I don't think I've ever been so depressed.

[redhillian]

I've wanted a 'vocational driving licence' for a while - so I can drive wagons/trucks/large vans etc - stuff over 3.5 tones. Also minibuses

I need this, so I can get more temp. work from the agency (haven't had any since mid-august), and so I can go to 'paramedic school' - Ambulances are basically large vans, or minibuses with extra kit (as far as the DVLA care anyway).

To get one of the aforementioned driveing categories, I'll need to take extra tests, and pass a basic medical - are you dead, do you have drug problem, do you pass out at the wheel, are you blind etc.....

You can do the basic part of the eyetest with your glasses on (because you drive with your glasses on) and it's the same as a car eyesight test (read number plate on the bus down the road). The othetr thing you have to do is readthe top line of the optician's chart with your glasses off - presumably in case your glasses fall off whilst driving. OH SHIT. That's the one thing I can't do - I never have been able to, and I don't think it's likely my eyesight will get better.

In fact, even though I have perfect vision with my glasses on, it seems I may be able to register as blind with them off.

Thus: I can't learn to be a paramedic as I can't drive the ambulance. I can't get extra work from the agency as I can't drive a truck. I can't work in a normal office as I'll get sacked after a month or so - been there too many times.

Fuck I'm depressed.

The only option that appears viable at the moment is getting my eyes lasered. Because that'd be fun, wouldn't hurt and is cheap. /sarcasam.

Bugger.

Comments

Sympathy

[batelf.livejournal.com]

So they make you read without your glasses?

Do they make contact lense wearers take their lenses out to read on the off chance they fall out while diving?

It sounds like some little beaurocrat is trying to justify their own job by instituting stupid tests. If they're testing that there are 101 other time possibilities they should be testing for. What if someone sneezes and takes their eyes off the road for a moment? What if a persons hair falls in their eyes at the wrong moment?

For god's sake when was the last time anyone you know had their glasses fall off without being smacked in the head with a mace?

OK so I'm probably not helping make you feel better but I sympathise. Stupid DVLA regulations.

Re: Sympathy

[redhillian.livejournal.com]

Stupid thing is, last time I was smacked in the head with a mace - my glasses stayed on.

[samharber.livejournal.com]

Theres a new treatment that should be available soon for a couple of hundred per eye. They essentially suck or squash your eyeball into the right shape, and it should be good for a few years.
I think it was in New Scientist

[redhillian.livejournal.com]

That sounds worse than laser treatment!

[kingandy]

I have been intending to get laser eyes for about a year now. Want to be able to see. Fucking contact lenses.

That is all.

[redhillian.livejournal.com]

You'll have to let me know how that goes if you do it - I was looking at the pages for it, and getting scaredby all the complications.

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

Do you need this eye-site test to ride a motorbike? And how does one become a motorbike Paramedic (Redhillian with a pillion, anyone?)

[redhillian.livejournal.com]

Yopu become a bike medic by going through 'paramedic school' first, what actually happens is you become a trainee paramedic for a year or so, before tyou can start to qualify as a paramedic, which means you'd still need the driving bits.