Giving thanks, optometry style
Giving thanks sounds like a great idea. The enterprise seems easy enough. However, the days come and the days go with me not exercising the giving of thanks nearly enough. So, here goes…
I’m incredibly thankful for my family. Without them, there simply is no me.
I’m thankful for my Optometry Times family, as well. Without it-I’m looking at you, Gretchyn-there simply is no publically editorial version of me.
I’m thankful for my staff. Without them, I wouldn’t get to actually examine people’s eyes every now and then.
I’m thankful for organized optometry. Without it, optometry as we know it would be over.
Related: Why taking patient history never ends
I’m thankful for continuing education. Without it, ODs would still be giving pilocarpine to everyone with IOPs of over 21 mm Hg.
I’m thankful for large multicenter longitudinal studies. Without them, we would still be bloodletting patients with leeches.
I’m thankful for those who support optometry. Without them, it wouldn’t be a doctoral level profession-it would just be a job.
I’m thankful for those who oppose optometry. Without them, I would have far less material to work with.
I’m thankful for dilating drops (and the ability to use them). Without them, the manufacturers of mydriatic spectacles would likely go out of business.
Related: Ensure patients know follow-up visits may be covered
I’m thankful for that one patient who referred to us as eye dentists. We have been called much worse.
I’m thankful for insurance copays. Without them, I would be hard-pressed to find something to argue about.
I’m thankful for that one CE lecture I attended where the speaker said you have to keep talk of fees out of the exam room because the exam room is for science only. That has been easy to implement!
I’m thankful for whoever invented socks that you can’t see. I’m finally able to pull off that southern business casual look but with less stinky feet.
I’m thankful for whoever invented the dress shirt made out of athletic material. Who knew a 120-year-old building wouldn’t heat and cool well?
Related: What ODs are grateful for in 2018
I’m thankful for that one patient who told me that people would have evolved to have perfect vision had we never invented glasses. I still haven’t told him what they did to myopes in early antiquity.
I’m thankful for our paperless system. Without it, exam records would be only one page, not five.
I’m thankful for that one patient who was deadset on a monocle for his presbyopia, and I’m also thankful he changed his mind.
I’m thankful for my other job as a beer critic. Enough said.
And… I’m thankful for you, our readers. You made it through a long gratitude list. If this came to you in the form of a forwarded email, you would have hit delete a long time ago, but you didn’t. So, we must be doing something right.
Gobble, gobble.
