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March 28, 2006
More on today's swell
The Herald published an article about today's swell here, photo collection and video.
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Hawaii? Nay .. it's Sydney
Image from Aquabumps
In the past two days we have seen one of the biggest swell to hit Sydney in a while.
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March 11, 2006
On the Recovery Road - 28 Days Later
Paying homage to one of my favourite movies of all time, this is the 28th days after my laser eye surgery.
My vision continues to improve. Right eye, as expected, is fantastic. Left eye, still not so great :) I _think_ it still have the same level of astigmatism (cyl 2.5 at 73 degree) from last week, but that's just a guess. In fact I'm a bit wary that it's regressing even more, because when I compare left and the right vision I can really see the difference, especially under low light condition. Until we do a refraction I won't know, so I guess nothing to wory about at this stage.
My day vision is great, it is not 6/6 (yet - I hope) but it's great. I'm loving it, I can't wait until I hit the surf in a few weeks time! Unfortunately my night vision is where I can *really* feel that cyl 2.5 on the left eye. As the light goes down, so does the vision quality.
One thing that I notice recently is the contrast that I'm seeing, both day and night. Because I've been wearing glasses for so long I've always seen the world through that glass. Often glasses get oily, scratches, dirt to make it a bit blurry. Even in a brand new glasses there is still that piece of glass in front of your eyes. Without the glasses I'm seeing all of the colour of my surounding with a new wonder. I start noticing how metallic is the fan next to my desk, how green is the tree at the back of my place, and how city lights are truly fantastic. Seeing without the looking glass is simply amazing.
Last Sunday over a BBQ, I had a chat with my optometrist friend and he said that my left soft lens bandage popped off is the most likely source of complications on the left eye. It's really interesting that out of 10 people who were there, 5 (including me) had had refractive eye surgery done. One person opted to use intra-ocular lense rather than laser eye surgery. One girl is now wearing glasses again after the surgery because of the regression. Fortunately her perscription now is much better than her old's one.
Yeah regression sucks, and she is a living proof that it does happen. I can only hope that it won't happen to me.
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March 09, 2006
Strongest mobile phone in the world?
I couldn't find my mobile phone at home this evening and after a quick search I thought I must have left it in the car. It happens quite often for me. My car is parked on the road as I don't have a garage, so I went out to my car and guess what I found. My mobile phone lying on the road next to my card. Damn it, it must have fallen from my pocket as I moved out from the car.
I picked it up and at a close inspection I couldn't believe what I saw. The damage on the phone couldn't possibly be caused by a simple fall from my pocket. I've dropped my mobile phone at a height much higher than my pocket and it doesn't do much damage on the body. All along the side of the phone there are deep scratches mark and over the front facia there are plenty of bitumen marks. I'm not kidding here, but I think a car must have run over it!
When I picked it up it was off and my first thought is a car run over it and totally blew it. It was in a really bad condition. It's kinda sucks that I only had that phone in less than a year. But I did try to turn the mobile phone on and couldn't be surprised more when it boot up. Wow! That was amazing. A quick check on the phone it seems all functionality is still working fine, and even the 2MP camera is still working.
All my friends know that I'm not good with mobile phone. All my phones (except 1) are always ended up dead because from the impact of numerous drops. Once I dropped my brand new phone from 2 stories high, and no it didn't survive.
This is currently my mobile-phone-drop-damage-record where the mobile phone survive. Amazing.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 01, 2006
Third week post-op visit
This morning was my third week post-op visit.
Well some progress since last week. This morning the opthamologist managed to do the refraction on my eyes to see how I'm seeing rather than just relying on the test machines. We couldn't do it last week because my left eyes were very blurry and couldn't be corrected with glasses.
The right eye, like my doctor said last week, is good. There's cyl 0.5 (astigmatism) reading from the machine but that's not a problem it should stabilise within the next few weeks. The left eye however fluctuated considerably from last week reading. The astigmatism is back to the same level as before the surgery.
He showed me many charts from the corneal topography saying that my astigmatism is back to the pre-surgery level. Well actually I can guess that because I'm seeing slightly double on the left eye. But that's not a big concern he said, since many patients vision fluctuate considerably on the first 3 months post-op.
I've developed a corneal haze on the left eye, a complication associated with PRK rather than LASIK. He said that should clear within the next week while the cornea continues to heal. Let's hope it actually does, because that's what causing the left eye blur more than the right. He said it most likely the delayed healing of the left eye. So since my reading is fluctuating but making progress they have just "sit on me" for the time being.
He didn't change anything on my drop the regime since it seems to be working and he again stressed the importance for me to keep my eyes lubricated. He decided to plug my tear ducts to try to stop the tears from washing away too quickly. He was going to do it only for the left eye before he changed his mind and he told me for optimum result let's plug the other eye as well.
While it sounds scary, plugging your tear ducts, the process itself is pretty much painless and quick. A bit shocking initially, when you feel something is poking inside your inner eye lids but it's totally fine. Apparently you can do it your self. It's not painful but certainly damn uncomfortable sensation. Once it's in you won't feel a thing.
So that's pretty much it. They spent quite a fair bit of time this time around taking a lot of measurement, and a good part of it is the refraction test. He called the opthamologist and explained to her a number of things (feels like I'm becoming a case study here) and said come to again in 4 weeks time unless my vision regress. He will then decide if the plug stays or go. Well, that sounds good, up from the weekly visit.
He said we have to wait at least for 3 months before deciding what to do if I still have that astigmatism on the left eye. I asked do I have enough corneal thickness to do another surgery? He said that he doesn't have the accurate data since of the test that we have been doing in the past few weeks can not accurately determine my corneal thickness. We will have to measure it again if we decided to do another surgery. However according to the old data I have 501 micron and the corneal ablation was 74 micron. So I should have over 400 micron left on my left eye, still don't talk about it now he said. He really doesn't think that I need it, and he thinks that the fluctuation will stabilise within the next few weeks and everything will be fine.
I personally don't really like the idea of another surgery, if it can be corrected with glasses so be it. I'm seeing really clear during the day now and with my own acuity test are doing better by day. I don't need to strain to read the Aristocrat sign on the building across the block and now extending my own acuity test to another sign 3 blocks away. So I'm hoping this fluctuation on the left eye will stabilise over the next three weeks.
I tried to use my laptop original resolution this morning and was quite pleased that I'm actually can read the letters. I tried that for a few minutes before the strain is too much and put it back to 1024x768 res. Kinda sucks, but I'm hoping that I can be back on the original resolution in two weeks time.
I can't wait to go surfing with my eyes now, it will be a whole different world! Imagine being able to actually see things that happening around you when you are surfing! I'm extending the recommended swimming ban by 2 weeks, just to be safe, so I think I can go next weekend or the week after.
About the plug, I liking it better by the hour. It does keep the eyes better lubricated and because of that I'm seeing better. Let's hope it's not permanent :)
So that's pretty much it, I think I'm seeing better than what the machines said (optimism at its best) and my doctor is now comfortable with the current progress. Good! It's getting better by day, and let just hope that left eye fixes it self in the next few weeks.
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