Bogieblog

Eye Sight Check

I went to the eye doctor last Friday for my yearly checkup. As usual, my left eye has deteriated a bit more, but now there is an added complication. I have a lot of floaters in that eye and they have congregated into a large black mass that likes to sit near the middle of my visual field. It is like I have a fly that is constantly hovering about 5" in front of my face. It has slowly been breaking up, in the last couple of weeks, and I am hopeful that it will continue to do so. There is a type of laser surgery that can be done, but the risk is high for complications that are worse than the problem, so for now, nothing will be done.

The perscription on my left eye has not been increased because I always end up seeing triple or quadruple when we try that. So now the vision in that eye is around 20/60. NOne of this is particularly new to me, so it was business as usual.

My Eyes, My Eyes!

Since the KCForum abruptly shut its proverbial doors, I have been interested in finding a new forum to participate in. I thought that perhaps the KCGlobalForum would do nicely when I heard about it the other day.

I went to check it out today, and from the main site it looks pretty good. Their logo "A site for sore eyes" is impressive sounding too. Then, I clicked on the forum link and found much to my horror (and bemusement) that the forum is in black, with white writing, with tiny type and evil colors running rampant. If I concentrate very hard, I can tell what stuff is, but I don't need that headache. This is one of the hardest to read websites I have run into in a long time.

I didn't bother registering after I clicked on a few of the forum subjects and found that they were just as hard to read. I am thinking that whoever designed the site has no clue what KC does to ones eyesite, and neither does whoever is running it. After going back to the main page, and looking at the site meter at 665 visitors (and that wonderful "As Seen On TV), I decided that this has to be someone's idea of a joke and/or money making scheme.

Thanks but no thanks, the website just makes sore eyes as far as I am concerned!

Multiple Subjects and Categories

I'm still at work waiting for my calibration guy to finish with the optical machine. He recently informed me that he would have to come back tomorrow (after telling me at 6PM that it would only be a couple more hours). I have no idea how late he is planning on staying tonight, but I hope he is ready to go soon (15 hrs and counting for me)!

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The clothes washer made me really happy and stopped working last weekend. Last night I was at the laundrymat; a place I haven't been in forever. I have someone coming in tomorrow to fix the washer, so I didn't do WS's clothes (they get done on Saturdays).

The only bad thing about having a front-loading washer is that they are wicked expensive to fix. I'm hoping it is just the locking sensor and not the on/off button (guess which is more expensive to fix). Guess I'll know tomorrow.

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We have had a georgous week weather-wise. It has been so nice that Mt. Washington has had record warmth the last several days.

Today the summit basked in its fourth straight day of record breaking warmth. The month of October has seen no fog, or even overcast, an aberration at a site that is in the clouds 60% of the time. Today’s high of 62 degrees broke the old October record of 59 set way back in 1938 and fell a mere 10 degrees shy of the all-time record. This all comes on the heels of the Hottest Summer Ever.

Naturally, this weekend it is supposed to cold and rainy - all weekend. And, with great timing, another load of plants and bulbs came in the mail, so I'll get to plant them in the yucky weather.

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If anyone has been trying to get to the KC Open Topic Forum, it is no longer running. The guy that ran it decided not to do so anymore. It would have been nice if we had had some notice, but all we got was a "Site not found" message when we tried to access it this week. There was some good stuff in the archives, but it is lost now. Fortunately, there is an email-based forum that I belong to which is hosted by the NKFC that is still alive and kicking.

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I have finally had a couple of days without any pet-sitting duties (I've been continually busy for about 2 months now). I thought that would give me shorter days, but if today is any indicator, that was a pipe-dream! I don't even get to sleep in tomorrow morning (my Friday off - if I ever get out of here) because the washer repairman is going to call me at 7 AM to set the time for his arrival. Maybe I can take a nap later in the day.

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And that is all my fuzzy brain can come up with to write. It is 10 minutes from my bedtime and I am an hour drive away from my bed. That is not a good combination!

KC Sight

From the Keratoconus forum that I lurk on, comes a site that shows some common problems with KC vision. I have all of the problems to some degree (except the intact ring problems of course). The double vision affects one eye, with my contacts in - with my glasses, several moons is the rule (christmas lights are quite amazing to see too).

Fortunately, I only get the mild glare (thank goodness!), but the halos I see are a bit worse (and with glasses, their downright horrid). The night vision pictures are pretty accurate for when I am wearing glasses (except I have a lot worse "starring"), but my contacts help out there too and reduce the problems in that area.

Nothing earth-shattering here, just a little something to help people understand what KCer's are going thru. For a long time I thought everyone saw night traffic the way I saw with glasses. I certainly am glad that my contacts help me out!

Camera Eye View

I was reading Cop Car's latest post about how HH was muttering about perspective and distortion when taking pictures of a quilt that was laying flat (instead of hanging).

That remark reminded me that I have a perfectly good 35mm camera that I haven't been able to use for many years. It's not a great camera, but a decent one for someone who doesn't plan to be a pro. It also has several filters with it (cuts glare from water shots and stuff like that). WS bought it for me for Christmas shortly after we moved up here. I can't use anymore it because I can't ever get it focused; when I think I have lines lined up - I don't. WS can use it, but he has no interest in using such a fancy camera (and really, prefers that I do that stuff - although he composes pictures much better than I do).

Distortion is the problem. My keratoconus screws up my vision just enough that I can't take a decent picture unless using an auto-focus camera.

I don't imagine I can even sell it since everyone is going digital, so it just sits in the workout room collecting dust. Maybe the Fantastic Niece would like it.

Frustration Abounds

I am very frustrated with my eye doctor. Honostly, I'm very frustrated with his staff, not with him. I called today to see if my new contacts were in (they were supposed to be ordered when I saw him on the 8th of this month). Once AGAIN, they have forgotten to order them. That makes the 3rd time.

A little history about the trials and tribulations are in order here. In 1999, I went to this eye doctor for a screening in preparation for Lasik eye surgery. My eyes are so bad, counting fingers without correction, that I knew the surgery wouldn't be able to get me to 20/20 vision. But, I figured at least my glasses wouldn't be so bulky and heavy, or that my contacts would be able to correct my vision better (I hadn't seen 20/20 with correction for at least a decade.

It turns out that I couldn't have the surgery because I have Keratoconus (KC). After looking at my eye map and listening to my trials with seeing, he said he could fit me in contacts that would help me more (or at least the same with more consistancy).

Referring Back

Going thru my referrers, I noticed that this blog has been placed on a list of links for Personal Experiences involving Keratoconus, at Dave Dwyer's Place. I haven't gone thru all the links on the site, but the operator has both general links and personal links for KC, so it should be informative.

Busy Work

Bad me, I didn't post anything yesterday. That was because I was too busy to bother even doing more than getting my email (okay, yes, I did visit a couple of places - but for the most part I didn't do any recreational computer work). "How busy can an unemployed person?" be you ask (and thank you for asking, you create a nice lead-in).

Eye See Something

I went back to the eye doctor yesterday for a check on my new contacts. When I got the new contacts I told the doc that I was seeing double out of the left eye. He wanted me to wear them for a couple of weeks to see if they would settle down.

That didn't happen and I soon found out that I actually saw quadruple. Seeing 4 moons is quite the sight; the real moon, 1/2 a moon to the left, 1/2 a moon to the right and 3/4 of a moon (and a distorted, oblong shape) below. I also got quite interesting color distortions as the parts of the 3 "fake" moons that overlapped the real moon would be a mustard color - when the real moon was white. Driving at night became quite the challenge!

Peevish

I participate in the online Keratoconus Forum. This forum was set up in order to answer questions and introduce information on research projects that could possibly be helpful for those who have developed Keratoconus (KC).