Doctor 3 - The well-oiled machine

Doctor 3 – I got his number from a friend of a friend’s relative who I never met or knew. Apparently his distant cousin did the surgery and was happy. Heck it was worth a shot.
I called and they put me through to him. Knowing what I knew from all the research I did, I first asked what machine he was using. I asked him more about it and he told me not to worry about the machine. His voice was very calming and I asked if I could come by today because I had been off my lenses for 3 days anyway.

An hour later, I reached his clinic. It was busier than I could imagine. I was surprised he let me come in. Different people did the different tests on me and his clinic ran like a well-oiled machine. I met him and asked him more of my questions. He was in no hurry, but with the atmosphere around I somehow was. He told me that the machine he was using has given him great results and so they’ve upgraded and he’s very happy with the consistency of it. Sounded fine. I was set. A good doctor who trusted his machine. I left, pretty shocked how convinced I was so quickly after meeting him.

I went home and did more research. There was material on his machine, doctor 1’s machine and test results for all of them. Doctor 1 and 2 were using the same machine and swore by it. In fact, they promoted it and highly recommended it over all the others. Sort of like children talking about their table tennis bats. Doctor 3’s machine didn’t have as much material online as the others so I looked through their catalogues. Doctor 2’s pamphlet showed a chart from the FDA which showed everyone else’s machine declining with consistency as the power increases. I was more confused.

I called Doctor 1’s clinic and asked more questions. I mentioned that the Doctor said I could choose between Epi Lasik and Custom Lasik. Epi Lasik is where they don’t make a flap which may sound better but it’s only recommended for people with thin corneas. But heck, why not do it anyway I asked. The response was, the healing time is longer and the first few days are uncomfortable instead of the first few hours. I did more research online. Epi-Lasik wasn’t as popular as Doctor 2 told me.

Doctor 3 told me it was not a common procedure but they had it. So I called Doctor 2’s clinic back. They said, we spoke to the Doctor 2 and he recommend Epi Lasik because you have dry eye. What? He never mentioned dry eye. I only enquired about Epi-Lasik because I thought it was newer and hence, safer.

I wasn’t sure if I was the one looking for problems or someone up there was trying to tell me something by making each doctor tell me something else. I put everything on hold. I had a busy work schedule as well so the wait was needed anyhow.