a sensitive subject for many people.
So AITA for snapping at the optician for this or is my insecurity making me unreasonably sensitive about this issue?
NTA. That was unprofessional and inexcusable. And, seriously, it should be reported. I noticed you didn’t say she apologized.
With eyes that bad, you need an ophthalmologist, which is an MD who specializes in eyes, not an optician who is just barely a medical professional. Ophthalmologists are well accustomed to those with extreme eye issues and would never subject you to that. You will be seen in a medical office and not in a mall or Walmart.
This. I work in a hospital and have contact with our ophtho team, can’t imagine them being anything but caring and considerate toward someone with vision problems.
Opthalmologists are doctors. They dont fit glasses. She will need an optician in addition to the opthalmologist.
I have seen an ophthalmologist since I was 4 with strabismus, through two surgeries, glasses at age 5, hard contacts at age 13, ptosis surgery as an adult, and eventually cataract surgery. Every one of them (3 in total) has prescribed my glasses and / or contact lenses. I have never once seen an optician.
Nowadays my ophthalmologist will write me the scrip and give me my pupillary distance and I order my glasses from Zenni.
NTA
That was terribly unprofessional of them.
And your mom can kick rocks. You embarrassed her? She needs to quit making this about her, you have every right to call out rude behavior.
NTA. But your mom wow. “You can’t get upset over facts” really?! And also they were just stating a fact they were laughing about it. Also doesn’t HIPPA come into play here? I’m so mad for you
I had an optometrist make me cry once. It was at a national chain, and I reported her to the company. They responded with an apology and a voucher of sorts for a free exam.
NTA. Odd anyone in that profession would laugh. I’m a former minus 12. By my early 30s I had as much vitreous detach as people in their 90s. Early 40s got cataracts bad enough to warrant surgery and lens implants which was life changing. with our big prescriptions we’re far more likely to have such major issues as well as retinal detach which can be very serious and lead to blindness. They shouldn’t be laughing that’s incredibly unprofessional. It’s ok to remark about it, because it is unusual, but not laugh.
NTA.
She *was* extremely unprofessional, and made a joke of– and shared!– a patient’s *medical information*. I would make a formal complaint with the optometrist’s office.
I am sorry people like this have made you feel so self conscious.
Who goes around telling everyone their eyeglasses prescription? I don’t think I’ve ever discussed it with anyone besides my eye doctor.
Fellow -15 prescription here.
NTA
Your prescription is essentially medical information, and the optician sharing it with her colleagues for amusement is incredibly unprofessional.
NTA. Used to work in eye care and see a lot of people with high myopic prescriptions; and while I would *think* to myself “wow this person is really blind.”, I would never say it their face or show their prescription to everyone in the office. That is completely unprofessional.
NAH, but I would like to gently point out that you’re sensitive to this issue because you are embarrassed by your prescription even though no one is judging you for it/no one else finds it embarrassing.
I came down with a rare disease once. My doctor gave me a sticker (at 25) because she was fascinated since I was her first case (in 20 years of practice). She wasn’t making fun of me or laughing at my misfortune. She was being human and expressing curiosity and interest in something she never sees in her profession but had probably studied in school.
It sounds like this woman was just surprised by your prescription and commenting in an offhanded way about it not realizing it triggered you because you’re embarrassed by it even though it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
You’re not wrong for being triggered. Your feelings are valid. But nobody was being snotty or unprofessional. You’re projecting judgment where there is none.