New glasses!

“Do you know you haven’t been here since August of 2007?” the receptionist at my eye doctor’s office asked me.

Is it sad that my first thought was, “I’ll double-check my blog.” Whaddya know? They were right.

I still don’t need bifocals, and in fact my eyesight improved 2 steps in the slacker left eye and one step in the right one. My brown glasses served me very well, but I was really bored of them. So I went with a splash of color. These are a clear blue plastic frame with a silver accents on the sides. I love ’em!

My doctor (based at the former shell of the Echelon Mall called Voorhees Town Center) was kind enough to give me 2 separate prescriptions so I could send one away to Zenni Optical and get a cheap spare pair. She told me to ask the optician (I go to Lenscrafters) to give me my pupillary distance measurement for the 2nd prescription.

And he refused! Isn’t that delightful? In a snotty and scolding tone, he said that NJ law prohibits him from giving me my PD if he’s not going to be making the glasses. I’m not a lawyer, but this law (warning:PDF) in subchapter 5, part D states…

(d) If a patient requests that a licensed ophthahnic dispenser release an original prescription, the licensed ophthalmic dispenser shall release to the patient, without charge, the original prescription maintained as part of the licensed ophthalmic dispenser’s records pursuant to (a) above. A licensed ophthalmic dispenser who releases an original prescription shall make a copy of the prescription and maintain this as part of his or her records.

And part (a) says the record contains…

ii. Lenses, such as sphere, cylinder, axis, prism base, add, patient pupillary distance (P.D.), eyeglass pupillary distance (P.S.) and height of segment (Seg) if multifocal, base curve, frame size, eye size, bridge size and temple length;

So unless the guy at Lenscrafters doesn’t count as a licensed ophthahnic dispenser, I think I have a grumpy letter to write.

I went back 10 feet to the doctor’s office and the receptionist told me the optician was just upset because I wasn’t buying the glasses from him. But here’s the deal — I DID buy a pair of glasses from him! I just wanted him to add my PD to the duplicate prescription. She gave me the estimated PD from my exam, but said it’s not exact.

I think the most irritating part is how I behaved. I took it like a good girl. Even when I looked up the above law during the hour I waited for the glasses, I didn’t confront him with the conflicting information. I just accepted. And I really hate that.