What Being A Doctor Really Means?

It is always a challenge thinking about what course to take in college. I always tell people who do not know what direction to take to envision themselves in about ten years. Are you in an office? In a clinic? Are you working in sales? Being a doctor is usually in the top 3 list of what kids want to be when they grow up.

Being a doctor means you have to study longer than others, and you have to burn your eyebrows researching for new ways to manage patients. A doctor must always keep himself up-to-date by attending conferences, and read a lot of books and journals until he gets dry eyes. Studying to become a doctor means you are welcoming a season of sleep deprivation.

I am an optometrist, an eye doctor. I see patients who thought they are visually impaired for life. One of the conditions I see in the clinic is keratoconus, which is a condition where the transparent outer portion of the eye becomes cone-shaped and thins down. The disease makes people see poorly. As their eye doctor, I see the frustrations of these patients — the endless search for what’s wrong with their eyes, why their vision cannot be improved anymore with regular eyeglasses or contact lenses. Most outsiders, even their parents, cannot comprehend how blurry their vision is. They cannot imagine the shadows, haloes, and multiple images. It is not just merely an everyday blur.

It is always a touching scene seeing keratoconus patients who are being trial fitted with contact lenses cry with their parents. They are overwhelmed that after long years of searching on what’s wrong with their vision, they now have the answer and can finally see. Parents would sometimes confess that they did not realize that it was that bad for their kids. It is always a remarkable sight, witnessing patients gaze at their arms, realizing they have hairy arms. Those who came in almost blind, had their vision improved that they can already drive and work independently. It gives warmth to my heart. Maybe this is one of my purposes in life, to see patients regain their vision. I heard it somewhere that it can just be an ordinary day for you in the clinic, but it is a journey for your patients, a life-changing one for some others.

I guess after seeing all these; I got a new perspective on what being a doctor means.

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