So last week’s post spoke of the rougher side of the new job. So I’m going to dedicate this week to talking about the benefits of working for an eye doctor.

First off, Thomas has made it clear since long before I got this job or even put thought into working for an eye doctor, that he wanted contacts. Which is something our Medicaid will not at all pay for. We get free regular exams, but they will not pay for contact fittings. We get free glasses, with limited selections, but contacts are out of pocket. I understand this, but this is horrible news to a 16yo boy who really wants contacts.

So he was really excited when I got this new job because maybe I could get him into contacts at a more affordable price. First off, I’d be paying for vision coverage that wasn’t Medicaid, since the company offers a super nice vision plan.

However, it turns out that I didn’t need to wait for vision to kick in. The doctor in office was willing to see Thomas for his contact fitting free of charge, since I work there. Which saved us a good 100$. Then to top it off, the opticians made it quite clear that we have a huge stash of trial lens, meant so a patient could try out a new script for free before sinking $$$ into contacts that might not even work out. This stash of trails, which is basically never ending, and could be used to keep Thomas in contacts for my entire duration of working there. In the off chance they couldn’t keep him in trials, like maybe they didn’t have his script in stock, if I timed my purchase right I could get his contacts at cost, and save a butt load of money.

The 16yo is over the moon.

The 16yo lost his right contact down the sink three days into having them and had a replacement lens ready for him at the end of that workday, with instructions that if he insisted on putting them on over the sink, to at least line it with a towel. And the assurance that he’s not the first to lose a contact down the sink.

The other perk is, once a year I get a 200$ prepade visa that can only be used in-store and can only be used on myself that is meant to encourage me to wear the merchandise. Merchandise I get at cost, exam free.

I got that card in the mail about a week ago and they were able to fit me in for an eye exam within a few days. (We’re not officially on the schedule because other patients come first, but when things slow down because of no shows, we’re allowed to take those spots.) I had all the fancy tests run and my script is updated. I wasn’t completely due for an exam, but it was close enough and I wasn’t going to spend money on new glasses using an old script.

Anyway, I picked out two really nice frames. I’m getting the super fancy lenses (I’m really blind averaging around a -10 between the two eyes so even polycarbonate ends up with super thick lenses, so my new ones will be a step beyond that even, in technology.) I’m getting blue light filtering because I’m always in front of a computer, and I’m also getting transition lenses. These glasses, plus exam would have totaled about $$$$ (I did not, for once, pick cheap frames. I picked the frames my heart told me to pick.) but all said and done my total is just shy of 350$. 200$ of which the prepaid card will cover, ~100$ of which will go on my care credit, and then the final little bit I’ll owe the store for 2 weeks until I get my next paycheck. A paycheck that is large enough I can put 50$ towards glasses and still see rent and bills paid. So I call this a win.

Of course, the catch to all this was that I was not allowed to make my purchase until most of the store had seen me in both frames and approved of them. Luckily, I know what looks good on me and lit immediately on frames that earned my coworker’s approval. I was looking at three, one got the thumbs down, but it was my third favorite anyway. So it all worked out.