It's been a while since a doctor has surprised me THIS much!

Here's the backstory: Last night, right before I fell asleep, I felt what I thought was an eye lash or something bugging my eye. I wiped it away, but "felt" it. It didn't hurt, just sort of itched. Fast forward six hours when I get up for work: My poor eye is super red, burning, painful, and I couldn't stand any light. I took out the my contacts (I know, I know) and found my glasses and went on to work.

Thankfully, I was able to get a pal to cover the last four hours of my shift as my eye is out of control. Red, so painful, and the light be damned! I left work and called the eye center that I have been going to for a few years on my way home. The receptionist takes my number and the eye doctor calls me right back! He went over my symptoms and said "well I am getting ready to leave in 10 minutes but I will wait for you to get here if you can come now." I explained to him where I live and the snarled traffic due to construction on just about every main east-west road in the area. He understood and then said (based on my symptoms) he would call in an antibiotic ointment to the local pharmacy and scheduled me to come in first thing, tomorrow morning. He's coming in early. For me.

After we hung up I went to change out of my work clothes and he called back while I was changing. He gave me his cell phone number just in case the problem gets worse over night and encouraged me to call him if it does. You could've knocked me over with a feather when I listened to that message. He doesn't know me from Adam therefore I know that this is just the type of doctor he is. Caring, concerned, and most importantly HELPFUL!

THIS. THIS is how you treat a patient. It would've been so easy for him to say "sorry, just finished my day, go to the ED if it is bothering you that much." Being a nurse, everyone knows the docs who give the "best" care. The ones who go above and beyond. Sadly, those docs are so very few and far between now. This guy though, I think he's pretty amazing, which is absolutely rare when it comes to doctors/care providers these days.

BTW, I am pretty sure I scratched my cornea with whatever I wiped away from my eye last night. Also, it doesn't hurt that I am able to communicate my symptoms clearly (and in a professional manner) which in turn, helped with his decision to call me in something to get me through the night. But still, it gives me hope that there are still docs like this out there.

Good on him, but this was an easy one. Eye docs don't get emergency calls that often, and most of the time, this is it; a scratched cornea or foreign body in the eye issue, causing irritation. Anything more and it would need a trip to the ER, possibly to look for splinters or something.

The call in to the pharmacy was also an easy one for him to make, the ointment they recommend for these kind of symptoms is about half of their Rx duties.

Just as an aside, and hopefully I'm not practicing medicine here, but the pediatrician I once worked for told me that the antibiotic ointment you get by prescription is the same thing as 'triple antibiotic ointment' available cheaply at any pharmacy, just that the petroleum jelly base is slightly more refined, it comes in a smaller package, and costs 10 times as much.

I now keep both triple antibiotic ointment on hand for just such issues (if you use it for all sorts of things like scrapes and scratches, if you're going to use it on your eyes, squeeze out a bit first, discard that, and use a fresh bit); you simply place a small piece carefully into your lower lid and very carefully let it melt in. It will make your eyesight blurry but that's normal. Sleep with it in and by morning, most red eye and corneal abrasions will be healed up.

Also, little known tip; using ordinary eyedrops once a day helps flush out the germs that can cause colds; if you know you've been exposed, use them two or three times a day and you might get lucky and not get the cold.

reply to post by signalfire


I'm a nurse and have been for years. That being said, I have NEVER heard that OTC antibiotic ointment is the "same thing" as a prescription AB ointment for use in the eye. I'd never put that in my eye, ever.

I have a corneal abrasion and ulcer, from my contacts. They're supposedly "safe to sleep in" but I never will again.

As far as his actions go, they weren't run of the mill. Most physicians these days would've directed me to the ED or even an urgent care center rather than go over everything on the phone, call the pharmacy, call me back to leave me a cell number to contact him if I needed to overnight, and then come in early to see me. The vast majority do not practice like that any more. It's become a lost art, bedside manner. Now it's all about regulations, insurance, what they can and cannot prescribe, how much, rather than advocacy and care. That is what "practicing" medicine has become.