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Test 04 - Part A - Extract 1

Vocab level: B2
Difficulty Reading Up Close
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The material in this exercise belongs to OET BANK — an online resource for Medical English learners preparing for OET.

Hi Aidan, I'm Dr Salkeld.
Could you start by telling me about what's been going on with your vision?
Sure.
Well, I guess it must have started a while ago, but I didn't really notice it properly until about two weeks ago.
I was working in my garden and I noticed that I was having a hard time reading the instructions on the gardening products that I just bought.
I normally stick to the one I've been using for years, but I thought it'd be nice to try something different.
Anyways, it kind of felt like everything was fuzzy around the edges and I just couldn't see the letters clearly.
After talking to my daughter,
she mentioned that I'd been using increasingly more light to read at night and even pulling things closer to me to read.
I hadn't even noticed.
So, I went out and got some of those glasses they sell at the pharmacy and they helped,
but my doctor said that it'd be better if I came to see an eye doctor.
Well, they made things less blurred anyway, I guess.
My vision's still not crystal clear or anything when I use the glasses, but I wasn't really expecting that.
I still notice that I'm squinting to see things.
It's mostly when I'm trying to read something close up, like small writing.
I'm better when things are at a distance.
I don't know if it's related, but I've also noticed a pretty persistent headache.
I guess it's kind of at the sides of my head, I suppose.
It comes and goes, but it's definitely worse when I'm having trouble seeing something.
When it gets really bad, I just take a fast-acting ibuprofen and that tends to sort it out.
Ever had any vision problems before?
When I was little at some point in elementary school I think I had glasses
but I'm sure I broke them and we just never got round to having them replaced.
My brother has glasses that he's been wearing for years.
I don't really know a whole lot about what's wrong with his eyes... maybe he's short-sighted.
Oh, but that reminds me.
My brother thought I should mention that a couple of months or so ago, I was pretty ill.
I was suffering from sinusitis.
And anyway, I left it pretty late to go and see the doctor about it.
Kind of thought that it would just sort itself out.
Anyway, it lingered for a while,
so when I told my doctor, he gave me some antibiotics and it cleared up pretty quickly after that.
Well, for the most part, although I still feel like I have a cold.
Other than that, I've been in really good health for the last few years.
I take my health really seriously.
I'm not sure if the doctor told you, but I used to be quite overweight,
but I lost it all after a bit of a wake-up call some years back.
I had what you guys call a myocardial infraction.
It was pretty scary and I was quite overweight at the time and really stressed out about my job.
Since then I've made a real effort to look after myself properly.
I'm glad to hear it.
So, in terms of your blurred vision,
what do you think might work for you?
Well, I don't particularly like the idea of wearing glasses all the time, but...
touching my eyes freaks me out, so contact lenses are definitely not an option.
I guess the best thing might be to just have glasses that I wear all the time,
so I don't keep forgetting to put them on when I'm out somewhere, not at home.
I've actually never had an eye test, so I should probably schedule one of those as a next step.
I think that sounds reasonable.
Let's do some tests to check out your eyes and go from there.