Good news ... nice to get a positive report on something. As with so much, you never know what you got till it's gone. And you were faced with possible loss, but it's still there.

Did note a slight emphasis on "proper" optician. I don't know but wouldn't be surprised if you were hinting that you, perhaps, went to a big high street chain and it wasn't diagnosed and that you subsequently went to a small independent and they found it????? I might have made all that up so apologies if I did.

I don't have much to add except to say that a large and well known chain, who have branches almost everywhere, did (eventually) detect a cataract in my wife's eye (in both eyes, in fact) and she was referred to hospital and has had them dealt with. I say "eventually" as it did take a couple of return visits, during which time different members of staff had a couple of attempts to correct the problem not reecognizing that a cataract was present. Of course we don't know how well developed the problem was and how difficult it was to detect ... and ultimately they spotted the need for a referral and it all went from there. We won't know how well an independant would have done - but I would say that we've been pleased with the service we get from them ("them" being the high street chain that has a series of amusing TV adverts that we all quote from time to time)..there's never a fuss if repair or adjustment is needed and never too much waiting and no insistence that an appointment must be made etc.

I honestly don't know how much, if any, difference there is in the cost of spectacles when comparing the small shop with the big chain. But we both have varifocals so are dependant seeing a specialist in the flesh as opposed to going online and getting them cheaper.

Others will have differing experiences.

Edited by KB. on 20/12/2017 at 20:17