Friday's Five Photos

SILLY MOMENTS 

Cake squarely dropped on John's leg.

Annabeth and Josh (our niece and nephew for those who don't know) dancing to the Wii.  Notice the ruby red slippers :)

Pepsi trying to get the last drop out of cottage cheese container.  She's just like Winnie the Pooh.

I actually look like this multiple times a day.  Maybe my white coat makes it look not quite so silly?

Allen's a redneck?  HMMMmmmmmm..... ;)

Wednesday Words I Love

How many optometrists does it take to change a lightbulb?

One....or two.....one.....or two.....

I'm adding onto this 'Wednesday' post because something has caught my interest and I want to share.  I can't talk about any specific optometry patients on this blog, or anywhere else for that matter.  HIPAA demands that my patient's information remain private, which is a good thing.  I wouldn't want my doctor talking about me on the web either.  However, I can talk about my husband, who is technically not even my own patient (he saw another intern) :)

So, Allen has something called latent hyperopia.  Hyperopia means basically that he is far-sighted and needs plus glasses or contacts.  However, the funny part is that Allen wears glasses to correct myopia which is near-sightedness and is corrected with minus glasses.  They are completely opposite.  That's where the 'latent' part of latent hyperopia comes in.  Basically, Allen has hidden hyperopia.  When you do a normal exam on Allen, his eyes tell you that he needs a near-sighted correction.  He will tell you that he can't see with plus lenses over his eyes, and he REALLY can't.  He's not making it up.  However, when we use drops to paralyze the lens in Allen's eyes, suddenly the far-sightedness shows itself for what it really is.

How does this happen? You may be asking.  Why is Allen near-sighted most of the time, but actually far-sighted?  The answer is that Allen's lens inside his eye is locking up.  Everyone's lens is movable and just like a real lens it focuses light.  This is the same lens that when you get older, becomes a cataract and must be removed and replaced.  In normal eyes, when you look up close, your lens becomes fatter and allows the light rays to focus for up close viewing, then when you look far away, it relaxes and becomes skinnier.

Allen's lens is stuck in the 'fatter' position.  The muscles (actually called the 'zonules of zinn') that make his lens fat are stuck in a taught position and are not letting up.  Only when my colleague put special drops in his eyes to force them to relax, could they really allow the lens to go into its skinny position.

So, is this a problem?  Technically, yes and no.  Its not uncommon and as long as Allen is young, he can simply wear the near-sighted correction that he has, the only thing different that he has to do is take off his glasses to read.  However, as Allen gets older, his lens, just like everyone else's will start to deteriorate.  This is why most people need reading glasses.  If we don't do anything about the latent hyperopia now, Allen may need reading glasses sooner than most people.  Actually, that is why he is already having to take off his near-sighted correction to read.  Its also pretty annoying for Allen to know that if we could get the problem fixed, he could probably go without glasses or contacts at all.  His far-sighted correction is much lower than his near-sighted.

So: the outcome is in the 'to be determined stage.'  Today and yesterday Allen is attempting to go without any correction at all.  All that needs to happen is for his zonules to release the tightening that they have on his lens and this might be achieved through wearing no glasses.  However, he's dealing with blurriness, and we're not sure how long it will take.  I am also researching other ways to relax his eyes.

He is my own personal science experiment right now! :D  Glad he doesn't mind.

I'll keep you guys updated on the outcome.

Back to the Basics

I feel like all my posts lately have been depressing.  Sorry guys, my life is actually really great.  Like I said, Allen and I enjoy every minute...just sometimes seem frustrating.  Its crazy though to think about other times that I have been frustrated/impatient in the past and how irrelevant, or even funny those situations have become now.

I will now proceed to tell a crazy story to make up for my negativity yesterday ;)

So, Allen and I were at JCPenney's in Bedford, IN and you must first understand, Bedford, Indiana has a JC Penney that is about the size of a pea!!  Well, not really, but its REALLY, REALLY, REALLY small. Maybe about the size of a normal Gap or Bath and Body works.  There is NOT much there.  So, I had a gift card and Bedford is the closest around for 100 miles and I was trying to make the best of it.  I had found some cute sweaters and was trying them on.

Allen, bless his heart, he's so sweet about shopping, was waiting outside the fitting room somewhere away from ear shot.

So, I start hearing people talking about a wreck outside.  At first I didn't think anything about it, but then they kept talking about several cars being involved and I decided I might want to go take a look for myself.  I met Allen at the door, he had also heard the rumors, and we walked out into probably the most excitement the town of Bedford has seen in YEARS.  There were ambulances and cop cars galore and we could see that at least 4 cars had been totaled.

What happened?

A lady had been backing up from a handicapped space, hit the gas instead of the break and DID NOT let up.  She drove around backwards in a complete circle, with a 30 foot diameter, sideswiping each car as she went.  To make it more exciting, not only did she just barely tap 5 cars, she completely demolished the sides of 5 cars.   I mean there were doors completely dented in, fenders laying on the ground, you name it, the lady hit it.  I'm pretty sure even a pedestrian was involved, but don't worry, I think it was more the lady zooming by just knocked her over, not actually hit her.

Poor lady, I really felt sorry for her.  Obviously, it was an accident, but goodness, what an accident it was!!

We thought our car (99 Mercury Cougar - Oh yeah!)  was ok until we walked around to the side that was not facing Penney's....

Our front bumper and left light were crushed and hanging from the car.  We think ours was the second victim in the serial sideswipes.

It was all good for us though.  Allen and I have never really owned a great car.  Most of the time he buys something that's on its last leg, fixes whatever's wrong with it himself (I know, he's great right?) and then we drive it till it dies.  Several of our cars have died or come very close to the after-life through minor fender benders and we usually just pocket the insurance money.  Most of the time, the cars are on their last leg anyway, so we figure we might as well use the money toward something else :)

This time wasn't any different.  We collected the insurance money and Allen epoxied the fender back together.  About 6 months later the car's transmission hit the dust.

Life's all about blessings in disguise and not worrying to much about the little things.  Like Allen says, people are important, not things.

So, that's my crazy story to make up for yesterday's rant.  All's well that ends well, right?




Also, SHOUT OUT TO OUR FRIENDS JOHN AND LAURA O'CONNOR ON THE BIRTH OF THEIR FIRST BABY, NORAH REAGAN O'CONNOR.  We're happy and proud.  Love you guys!

Momma Said There'll Be Days Like This...

OK, so yesterday wasn't Wednesday (sorry about the "words I love").  That's about how today went. :P  


I can't be at all specific about today thanks to HIPAA but:


It couldn't have been any more frustrating.  But, I'm looking on the bright side: every day can't be like this, right?  Hope not.  If so, I've chosen my profession poorly. :P


So...my mantra during tough days, weeks, seconds has always been: "This too shall pass"  


Lets hope it does.

Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes courage is that still small voice that at the end of the day says, "I will try again tomorrow."

Mary Ann Radmacher