Recent Blogs

Blog Archive

Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Eyes Up Here

A few years ago I made an appointment at an optometrist's office that was close to my house. I had gotten glasses in college because I started having trouble seeing the board my Senior year and found out I was near-sighted. I was really bad about wearing the glasses, so I decided that if I got contacts I would be more willing to wear them. I told Denny that he needed to get his eyes checked too, so he got an appointment the same day. It was a husband and wife practice and the only one in Huntersville that accepted our insurance. The wife specialized in kids, and the husband did all of the work with the adults.

When we walked in for our first appointment, I went back and had my eyes checked out and got fitted for contacts and new glasses. It took a long time and even longer for me to try to get the contacts in my eyes the first time, but I succeeded and made an appointment for the following year. Dr. Reynolds seemed like a nice guy, he did have really thick glasses though so that kind of concerned me on how good he could be at examining other's eyes. Denny and I once again made appointments for the same day and the next year showed up for the appointments. They had only scheduled one time for both appointments, so Denny went back first. He went into a room and was out in 5 minutes flat. I went back to have my eyes checked after chit-chatting with the very nice nurse and sat down in the chair. Dr. Reynolds came in and sat in the room a few inches from me using the device to look into my eyes. There was a tray in between us that he was resting his arms on and my chin was placed in the very uncomfortable device. He would switch back and forth from eye to eye and click things and then just sit there and look. Occasionally he would say, "blink" or "does your eye feel dry?." I would answer and then it would just be more silence and more examining. Due to the close proximity, my legs were situated in between his legs and occasionally he would shift and my knee would touch his. It made me uncomfortable so I would shift my leg or take my hand and physically pick up my pant leg to hold it away from him. No lie, 20 minutes later we were still in the same uncomfortable position with my chin resting on the device and him looking in my eyes. I was contemplating in my head, do I say "why is this taking so long?" or do I just let him do his job. I would clear my throat or twitch a little bit and sigh thinking he would speed things up. By this point I felt like some type of Zen Buddhist that was getting the ultimate test in patience.

After about 30 minutes, he backs away and tells me my eyes look fine, but they seem to get dry and my contacts seem to take a long time to settle in my eyes when I initially put them in. I figure that is why it took so long for the examination. I mean that was my first year with contacts and I don't know much about eye doctors. I come out and Denny is over picking out new glasses for himself. The nurse asks me if everything is ok, which I think is weird. So everyone does not take 30 minutes? After we leave, I tell Denny that is riddiculous that it took me so long, I will have to find a new eye doctor next year.

Fast forward to the next year and I have gotten pink eye the day before I am supposed to return from maternity leave, I go in to have him look at my eye and give me some meds at the last minute. He does and I come out fast and with a prescription. I figure it must just be a thing with my contacts. I keep my annual appointment a few weeks later and go get my eyes checked. Once again it takes a very long time and I feel extremely uncomfortable in the room with him. After that appointment I leave and tell Denny that Dr. Reynolds is creeping me out and I am definitely finding a new eye doctor.

A few months later, Denny is out of town at a conference in Las Vegas, and I am at home on a Friday night watching TV on the couch while Dylan is in bed. A news clip comes on the screen for some late breaking news. It goes like this, "Huntersville eye doctor charged with inappropriate conduct against patients, see more at 11." All of the sudden a mugshot of my eye doctor flashes across the screen and I think I lose my dinner. I could not call Denny because he was in a meeting, so I pick up the phone and call my brother Troy who knows nothing about the story, but I have to tell someone! I was like, "I knew he was creepy!"



It gets even better, he ending up fleeing the country and left his wife with the practice. He has no kids. He did eventually come back and more allegations were stacked up against him by patients: http://www.wsoctv.com/news/13848556/detail.html
He was convicted; I think it is kind of like a slap on the wrist and now he can no longer practice medicine.

It appears that he was inappropriately touching female patients during routine eye exams, and I guess one woman turned him in and it snowballed into more and more people coming forward. I did not ever feel him touch me, but he did creep me out. The doctor's office now has a new doctor and staff over there, but they never said anything about it or announced the new doctor. I just thought that this doctor took a long time giving eye exams. Guess I learned my lesson. Just remember next time you go to the eye doctor to check and see where their eyes are focused.