A DOCTOR should be able to determine if you have conjunctivitis, right?

Last Monday I woke up and my eyes were completely crusted over, so I figured I likely had some sort of conjunctivitis and went to the school clinic (since it was convenient). My eyes were extremely red - my doctor looked and told me it was nothing, and likely just part of the cold I had.

It got a little worse through the week but I just sort of blew it off because the doctor said it was ok.

Saturday morning I woke up and couldn't open my eyes at all. They were very sensitive and it was like my eyelids refused to open. Light and dark hurt, and when I held my eyes open, they'd roll back into my head within a second. I could only start to open them a bit in the evening. Same thing happened Sunday.

I went back to the school clinic Monday to the same doctor. The doctor told me she was still convinced it was nothing, but I should go to the hospital emergency room right away. (I know, makes no sense).

The ER seemed to think it was pretty serious and gave me emergency priority appointment with their specialist. I was there for the whole day and seen by several doctors, and ended up missing a bunch of tests and stuff and school - not to mention falling very behind by all the homework I missed over the weekend.

Turned out I had a serious case of Viral (something) conjunctivitis which had led to several ulcers on my corneas and may result in permanent damage - I have to miss several more days of school to go back, not to mention pay for all this, and the medication.

If she had known it was conjunctivitis in the first place, I probably wouldn't have gotten the ulcers and had all these other problems. My mom seems to think next time something like this happens I should go to the ER instead of just the doctor.

Long story short - I did some research and went to the doc as soon as I thought something was wrong - both times I went, a week apart, she thought it was nothing.

Is all of this my fault for going to a doctor rather than an optometrist, or should they have clued in to what was going on? (considering I could figure it out and basically told her what was wrong in the first place?) If something like this happens again, should I handle the situation differently?