Twenty questions, and forty questions, and 60 questions . . .

I had cataract surgery today, on the left eye. They'll do the right in a couple of weeks. The surgery itself was no big deal. It took about 1/2 hour, I've had zero pain, and the vision in the left eye seems just fine.*

But you knew there's a but. When I first started seeing my ophthalmologist, I naturally had to fill out a detailed questionnaire about my medical history. No, they apparently couldn't get it from the previous eye doctor. Then, when I decided to go for the surgery, I met the surgeon at the ophthalmologist's office and they made me fill out another questionnaire all over again with the same information. And uh then, before my surgery, they made me fill out a 15 page on-line questionnaire with all the same information and more. 

And then, they made me report to a nearby hospital for what they called "pre-admission testing," even tough I wasn't going to be admitted anywhere, it's outpatient surgery. There, they asked me all the same questions again. I told them I had filled out a 15 page on-line questionnaire and the surgery center already had the information. They said they didn't have access to it and they needed to ask me again. I asked why they needed the information since they weren't going to treat me and the surgery center already had it, and they replied that they were going to treat me. I said no, you aren't. They insisted that they were, but it wasn't true. All they did was give me an EKG, which was completely unnecessary. They actually asked some of the questions twice -- once by a medical assistant and again by a nurse.

THEN, when I arrived from surgery, they started asking me the same questions again. I asked, why did you make me fill out a 15 page questionnaire, and have the hospital ask me the same questions, and now you're asking me the same questions again? It's procedure. Also, they don't communicate with the hospital and they don't get information from them. You know what? I'll bet you a dollar that when I go for the other eye, they'll ask me again. This is definitely going into the book.

Also too, they made me show up and check in at 7:45, then they kept me sitting in the waiting room for an hour. That's also going into the book.

*So now I have one eye that's farsighted,  and needs a reading glass lens to see close up; and another eye that's near sighted and needs a prescription lens to see at distance. But believe it or not, with no practice, my brain instantly picks the image from the correct eye to present. I see fine at distance, with the good image from my left eye; and close up, with the good image from my right eye. The blurriness from the other eye doesn't register. You figure it out.