A visit from Kimmie

I had one of those serendipitous moments yesterday when Kimmie came back to see me. She is a delightful 11 year old that I have been seeing for several years in the office. She inherited her myopia from her dad who has a high amount of myopia. She came back in for a recheck and had another increase in her myopia. Her family had moved out of town to a far away ski /recreation area and she was back in town for the holidays. I have been thinking about her all year because when she was here on her last visit she made me a surprise drawing of herself wearing her new eyeglasses. I proudly put it on the wall in one of our exam rooms. A day does not go by without a patient commenting about the drawing. It was
a true surprise and I enjoy looking at it every day. Apparently my patients do too. I told her how popular the drawing was and she was a little embarassed yet happy to hear about it. It reminds me about how prescious my patients are to me and how much they have become a part of my life.

Helping patients

I had one of those special moments yesterday when I saw a young five year old little girl for a follow up on her lazy eye. We were lucky to have her parents bring her in at an early age to help her with her problem. She had a lazy left eye due to the eye being very farsighted. Her eye was turning in. We prescribed glasses for her and actually had her wearing one contact lens in the affected eye for awhile. In addition, we prescribed patching the good eye which forced her to look out of the lazy one. Yesterday she showed complete reversal of the lazy eye. Her depth perception was normal. We were very excited. This is a case that could have turned into a permanent lazy eye if it was not caught early enough. Due to her alert pediatrician who made the referral and our care were able to solve her problems.

Surf warning

I went surfing this morning before work at Bay Street just south of the Santa Monica Pier and found a white piece of paper on my windshield when I returned to my car. It read: "Warning: This is a polite warning asking you to please don't surf here. This surfing spot has become extremely crowded and dangerous. We are a network of surfers who have been surfing here for years. We will no longer tolerate newbies, snakes and kooks. We kindly ask you to move south of lifeguard station # 24. Remember, this is a friendly warning. If you continue to surf north of station # 24, we will take action." I find this offensive and will report it to the Santa Monica Police. Surfing should not be restrictive. The ocean is for everybody.

Eye floaters

I just saw on U tube a cartoon description of eye floaters that was really pretty accurate in describing the way that they look to a patient. Check it out under the heading: "U Tube family guy peters eye floaters". In most cases floaters are very common, but they can signal a problem...especially if they are a new event. If they are the little specs and spots that have been around for a long time, they probably are not serious. If they are new and especially if they have been associated with flashes of light it is best that a patient visit their eye doctor for a dilated eye exam to make sure that the retina is OK. If the floaters are associated with a retinal tear this becomes a very serious event that needs attending to on an immediate basis.