My doctor said I have narrow angles - What the heck does that mean??

Hello, friends!  Thanks for reading today.  I hope each of you had an awesome weekend.  I just got back from doing a triathlon at the Space Center.  It was beyond cool!  The cycling was a bit more than I'm used to but I'm glad to say that it went pretty well.

I am very lucky to have wonderful people in my life.  One of them is my aunt Lisa.  She is awesome - kind, loves animals, compassionate, loves to travel, can find great deals, ... you name it.  Anyway, she asked me to write a post on narrow angles, so here it is!

So, there's a part of the eye called the angle.  It's called an angle because that's eactly what it is.  It is a space between (cue the Dave Matthews song here) the cornea and the iris that can be different sizes in different people. 

Generally (but of course there are exceptions to every rule):

FARSIGHTED individuals (Hyperopic; Glasses prescription is a "plus" or "+" prescrption, cannot see well up close) generally have narrower/smaller angles than their nearsighted friends.

NEARSIGHTED individuals (Myopic; glasses prescription is a "minus" or "-" prescription, cannot see well far away) usually have more wide or open angles.

So what's the problem if you have narrow angles?  In some cases, it's no big deal.  However, in other cases, narrow angles can cause the pressure in the eye to build up, leading to something you probably don't want to have called glaucoma.  The eye pressure builds up sometimes in narrow angles because the angle is where the fluid drains - too much fluid and not enough draining leads to increased pressure.  Kind of like my garbage disposal last week (it wasn't pretty).

If you are concerned about narrow angles, go see your friendly optometrist so they can take a look at your eyes.  I promise once again that we are SO NICE!  We want to help you and we love questions!!  So ask us, we want to help!

Your optometrist can use a microscope called a slit lamp to look at your eye magnified many times.  We can see how shallow or deep your angle is.  If it is very narrow or shallow and we are concerned that the fluid isn't properly draining, we may send you to a spccialist to do a cool laser treatment to allow for better drainage.  Basically, the laser forms a tiny hole in the colored part of the eye so that the fluid has another way to go.  If your doctor recommends this procedure, please don't worry - it's a pretty quick procedure and doesn't cause any pain.

I hope you have found this post helpful, and I hope you are trying to make each day your best!  Have a wonderful week.  :)

Appreciation of the present

Hello, friends.  Just feeling really thankful and wanted to share.  I was reminded recently on how important it is to let go of things/people/ideas in your life that no longer serve you.  The past, that you may long for now, was ignored by you when it was the present.  The present is all you have!  Live for now.  I'm trying to do that myself.

So, it's really rainy here and rain makes me think.  Just wanted to share my rainy day thoughts!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Tetris is an awesome game!

Could Tetris help treat Adult Amblyopia?




The mesmerizing falling blocks seen in the Tetris video game could be a helpful tool for treating adult amblyopia, according to a small study in Current Biology.



The study involved 18 adults with a history of amblyopia. Half of the participants in the study played Tetris with their stronger eye patched. The other half had special goggles in place during their Tetris games. The goggles allowed the participants to see the falling blocks with their weaker eye, and the ground plane objects with their stronger eye.



The participants who wore the goggles fared better than the ones who patched their stronger eye. There was a statistically significant difference in vision improvement of the lazy eye and depth perception in the participants who were using the goggles. The researchers concluded that forcing the eyes to work together was more beneficial than patching, although both groups showed some improvement in the vision of their lazy eye.



Computers and video games have often been used as aids during vision therapy. Making the eyes work together through use of special video games is one treatment for children and adults with amblyopia.







References:



“Dichoptic training enables the adult amblyopic brain to learn.” Current Biology, Volume 23, Issue 8, 22 April 2013, Pages R308-R309.

Jinrong Li, Benjamin Thompson, Daming Deng, Lily Y.L. Chan, Minbin Yu, Robert F. Hess





“Tetris may help adults with lazy eye, study finds.” From Huffington Post Online, April 23, 2013.

Cataracts can be "Stellar"

Hello friends,

I'm on something called the Optometry Advisory Board for my company (fancy title for getting to help out by acting as a bridge between the company optometrists and our management people), and one of my responsibilities is to contribute to our optometry newsletter.  Mostly I write about interesting eye-related things in the news, so that's what the next couple of articles are going to be about.  Hope you enjoy!

This first one's about a guy with a cool-looking cataract :):


Have you ever seen a patient with stars in their eyes? Check out the photo of an Austrian man who was punched in the eye, causing a star-shaped cataract. As reported in the New England Journal of medicine, the 55-year-old man noticed worsening vision over a six-month period. Upon examination, the patient was found to have lens opacification in the shape of a star. The patient was punched in the affected eye nine months earlier.



Most often, cataracts like these are caused by being punched or hit by a ball during a sporting activity. Injuries from air bags or steering wheels can also cause a similar appearance. Very rarely, infrared energy or electric shock can cause a stellate cataract.



In many cases, the cataract looks like a cloud, but sometimes a distinct star pattern is formed.



Four times more males than females experience ocular trauma, and the average age for occurrence of ocular trauma is 28.



As optometrists, we should always stress the importance of proper eye protection to our patients.



SPECIAL NOTE TO MY OPTIMIST OPTOMETRIST FANS:  The moral of this story is that even something bad (being punched in the eye, in this case) can lead to something beautiful (that was a pretty nice looking cataract, right?).  Hope you all have a wonderful day!!!



References:



1. emedicine.com, “Traumatic Cataract Clinical Presentation”:

Robert H Graham, MD Consultant, Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona

2. “Punch Leaves Man With Star-Shaped Cataract,”By Karen Rowan, MyHealthNewsDaily Managing Editor
LiveScience.com – Wed, Apr 3, 2013



Photo from New England Journal of Medicine, April 2013

A little something to ponder

Wanted to share a quote with you that made me think:

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

--Elizabeth Kubler Ros

Very quick post. Just feeling very thankful and fortunate for the difficult situations in my life. Without them, I would never grow as a person or learn compassion. Am learning the importance of appreciation for the present. Hope everyone is continuing to take care of themselves, and that you all have a fantastic day!

Well hello there! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! This is just going to be a quick post about resolutions... with it being 2012 now and all, what better time to hone in on your goals.

So, you guys know what I do for a living, so I wanted to have you consider putting your eye health at the forefront of your resolutions this year. Think about all the things your eyes do for you! They help you see the world! So please consider resolving to get your eye health checked with a friendly optometrist. As I've said before, I promise we are SO NICE! Not to brag, but I think we are one of the most awesome professions in health care because we get to help you see more clearly. So go out and get those eyeballs checked!

Another resolution I would like you to consider would be to do something that makes you happy every day. It can be something really simple like talking to someone you care about or working out. Just do it. Take time for yourself. You will be glad you did.

So the optimist optometrist has had kind of a rough year last year... but is doing better every day. One thing she learned from the drama of 2011 is the importance of appreciating what you have right now. Try not to live in the past or the future, but be here now and love what you have in your life at the present time. Trying to do that.

So again, just a short post to say hello and remind you of the importance of goal-setting and seeing your friendly optometrist. Hope you all have the best 2012 possible.

Eye Topics for my Optimistic Friends

Good morning, my friends! Hope you are all having a nice day. Hope you have some fun Halloween plans, if you celebrate Halloween.

This is just a mini-post with some ideas for topics from my crazy sibling, Sunshine. Said crazy sibling texted me a number of ideas, and I wanted to put them up here so I don't lose them (my crazy phone likes to erase stuff sometimes.)

So here are the topics suggested. Feel free to suggest your own! I am going to try to write more in here within the next couple of weeks.

1. Tucker's (Sunshine's dog) bionic eye

2. Prosthetic eyes

3. Astigmatism

4. What does the goo inside an eye look like?

5. My (Sunshine's) crazy optic nerve

6. Eye pressure

7. Emiry's (Sunshine's friend) optic nerve lesion

8. Lander's (Sunshine's other friend) neurological problem

9. Allergy bumps

10. Can my eyes freeze in my head on a really cold day? (Sunshine lives in the cold, which I will never, ever understand)

11. Is it bad to open your eyes under water?

12. Binocular/Monocular cues

13. Why do contacts act as onion shields?

14. My coworker never takes out his contacts. What should I say to him?

15. What's up with styes and what should I do about them?

16. Is it possible to safely share eye makeup or not at all?

17. My crazy client wants LASIK but I am worried that he won't follow directions. Is there aftercare involved?

18. Do chickens see in color?

19. What kind of glasses should I get?

20. How often should I replace my contact lens case?

21. I'm a big hussy and I am sleeping over at someone's house and didn't bring contact lens solution. Should I sleep in my contacts, or throw them out and be blind driving home?

22. What's the deal with transition lenses?

23. How bad is it for me to rub my eyes if they are itchy?

24. Why does my depth percetion suck when my vision isn't corrected?

25. I can order Rx goggles for cheap but they will only have the same Rx in both eyes rather than a different one for each eye. Will it f--- things up to get the goggles for the lower of my powers?

26. What do t-cells do and not do? (Hahaha Sunshine, thanks for your help studying back in the day. Mr. T cells don't do no CHO's)

27. When I'm driving at night the headlights of oncoming cars seem blinding. Am I sensitive or do other cars suck that much?

28. My blind friend is allergic to carrots. What should he eat for his eyes? Is that just a myth?

29. Are there any problems associated with certain eye colors? Like can people with blue eyes get eye sunburns?

30. Can non-students watch cadaver dissection at the nearest optometry school, or is that forbidden?

31. What is your craziest eye story? Besides Emiry's "I have a f---ed up eye" introduction.

32. What's your favorite antique or obsolete eye equipment or theory?

33. How do people react when they hear you're an optometrist? Do most people like optometrists more than they like dentists?

34. Is it possible to put an injection in an eye? Or would it pop like a water balloon or a drag queen's fake boobie?

35. Do those black lines that football players wear on their cheeks actually do anything or do they just look manly?

36. As an eye doctor, are you biased against the other senses? Is there even such thing as a taste doctor?

37. So on Teen Mom the baby has glasses. How can you even know if a baby needs glasses and what Rx to give them if they're not verbal?

38. How can you know which drug someone's on based on their eyes?

39. Is there a such thing as cyclops?

40. Is it dangerous to cross your eyes and make a silly face?

41. Have you noticed the trend of hipsters wearing ugly glasses?

42. How do you feel about fake glasses for fashion?

43. Is it really bad to read in the dark?

44. Will millions of hours of TV and computer screens kill your eyes?

So those are the questions I got from my crazy sibling. I may write on a couple of the (more normal) topics in the future. Just wanted to get them all listed on here.

So, time for a quick daily dose of some positive vibes... remember you are in control of your future! Make this day a wonderful one!