What a difference a day makes

For the past few years, the initial weeks of the calendar year always bring a certain level of anxt. Reason: the all powerful Ontario Ministry of Transportation requires annual vision exams and corresponding visual field reports to be filed so that some of us can keep our valid drivers' licences.

This is a new program that has been introduced just in the past five years or so, and of course the requirements are pretty stringent, but we comply as best we can. Thankfully, there are others who also understand how difficult it is to operate in a system which seems to have no face, and yet has all kinds of power to make decisions that affect us in ways we would never imagine.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that the date set as a deadline for submission of my annual vision report was only one day after the date of my vision field exam. Given the fact that these reports have to be sent to the Toronto office, time is of the essence when it comes to filing (especially when there is only a 24 hour lag between the appointment and the due date. There are many steps in the process, so even if the report is submitted by facsimile, it means that there is still a possiblity that it might be filed late, and this would risk other repercussions that I'd rather not contemplate.

Communication with the MTO a few weeks ago in an attempt to amend the due date seemed at first to be going well, but has proven fruitless to this point, so I decided to contact the ophthalmologist in order to determine what could be done about the situation. Answer, they moved my appointment up by almost a week, thus allowing me to finish the tests and submit them with days to spare.

These are pretty specialized tests and it takes two doctors to run them: both an optometrist and an ophthalmologist are involved. The coordination of these appointments is a feat because they all have to coincide with the due dates for the reports to be filed. Thankfully, both specialists try their best to make things as bearable as possible, and for this I am eternally grateful.

Once the report is submitted (as it has been today), it will take the MTO some 2-6 weeks to render a verdict about whether they grant me a vision waiver for the next year, thus extending my privilege to hold a valid driver's licence. Luckily, they provide the criteria ahead of time, so I have a good idea at the time of filing as to whether or not the report will be accepted. There's always the chance that their specialists will see something that mine didn't, so the waiting goes on. Hopefully it won't take too long to put an end to the waiting though.