The other day my parents went to visit a local eye doctor to get their prescription renewed for their eyes glasses. My dad was diagnosed with glaucoma several years ago now, so he sees an eye specialist frequently — but this specialist doesn’t do regular eye-glass exams. Hence why he was visiting this doctor on this day.

My dad’s glaucoma specialist is well known in his field and recommended one of his past students to my parents — so my parents made an appointment and went to the recommended eye doctor.

My mom was the first patient. Dr. X treated her as if she wasn’t there, she says — or as if she were a non-entity. He did his job, was brief in his words and then he saw my dad. As my mom reflected upon her quick exam, she didn’t like the doctor’s demeanor. He was rude and she had decided she wouldn’t come back again.

Then when the doctor visited my dad, and realized my dad had glaucoma, his demeanor completely changed. He immediately came out, and got my mom — and was super friendly. All of the sudden, my mom was someone to notice.

He took my mom into the exam room with my dad and he started talking about the seriousness of my dad’s eye condition — and then promptly went on to scare the life out of both of them. This new doctor said my dad’s eye pressure was very high (which can be dangerous). He went on explain that my dad’s tear ducts were about to close and that could cause a serious medical emergency at any time which my parents had never heard about before.

He explained to my dad that the emergency could cause my dad blurred vision, vomiting, headaches — and could cause my dad blindness within hours unless the pressure was resolved and resolved quickly.

He went on to tell my parents that my dad should consider doing an iridotomy — where they laser a small hole in the eye to help reduce the pressure. He also told my dad he had cataracts, which were just starting (my dad didn’t know about this either) — but those cataracts cause eye pressure to increase — so they should have those removed too. Promptly.

This doctor went so far as to tell my dad he called his glaucoma specialist and told him that his specialist backed this doctor’s recommendations. With that, he tried to schedule my parents to come in the following Monday to start with the iridotomy and cataract removal!

My mom, who is also a truth wizard, was on to him — though nonetheless unnerved. She had no intentions of switching doctors — so what was this doctor thinking? She came home, rang me up — and asked what I thought.

I, too, noted that the change in demeanor was the first red flag that this guy was a less-than-honest individual. When my parents were there just for an eye exam — they were just a frustration to this doctor. They weren’t a good source of money. However, when the doctor saw money in my dad’s glaucoma — all of the sudden my parents were deserving of lots of attention! That’s scary. Suddenly, the doctor was energetic, interested and full of information.

But worse, he scared the hell out of them, gave them urgent time-frames and wanted to take action immediately. He also had no regard for the fact my dad already had a glaucoma specialist — he didn’t need a plain-old-eye-doctor calling the shots! That was the second huge red-flag that substantiated the first red flag. This man was not trustworthy.

You see, my dad had just seen his specialist two weeks before — and they had noted my dad’s pressure was elevated — but they were trying a new medication and giving it a reasonable and safe period of time to see if they could affect safe changes. It was during this last visit, that my parents were concerned and my dad’s specialist said not to be — there were still plenty of options before surgery. Then this new guy scared the hell out of them, unnecessarily!!

I set out to investigate what this new eye doctor was telling my dad. I couldn’t find anything anywhere on the web that says cataracts in themselves cause higher eye pressure in glaucoma patients or that they should be removed due to glaucoma.

After an hour of intense searching, I finally found out that advanced cataracts (defined as limiting vision and seriously impacting quality of life) can affect eye pressure. However, my dad was no where near this point. Essentially, what the doctor said versus what I found on the web were not in agreement. I suspect the doctor was stretching the truth for money.

My dad called his specialist and told him what this doctor had said to him. My dad asked if he should try another medication at once — or perhaps come in to review what to do — and my dad’s specialist said he didn’t see any reason for alarm and he’d see him as previously scheduled on March 1st. My dad also got the feeling that perhaps this other doctor never even called his doctor when they discussed it. We will never know for sure.

When people change their demeanor — and there is something to gain that can cause a change of demeanor — like in this situation — this doctor realized he had a great potential to do lots of procedures and make money off of my dad’s glaucoma — it’s time to run — and run fast!!! This guy wasn’t out to care for my parents. He was out for the all mighty buck.

Busted!