Icl one-year anniversary

One year ago I got contact lenses surgically implanted in my eyes!!!!

Icl is definitely in my top 3 self splurges! Maybe even number 1. (Note to self: I should make a list of top self-splurges.) 

I actually went for my one year follow up appointment today! Pressure is good, iridotomy holes are still open, vision is pretty much the same as last June: 20/20 in both eyes, with left eye just a touch weaker (I missed one of the letters in the row), but close to 20/15 with both eyes. So amazing!

They also checked the space between the icl and (iris? Or natural lens?)...well, whichever space they checked, they also said it was fine.

...And so life without glasses/contacts continues happily!

2013 garden diary: July 29

tomatoes

last week or so, I picked my first little garden tomatoes. It wasn't quite fully ripe, but it was all the way red and keyrah really wanted it, so I picked it and quartered it an we all had a bite of summer. Yum! Yesterday, I had my first little mini harvest and made a colorful little tomato salad. I had yellow, a bicolor (orange/red) and a store bought brown one. It was delightful. There's tons of tomatoes on the 12 vines I planted, so I'm looking forward to another plentiful harvest this year. Previous years, I only had two varieties, but this year, I have 6 or 7 so, I'm excited to see all the different colours and shapes and sizes.

Lebanese Mini-cucumbers

Georges' aunt ro-ro brought some cucumber seeds from Lebanon. I've never grown cucumbers before because I don't really like field cucumbers and I never put an effort into finding English cucumber plants or seeds. But Lebanese cucumbers are the perfect size and taste great. When I picked the first 2 (from 2 separate plants) this weekend, they tasted amazing. I think I'll try to grow more next year. Not seeing a ton of fruit on these vines yet and I'd love to get more.

Lebanese cousa (zucchini)

Yes! I got the right variety this year (from ro-ro as well). I picked my first one on the weekend. It might have been a day early, cause it looks just a bit small in the palm if my hand, but I'm hoping the two plants I have will live up to the proliferate zucchini expectations that I have. The first few fruits actually shriveled up, but the Internet this tends to happen because make flowers appear later than female ones.

Fingerling eggplant

Got this as a plant from urban harvest at the organic market in June. I didn't have high hopes for it, because one of my gardening books says eggplant can be fussy to grow, but I've got tons of little purple babies sprouting from their flowers. So exciting. I picked the first one on the weekend because it didn't seem to be getting any bigger over the past couple of days.

Peas

Peas are done for the year. I only had snow peas this year, but it was a good daily harvest of 5-10 pea pods for a couple of weeks. Keyrah loved to eat them right off the vine. Just like raja used to. Raja didn't seem as interested this year.

Garlic

Pulled the garlic out a couple of weeks ago and this year, I used the shed to let them cure. Georges said the basement stunk like garlic when I used the cold room last year.

Onions

Pulling onions every day now. I love having the tops and bulbs to add to my dishes.

Sour cherries

The last of my sour cherries were plucked from the tree about a week and half ago. I've got two large ziplock bags full of pitted cherries in my freezer ready for muffins, pies, and jams. Already made muffins and pies, which raja and georges like a lot, but keyrah doesn't really have a taste for them. Thanks to Frank and georges for getting the ones that were just out of my reach.

Marie
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ICL 3-month Follow up

Eric/Jason,

Well, bad news...dr. Patel is gone.

But good news: both eyes are 20/20 and combined, I am seeing 20/15. Woohoo.

This is pretty much the best thing I've done for myself. After so many years (pretty much my whole life) of dreaming about perfect vision, I finally understand the freedom of living without glasses or contacts.

Herzig has released me from their care and since dr. Patel is no longer there, I'm not going to bother going back.

Also, don't really feel like I have any issues with dry eyes or any ill effects from the iridotomy.

The only bummer is knowing that I will eventually need reading glasses. But shouldn't be for at least 5, maybe even 10 years.

And since I'm at 20/15, even if my distance vision gets a little worse, I should still be able to get away without glasses.

Oh, and they submitted a form to the ministry to remove the corrective lenses tag on my driver's license.

Let me know how you guys are doing! I hope all is well.

Marie
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ICL - the other eye (left)

On day 4, I noted the following:

My right eye which has the toric lens is perfect (super-crisp, I could read every line on the eye chart that the optometrist asked me to - even the unbelievably tiny stuff was really clear), but things were blurry on my left eye, even on relatively larger letters. I hoped this was because it was only day 2 on my left and day 3 on my right, which meant my left eye needed time to catch up in the healing process, but today it has not improved. Even as i type this, if i cover my right eye, the text appears blurry from my left eye, which means there is an astigmatism they didn't correct (non-toric on left eye). Dr. Herzig said the astigmatism in my left eye is so slight that the lowest level correction would have been too much. I think this is true, because i didn't wear toric contacts and i don't remember things being this blurry...but that also confuses me because you'd think the results with implanted contacts would be the same or better than disposable exterior contacts. So, overall, I see great, but it's mostly because of my perfect right eye. Kinda disappointed by this result, because, I really don't want a LASIK touchup. I didn't ask what my vision was at, but I will at my appointment next week.

I also find that for reading, I used to need to put it right up to my face to see any letters, but now, when anything gets closer than about 6-8 inches away from my face, it's too blurry for me to read. This is not a big deal for me because 6-8 inches is a much more normal distance for reading things than 3-5cm.

I don't think my eyes are itchy, and I don't really feel the lenses, but sometimes, I do think I feel something behind my eyes. Not sure if it's real or just psychological.

It's day 5:

Still using the drops religiously like I'm supposed to. The left eye is still not super-crisp, but I think it's better than yesterday. Overall, feeling great that I went through with it.

ICL - I did it and I love it

The surgery is over and I can see. I'm in no pain and less than 12 hours after the surgery on my left eye, I feel like my vision is just as good as with my disposable contacts. How did it all go down:

On Saturday, it was my last official day of wearing disposable contact lenses.
On Sunday, I had to start wearing my glasses again because I had to start putting anti-biotic drops in my eyes four times a day. I only had to start the drops on my right eye, but I didn't want to confuse myself or make it complicated, so I just put the drops in both eyes.
On Monday, it was the last full day of wearing glasses. I was too busy at work to think about the surgery, but I had to make time to remind myself to put the drops in.

A little recap of Tuesday "Day 1":

I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to get ready and catch a 5:40 bus downtown. I drove myself to the bus station and then there was a complicated procedure of finding two people who could drive to the station and pick up the car. Not really my problem and it worked out just fine. Ideally, someone would go with you to the surgery, but that wasn't going to happen in my case. But someone does have to pick you up, which I made arrangements for.

I took the bus downtown, took the subway get to the office of my surgery. I was told I had to be there at 7am. So, I was sitting outside the closed doors at 6:30am.

When they opened their doors just before 7, I went in and signed a bunch of forms (which I had previously asked for copies of). At about 7:30, they took us to the prep room and started putting rounds of eye drops for various purposes, which I assume include numbing, cleaning, and dilating. There were about 3 rounds of drops, with about 3-4 drops in each round. There were two other guys scheduled for ICL that day. All of us were doing only our right eye first and left eye the next day. They also put a sticker dot over our right eye to make sure the drops were applied to the correct eye.

The other two guys went first, which was great because I had the benefit of hearing about their experience and then having them validate their immediate results. It literally took each guy 15 minutes to come back to the prep room.

During the surgery: There's a point int he surgery when you black out (the surgeon warned me it was coming), but everything starts clearing up again soon after. I was mostly concerned with keeping my eyes still and not making any sudden movements. Staring at the bright light was bit painful, but I just repeated the mantra that it was only going to be a few minutes and then it would be over. The left eye (the next day) was a lot faster. I think because it wasnt a toric lens, so the surgeon didn't have to rotate the lens to match it up to the perfect spot. The most painful part was when they rip the plastic off your face.

9am: I was previously told that I had to wait at the office for four hours to do a post-checkup and someone had to drive me home, which gave me the impression that they wouldn't let me leave on my own, but they said I could leave anytime. I had to wait for my ride and I was feeling loopy and exhausted...probably because of a combo of the little oil they gave me and the fact that I was awake since way too early in the morning. Anyway, I figured the best thing to do was stay in the 3rd floor lounge and sleep.

12:30pm: I'm at home and pretty groggy. Gonna take (another) nap. It's pretty sunny outside, so I'm wearing my giant black sunglasses. But I have no complaints about my vision or my eyes. I think it worked. This feels amazing!

10:30pm. I can't believe I'm going to sleep with perfect vision. I keep wanting to go to the bathroom to take off my contacts, but I don't have to do that. I just get to go to sleep and when I wake up, everything is still going to be crystal clear, and even better than my vision right now, if anything, can't wait to wake up tmrw morning!

ICL - YAG iridotomy (again)

Well, I went back to the surgeon to check if the iridotomy holes fully cleared my thick irises. Apparently, it was borderline, so to be sure, we went back to the laser.

It was much quicker this time. About 3-5 blasts per eye. He said there's only been a handful of people, that has ever had to come back for the YAG and that I probably had the thickest irises he had ever seen. I'm sure that's not completely true, but I'm sure it's up there if he's making such a big deal about it.

Anyway, it's done. No side effects, so if I turn back now, the only thing i will have lost are a few tiny pieces of my irises that I can live without. But seriously, what would be the point of changing my mind now?

ICL - YAG iridotomy

Got the iridotomy done today. Thought it would be a lot worse, but it was actually fine. It's less than five hours after the procedure and my vision is fine and I don't notice the "extra pupils in my eyes". This is the last step towards the no turning back point. And at this point, if i'm going to get holes blasted into my iris, I guess I'm gonna do this. Although, I still haven't paid a dime yet, which is pretty cool.

The right eye was done first. A little magnifier was placed right on top of my eye so the surgeon could see it and to keep my eye open, i guess. I was expecting three blasts per eye, only because I read that on some other guy's blog, but it just kept going on and on. There was a little clicking noise with each blast and i could feel a little prick that mostly i didn't mind, but sometimes shot into the back of my head. But that sounds worse that it was. That's the sensation that i think most people find painful. Afterwards, he said that my iris is really thick. I was only a little bit concerned that I couldn't really see out of that eye. Then we moved on to the left eye. This was a lot more difficult because I couldn't see out of my right eye, so I basically watched everything happening to my left eye. I was not so concerned with watching as much as I was concerned with not moving my eye and getting holes drilled all over my iris. It was easier when I could see out of the other eye because then I could choose a point to focus on. For the left eye, i just had to hope that whatever i was seeing was something that would keep my eyes still.

Anyway, the left eye was much faster and more like the three blasts I was expecting. After the left eye was done, he said "sometimes you can find a thinner spot in the iris to do it". Not sure how comforted I was by the different experience with the two eyes.

It also took a lot longer for my vision to return to normal in my right eye. And I think my eyes were more sensitive to light but I'm not sure. I was glad to have my sunglasses on the drive home because the glare off the falling snow was pretty intense, but not sure if that was because of the procedure or just the way I always see. It's been a little over 9 hours since the procedure and I'd say my eyes feel perfectly fine and I don't notice any difference with my vision. Those are both good things.

Glad this is over. Unfortunately because of my "thick iris", I have to go back one more time before the actual surgery to make sure the iridotomy took correctly.

ICL - retina appointment

So, I've decided to pursue the implanted contact lenses (ICL).

The next step is to get my retina checked to see if I am susceptible to retinal detachment. My regular optometrist always tells me that there are thin spots in my retina and that I need to watch for flashes or blackouts, which would be signs that my retina was detached. This is a big deal, but can be fixed as long as you go to get it fixed ASAP.

Well, I had a retina appointment by a retinal specialist. This involved dilating the pupils and a bunch of eye scans done with fancy machines and the specialist looking at my eyes for about 5 minutes. He said that my retina looked fine and that I was fine to proceed to the ICL surgery. I asked about the thin spots and he said, "nope, your eyes are fine". I don't know if that means my optometrist is over concerned or if the specialist just sees so many retinas that he has a different scale for concern then just a regular optometrist. Anyway, I'm fine with the assessment. I trust these guys. They see tons of people and they have nothing to gain by recommending me for something that will not work for me.

LASIK or ICL

After contemplating and waiting for the perfect time to do it, I decided that 2013 is the year I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to fix my eyes and get laser eye surgery.

I went to herzig eye institute in yorkville. Because it's supposed to be the best , I decided I wasn't going to get a second opinion or anything. The price is fixed and I could also go to bochner, but I just want it done ASAP in 2013 and how different could the diagnosis be in one place or another?

A year or so ago, I went to LASIK MD for the consultation, but was so caught off guard by the cost, that I put it off.

But everything is in place now:

-money: I'm prepared to spend
-timing: no more babies, eyes are stable and no more excuses

So, I went to herzig and went through all the regular examinations. I was caught a little bit off guard when the optometrist told me I have very dry eyes. I have been told in the past by my regular optometrist and in my own experience that I have very wet eyes. I wear my contacts everyday, all day from the moment I wake up to the second before i go to bed. I never use eye drops. In the past, I've never felt very much irritation unless I wore my contacts to sleep. But in the past year or so, I have been feeling like my contacts bother me more than usual (which for me just meant they were itchy or felt irritated, but still never used eye drops or let like I needed to take off my contacts. Anyway, so when the optometrist explained my dry eyes, I am pretty inclined to believe him. He prescribed me with restasis eye drops and told me to stop wearing contacts (aaaaaahhhhhh!).

At the end of all the tests, he said that with my dry eyes and high myopia (-8ish, maybe -9D...I was too stupid to ask what he measured), he's recommending that I get intraocular collamer lenses (ICL). I had read very little about this, not realizing it was even a true option for me. He said that I could still qualify for LASIK just based on the thickness of my cornea, but LASIK tends to cause dry eyes, so with my dry eye condition, he would not recommend it right now. He said to come back in a month to see if the drops restore the moisture to my eyes and then he can make a more informed recommendation, but overall, ICL is probably the way to go.

It's been 6 days since I went to herzig for the consultation. I've been wearing my glasses ever since. I've been putting the prescribed eyedrops religiously morning and night. And I've been reading about LASIK and ICL non-stop to figure out what I should do.

When I was a teenager or early twenties, I think my contacts made a small cut in my cornea and for the rest of that day, it was some kind of weird miracle where I was able to see out of that eye without glasses or contacts. It was the most unbelievable and incredible feeling in the world. The next day, I woke up, and I guess the nick in my eye had "healed" and my eyes were back to blurry normal. I think I cried. But since then, I have been borderline obsessive about ridding myself of my dependence on glasses and contact lenses.

In the past 6 days, i have learned a lot about the anatomy of the eye, eye diseases, different types of procedures to correct vision and it's all very fascinating, but its also enough to drive you crazy. It has crossed my mind to stick with contacts, but, no... I'm going to do it. After all my research, I have learned that LASIK really is not a good option for me. Dry eyes is a common side effect of LASIK, and especially for people with high myopia because they have to remove more corneal tissue, which means they remove more of the nerves that would send the brain the signals to lubricate the eyes. ICL is kinda scary because they are putting a piece of plastic in your eye. Scary side effect is a potential to bring on cataracts earlier in life. Also, you'll have two holes lasered through your irises for the rest of your life. What's better (or worse)? Cutting a corneal flap and then removing a bunch of corneal tissue forever...or cutting a small self-healing hole in your cornea and inserting a piece of plastic that may hasten the natural process of making the crystalline lens in your eyes cloudier over time and having holes in your eyes which are essentially like permanent pupils.

Cataract surgery is apparently the most common surgery in the USA, and people get holes drilled into their iris to prevent glaucoma.

So, risks and side effects sound terrible, and it's a ridiculous amount of money to spend on myself, but I'm going to get the ICL.

For someone wearing glasses since grade 2 and contacts pretty much daily since grade 9, to be able to see the moment I open my eyes in the morning, is a miracle that is worth a couple of holes in my irises and the potential to bring on cataract surgery earlier rather than later in my life. And wearing glasses exclusively for the past 6 days has only made me realize even more how desperate I am to do this.

Garlic scapes! Yum!

Currently enjoying my curly, groovy garlic scapes. Both a pleasure to see and eat! Can't wait to see if the bulbs turn out!

Tomato seedlings 2012

I'm going to have a few extras. Let me know if you want.

Tomato sprouts!

Fancy new ttc subways

I just got a ride in one of the new ttc subway cars. Other than being super-shiny and new, there's some crazy stuff here:

-seem really spacious: not sure if the cars are actually wider or if it's just an optical illusion: a) they've removed the vertical bars running down the middle of the aisle. Instead there are overhead bars you can hang onto that run all along the length of the car ceiling; b) the cars are no longer separated. Instead they are connected by those accordion covers, so you can see/and walk freely all the way from the front to the back of the train without any barriers; c) the shields beside the doors are all glass and no longer extend down to the floor; d) the lighting seems to be much brighter

-crazy technology: there's electronic boards telling you which station is next (in addition to the pre-existing audio station call-out). The electronic boards also tell you which way the doors are going to open; the subway map is now electronic and it looks like the subway stations are indicated with green or red dots - not quite sure what the colours mean?? Ooh the voice station lady just told us that the next station is an "interchange" station. That's a nice touch; little overhead cameras throughout the train. Hmm, interesting.

I quite enjoyed my brief time with my old friend, the ttc subway.

Marie
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2011/2012 - new attempt at being pain free

Way back, I posted some stuff about pain I use to feel in my various body parts using the following pain scale.

1=no pain (any movement can be made pain-free)
2=little pain (no pain when at rest, but minor pain occurs after physical activity)
3=moderate pain (little to no pain at rest, very painful after physical activity)
4=very painful (painful at rest, aggravated pain in certain positions and with repeated use for any activity)
5=can't bear the pain (a bit self-explanatory - always painful, radiating throughout the area and shows no sign of going away)

The pain has not returned to the levels I reported at that time, but I'm just sick of living with dull pain in my right hip and that pain restricting my ability to participate in physical activity. 

Pain in my hip restricts me from a lot of yoga poses, and after running 2-3km, i start experiencing 4.5 -5 levels of pain, which seems unacceptable. 

Pain in my shoulder I always attribute to working a desk job, but I know it could feel better.

So, I am now going to see a chiropractor in my neighborhood. Lucky for me, he uses ART (active release therapy), which I am very hopeful will help me. But now that I've started therapy again, I realized how banged up my body is.

I've got lots of clicking body parts: right shoulder, right hip, right knee (not the kind that's like cracking your knuckles). I'm sure the clicking I'm experiencing is due to interior scar tissue that is disrupting the natural movement of my joints. 

This guy tells me that the treatments he's going to do will break up the scar tissue and relieve the pain. I have my fingers crossed.

I'm going to baseline my pain again and hope that the next few sessions with this guy will have the phenomenal results I had last time around. 

Right hip: 3

Right shoulder: 2.5

Right knee: 0 ( I actually feel no pain here, but the chiro guy is the one who actually pointed out to me that it is clicking - I'm going to be pissed if this starts hurting)

Marie

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Plant garlic now!

I'm so excited. This past weekend, I planted garlic for next spring! I bought it from the village market. The all organic market at the waldorf school om Saturday's (year-round!). farmer mike there explained the whole thing to me and was so enthusiastic and helpful! Now I'm anxious I did everything right and super hopeful about my crop next spring.

The scapes sound especially delightful. There's this bulbous flower thing that grows when the garlic sprouts (called the scape) and you have cut it off to get bigger garlic bulbs. The awesome thing is it is also delicious. So excited!

Marie
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The David Suzuki movie

Georges pvr'd the David Suzuki movie for me the other day and I just watched it. It was awesome. He had one analogy that I really loved and actually shocked me and my reality:

Imagine the earth as a test tube filled with food. Now add one bacteria in there that would double in population every minute. So after one minute there would be two bacteria; and after two minutes, four bacteria; and after three minutes eight bacteria; etc...and after 60 minutes the test tube would be full and the food depleted. Now, do you know when was the test tube half full? The 59th minute. And at the 58th minute, the test tube was a quarter full; and at the 57th minute it was 1/8th full; so at the 55th minute, it was only 3% full.

If you think about the earth like this, what minute do you think we are at? Well, apparently, all the scientists that david Suzuki has spoken to, including himself, agree that we are already past the 59th minute. If you stop and think and look around, I'm sure you will agree. I do.

Marie
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Recycling Depots

If you're wondering what to do with all your old computer equipment or the hazardous waste in your garage, I saw an ad for this site recently and found it quite useful:

http://dowhatyoucan.ca/

Spring is in the air...make time to de-clutter your home in an eco-friendly manner. You'll feel great about it!

Whatever happened to drinking fountains?

At the very southern part of University Avenue in Toronto, where it meets York Street, there is a green pipe sticking out of the ground. It comes up about waist high and makes a 90 degree bend in the south-east (ish) direction. At the end of that green pipe sits a stainless steel basin with a mysterious spout. I pass this relic everyday on my way into work from Union Station. It's a drinking fountain. I've never seen anyone use it...I don't even think it works.

I know this post is probably being made at the wrong time, seeing as there's a big scare about the H1N1 flu going on, but seriously, I wonder what ever happened to the drinking fountain.

As a kid, I remember lining up at the basin at school, where there were 3 or 4 spouts and a small step so a few kids at a time could take a big gulp of water after gym or after playing outside on a hot sunny day. Do they still have these in schools?

I also remember those stone pyramids in parks (also with a small step at the base), where you could quickly grab a drink to quench your thirst during hours of playing on the swings, slides, running around playing tag or hide and seek.

Everywhere you went, there were public fountains. Then one day, people decided they needed their water to come from a bottle. Pre-packaged individual size bottles, or large jugs of water dispensed from a water cooler. Now, instead of quickly turning on a tap and drinking your fill, you either have a water bottle to throw away (yeah, yeah, there's recycling, but really, how many water bottles are recycled and why resot to recycling, when there was no need for it in the first place???) or you have styrofoam cups to throw away, after you took a 8 second drink of water. Imagine the resources it took to make, transport, store that cup and you use it for less than 10 seconds, only for more transportation (garbage collectors) and storage (landfill) requirements for the next several hundred or thousand years.

In some of the older offices I've worked in, there are drinking fountains on every floor rusting away.

Is the drinking fountain a relic of the past? What a shame.

Organic Farm Outing

More than halfway through July. We've already gone strawberry picking and raspberry picking at our favourite (well, it's the only one I know about that is within our reach) organic farm www.organicsfarm.ca.

My freezer is filled with field fresh berries to be enjoyed throughout the year. This makes me happy.

Support your local, organic farmers. Go out and enjoy some time with family and pick your own. You won't regret it.

Next time we go out to pick, it'll probably be in September for apples. Let me know if you're interested in joining us.

Farming

Now that spring is upon us...i'm starting to get all excited about fresh local produce. I'm dreaming up various ways to grow stuff even though i live in an east facing condo (i do grow some herbs on my balcony, but i'm pretty sure that given the half day of sunlight i get, that's about all it will support). Here is where my mind is wandering to these days:

1. We have a recreation centre in the middle of our 3 building community with a flat rooftop...even though it'll never fly, i'm thinking about proposing to the board that we make it into a rooftop vegetable garden
2. There's a fair bit of land around our building waiting to get converted into residential. i wonder what it would take for the municipality to turn it into a co-op neighbourhood garden?
3. This is for real - I am so serious about this farming thing, I'm going to seek out a farm that I can spend a weekend on and work at. I'd love to see how much work goes into how a farm is run - not one of those commercial, industrial ones. A nice family run farm that believes in sustainable practices...doesn't have to be organic, but one that i anticipate is going to require a lot of hard work. If anyone out there knows of someone I can contact or if you want to contact me, that would be great.

The main thing I dream about when I own a home is what my garden is going to be like...aaah, my garden.