1st Patient EVER!

Hey everyone, Daniel here. It's been a while since I've posted so here are a couple of tidbits for you. I finished my second year of optometry school in the beginning of May. I got a week off and now I'm back at it. This summer semester is the beginning of my third year and also the time I start to see patients. Last Friday I had my first patient! I can't believe how fast time has gone by and it's hard for me to believe that I am ready to look at a patient, understand what might be wrong and that I have the knowledge to help them, but for the most part I do.

My first patient was a great experience. She was a 63 year old nurse who has been coming to the Eye Center for a long time. She know that you get good quality exams, but that they take a little longer, since the students are doing them. That's probably why she wasn't frustrated that her exam took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to do! I'm sure I'll get faster. She was really nice and when my staff doctor came in to finalize things he asked her if she knew she was my first patient. She said she had no idea and told my staff doctor that I should get an A for the day, so I guess it couldn't have gone too badly.

This picture is of me standing in front of The Eye Center on my first day with patients. About 300 patients are scheduled there every day. I'll be seeing about 3 patients each time I am in clinic, which right now is only once a week. The next 2 semesters that will increase. Today I am going to do a "mobile" exam, where my lab group travels to a nursing home to give exams to patients in their rooms. I'm excited to see how it goes.