Eye Exam!

[goprog]

insulin

I have a friend whose teenage daughter has diabetes. She
believes it is better to keep insulin narrowly controlled.
Her daughter has an insulin pump and will adjust her insulin
level many times during the day. Not necessarily always by
testing but by monitoring the type and amount of food intake
and experience. This appears to work better for them than
limited testing and injections.

Just another (their) point of view.

 

[sudsmaster]

Goprog,

The thing to remember is that the Crystalens product is intended to be a treatment for cataracts, primarily, with the adaptive focusing capability a plus over fixed focus lens implants. The second link makes this more clear. Also, while it can correct for presbyopia, it's not (currently) being marketed as a cure for such, and the results are not the degree of lens focusing ability that one would have, at, say age 30 (see second link).

Badata,

Narrow control of blood sugar is indeed the best thing. A diabetic might have to take insulin before each meal, and also with in-between meal snacks. Long-acting insulin (12 to 24 hour) can help to temper that need, but it doesn't eliminate it. Currently I have 3 to 5 insulin shots a day - two of long acting, and 1 to 3 short acting, depending on test results. The effects of wide swings in blood sugar are not good, so more frequent shots are not a bad thing. Of course diet and exercise help a lot, but it's good to remember that this is a primarily hormonal/metabolic deficiency to begin with. It can be difficult for people without diabetes to understand how helpless one can feel about the disease, esp if one is used to eating whatever one wants whenever one wants.

 

[goprog]

Rich

Yes, I read both your Crystalens links before I posted.

 

[toggleswitch]

And the Academy Award Goes to.............

~never say never..(nothing in your urethra).

Yes I hear ya. Dad had/has prostate cancer and just the thought of what he endured has prompted me to get my base-line PSA levels checked and determined for future reference.

And as far as the prostate exam goes, well it is probably best not to giggle and get the shivers and goose-bumps, but rather to feign discomfort. And it is absolutely pointless to enqure as to what happened to the card and flowers that that normally precede such things.

 

[countryguy]

Contact lenses - I've worn them for 28 years and have not had a problem. I get my eye checked annually and replace the lenses approximately every 2 years. I didn't think I could ever get used to them either. The first time the optician put them in my eyes I passed out in her lap. She had to get a patient from the waiting room to get some smelling salts and to get me off her lap LOL. The only other time I've passed out is when the optometrist put that thing right on my eyeball (I presume it was for the glaucoma test)- I passed out on him too. Now he uses another test for glaucoma - a puff of air is shot at the eye.

Root Canal - I've had 2 done and both were a piece of cake - no pain during or after. The pain is not a result of the root canal, it is a result of the infection that is usually present beforehand and which results in the root canal being needed.

Lasik surgery - I had a friend that had it done twice on both eyes. The first resulted in problems with night vision and driving. The 2nd time the vision got better but he still couldn't drive at night. He ended up having it done a 3rd time.

Gary

Gary

 

[rp2813]

When I start up with any new eye doc, they all go into a panic because the one eye appears to show glaucoma. It looks just like the picture on the wall of the bad eye compared to the good eye. But, I don't have glaucoma. This has been going on for 20 years. My current doc has me coming in more frequently and every 6 months he does a glaucoma test. I was just in there on Monday for the field of vision test where I am always thinking I'm seeing phantom flashes and push the button when I shouldn't, but the results seem to come out OK. Friday I go in for the whole eye drop thing, the worst part of which is feeling my way home across town behind the wheel.

I've had a colonoscopy and it was no big deal. I mean, geez, I'm a gay man. Prostate exam may raise an eyebrow with the doc since I don't offer any resistance but I'm sure I'm not the only male patient of his who behaves that way.

Never had a cystoscopic exam but I know it wouldn't bother me. Chalk it up to my more twisted side. I hear urethral play is becoming more and more common in the leather/bondage community.

Bottom line is, my mom has macular degeneration and is legally blind so I am willing to take as many tests as are necessary to do everything possible to prevent or treat it if I start showing symptoms.

Ralph

 

[maytagbear]

There was an important medical trial

called the DCCT-- Diabetes Control and Complications Trial. One group had the then standard practise of one long range insulin injection, and the other group had multiple daily injections and testing. The trial was supposed to run 10 years.

However, the trial was ended about two years before that, because the evidence of the benefit of mutiple daily injections, and frequent testing was overwhelming.

You could Google it, or I believe there might be a Wikipedia article about it.

The tighter the control, the fewer the complications.

My internist (also living with diabetes,) and my CDE-Certified Diabetes Educator agree with tight control.

Yes, tight control is a bother, a pain in the fingers, and more expensive, but after 14 years of diabetes, I have only one complication, some neuropathy (nerve pain), which is being treated.

I have never been able to use alternate sites (like my arm) for blood samples. Oh, well.

Here's a point in general: Preventative care does cost, but acute care costs more.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[toggleswitch]

The tighter the control, the fewer the complications.

Good health advice AND parenting advice.
(ducks and runs!) *sound of whip cracking against floor*
Contol is like a handful of sand. Hold it too loosely and the wind takes the sand away. Hold it too tightly and it slips through your fingers.

If people are anything like cats...
There is a ratio of insulin to body weight. When the insulin needed reaches the upper limit (unti of insulin per unit of body weight), there are greater chances of wild fluctions in the blood-sugar. This scenario would logically seem to extend itself to greater and tighter montoring and control. Am I even close to the mark on this one?

I had a fear of needles. Diabetic cat required shots, so I grew-up and rose to the level of the challenge. I got over my fear of pricks. With a qood quality needle "it won't hurt a bit".

 

[sudsmaster]

IMHO the ideal situation would be a device that both measures blood glucose and automatically administers small doses of insulin to address high levels - within limits, of course. I'm told that companies are working on this but so far I haven't seen anything concrete. The big fuss right now seems to be insulin that can be delivered in an inhaler - which is ok I guess but it doesn't really address the problem.

 

[westyslantfront]

Five years ago, I had laser surgery and have been liberated from glasses or contacts. I was so determined that I managed to deal with it. Unfortunately, I now need glasses for reading or close up. I would be the first to sign up for laser surgery to correct the reading part if it is ever developed.

Ross

 

[toggleswitch]

oh you mean that is not the devil in your soul shining throu

Is it true that Lasik-altered eyes show up in photographs with more red-eye than others?

 

[mixedup]

Eye surgery & colonoscopy

I'm normally a lurker here, but I just had to reply to this one. I'm & RN & currently have 2 jobs. One is in an outpatient GI center, where we do mostly colonoscopies. The other job is in an eye surgery center where we do cataract surgery. I can tell you that both procedures are easy & painless.

Regarding cataract surgery, first the natural lens with the cataract is removed, then the surgeon implants the artificial lens. The Crystalens is one of several lenses that are used. The surgery is done under a microscope & at the place I work we can see the surgeon's view on a flat screen monitor! The whole surgery only takes about 10 or 15 minutes.

Regarding the colonoscopy, no the prep the day before is no fun, but it's not the end of the world either. The procedure itself is easy because of all the nice drugs we give you. It's a whole lot better than colon cancer. Colon cancer is the most preventable cancer, if you will just go and get your screening so we can take out any polyps before they have a chance to grow into something nasty. Preventative maintenance people, take care of yourself!
)
Virginia