Trust Your Intuition – My Eye Exam

Posted October 3rd, 2007

After a recent eye exam, the optician was writing the prescription onto the form for making the lenses. My previous eye exam had been done by an ophthalmologist, and this one was done by an optometrist. The optician remarked that the prescriptions are written differently, depending on which type of eye doctor writes them. The optician appeared to be having trouble with the way the new prescription was written when comparing it to the previous prescription. I sensed she was confused.

The optician remarked that my eyes must have changed a great deal, because the new prescription was much different. I said the optometrist had only changed the prescription slightly. At that moment, my intuition told me that the optician was likely to make a mistake. I did not say anything, even though I knew this was an error-likely situation. Was I under the thrall of the white lab coat?

I picked up my new glasses a few days later, and recognized that the prescription was different from my old glasses. I suspected something was wrong, but decided that a time of adjustment was necessary. After about three weeks of “adjusting” and seeing blurry images, I knew something was wrong. When I almost fell down on a hill,I started wearing my old glasses.

I went back to the optician and told them that I thought something was wrong with the new glasses. The two people in the shop immediately went into denial. At first, just like pipeliners, they said that I probably just needed to adjust to them or that the frames needed adjustment.

After further examination of the paperwork and the glasses, the optician determined that the prescription in the glasses was wrong, because the prescription was written incorrectly on the form. The lenses had to be remade.

One can develop a sense over time when an error is about to be made. I have learned to trust that sense and use my intuition. What about you?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Human Factors, Observations.