Knees and such

My knees bother me less frequently now then they did post Appalachian Trail hike. This is a good thing, but they still bug me and I'm not sure they are healing well or not. So I have been seeing a friend every once in a while (read when I go home), who works the knees and muscles helping keep things loose. Well with a big hiking trip planned (news to follow), I decided I needed to have my knees checked out and make sure there wasn't anything else I could do for them. I have been working my exercises again to try to strengthen the muscles holding the knee in place. So the osteopath seemed to think everything was good, the exercises were definitely a positive thing, and she added a few more. My morning routine just got longer, but this is for the better. I'm not sure if I have to do this every day for ever but at least I have added them in for now. I also ended up getting my neck and back cracked, that was in interesting experience to say the least. Turn your head breath in, breath out, CRACK. Okay but things feel better so I can't complain. I will see her again in a week and we'll see if all the exercises are working out and hopefully I should be good for the trip.

2 Months Post-Lasik

Can't believe its been two months already. It seems like I just had my lasik done. But that was in March and we are in May already. So two months already and what can I say. The vision is clear and stable. I'm at 20/15 with both eyes, but the right eye is definitely a bit better then the left. I find that I have really dry eyes first thing in the morning and when I spend too much time staring at a computer screen. Shouldn't stare at it anyways. I haven't had many problems. There was a spell where my right eye was itchy as hell and I couldn't scratch it (as in rub the heck out of it), but that seems to have passed. It did help to put in some drops and distract myself. I go in for another appointment for another check then I should be good for a couple months before the next check. Yippee!

Lasik at one month

So its been one month and while I have been loving not having to worry about glasses, I am still healing. My vision has stabilized and while not perfect, one eye is 20/20 and the other is 20/25. Really not bad at all. I do have dry eyes. This is a combination of the dry environment I am living in (Salt Lake is much drier then the more humid Washington DC I came from), and the lasik process. This should start decreasing with time as I adjust and heal. The night halos and glare are also slowly diminishing. The only thing I have had to do differently is wear sunglasses. When the sun is shining here it is really quite bright, even without snow around. I have to avoid UV exposure to my eyes to ensure they heal well. I will eventually phase myself away from the darker ones to lighter sunglasses. I also noticed that I seemed to have lost my close up vision. I can't remember what it was like before because I never thought to benchmark it like was suggested for night glare. I've had some night glare so getting a bit more wasn't a surprise and I am told it should go back to pre-lasik levels. I can read just fine at normal distances and even closer but about 4 inches from my eyes things are hard to focus on. So far I am happy to not have eye glasses. I think the more telling point will be kayaking without glasses. I felt having glasses while kayaking was more trouble as losing them is a real pain.

Adventures with Lasers

About two months ago I decided to bite the bullet and get lasik. After several appointments to map my eyes and determine my eligibility, I finally scheduled my appointment two weeks ago. I have been eyeglass-free for the past 2 weeks now and the recovery, nor the procedure were all that bad.

When I went in for the procedure, I walked down since the place is located just down the street from my work place. Pretty easy. Once everything was ready, they swabbed my eyes with betadine and that was the last time I wore glasses. A couple of numbing eye drops and I was good to go. Numbing drops, which are supposed to sting, made my eyes feel weird. It is a slightly uncomfortable feeling, not being able to feel my eyes. In the surgery room, I laid down on the table and they prepped my right eye first. A little cup was placed under the lids holding the eye open. Not sure what it really looks like but it was attached to a machine that applied pressure to the eye (yeah I know fun stuff). A flap was cut with the laser and the pressure released, next eye please. With the intense pressure, my vision just went black and gray.

Moving onto another table, the Doctor marked the location of the flaps. Taping the left eye closed and the right eye open I received another cup like thing. This time I had more vision. I was looking up into a circle of light with a smaller blinking red light in the middle. The Doctor peeled the flap back (and no I didn't feel it but I could see it), then I had to stare at the flashing light. A few seconds later and I was done. Now this was the most uncomfortable part in my opinion. The flap was placed back and massaged in place with a cold wet sponge. And yes I could feel that. Once in place, another drier sponge was used to soak up some of the excess liquid (I assume) and help seal it in place. No blinking and next eye please.

After the procedure, I sat and waited for the flaps to seal up to the Doctor's content then off to home I went with three different sets of medical drops to take every hour (arg I hate eye drops), and eye shields so I can't rub at my eyes.

I thought my eyes were going to really hurt or at least burn or something but the pain was more of a dry eye, staring at the computer screen for too long type pain. Not too bad. The next day I was back at the Doctor's office and the eyes were seeing pretty darn well by then. It was then that I realized I had eye hickies and they would be there for about 2-3 weeks. So fast forward two weeks and I still have some minor redness around the top of my eyes from the pressure but I am seeing much better. Right eye is pretty darn clear and about 20/20. Left eye isn't quite as clear (and it had a pretty bad astigmatism to begin with), but likely about 20/15. They feel a bit dry from time to time and I put in tons of tear replacement drops when I am working at the computer but otherwise, the healing is going well and I am rather pleased. I'm not sure the left will improve beyond what it is at now and I am not what they consider worthy of a touch up.

Time to toss the glasses. I have now replaced them with sunglasses due to supposed light sensitivity. My eyes don't feel too sensitive, except in full sunlight. I do have some minor halos and some streaking of light sources but nothing too bad. I'm told this diminishes with time.

I'm normal, w00t!

At least that is what the doctor's are saying. Guess that is a good thing, but it doesn't explain what is wrong with me. They do want me to go back for another procedure to verify but I suspect it will not show much more. But since I am clean as a whistle it is time to switch over to the new diet plan. I have opted to go onto a raw foods diet for a while as I have heard good things about it. I am hoping that by restricting my diet to unprocessed foods that whatever was wrong will heal or work itself out and I can slowly start reintroducing stuff once again. I am going to try to be faithful to the new diet and follow it as closely as possible for a least a few months then start phasing things back in. I hope it isn't too hard as this is a basically vegan diet plan ( I guess I can technically eat non-rich based sushi and steak tartar). I have, over the last two months been eating a few of the recipes to test drive them and now have a few dishes I can prepare that I know taste good. I have already been making some really god and wholesome granola bars which I have been eating for breakfast and as power bars while hiking. I really love these bars but find they still need a bit of work. Sometimes they hold together fine and other times they are loose. I definitely have to keep them cold so they stay together. I will have to work on them a bit more and hopefully I can post a final recipe. These really do make great trail bars when they hold together. They have lots of nuts, seeds, oats and crasins in them. Like trail mix in a bar form and all raw.

Not feeling well

I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days and this has severely restricted my food intake. I am not sure if it is something in particular I am eating that is doing this, or just my diet. I am going to the doctor's office next week so they can check it out but in the meantime I am barely eating anything. While it does seem to be working, I am a bit concerned about how much energy I will have over the weekend for a backpacking trip with at least 5 miles each day. The last day is 2 miles back to the car. I am trying to plan what meals and things I can eat and I have decided to go with plain things like mashed potatoes and homemade granola bars which I have been eating during the last week with few issues. I have decided to do a radical change in my diet after the doctor's visit. I kind of hope they find something so I have something to work with, but I fear they won't.

Dietary Issues

I have been having a very hard time with food over the past few months. The doctor claims I have lactose intolerance but after going for several weeks without any milk products and still not feeling well, I have gone back for further testing. After a blood antibody work up, as suggested by my boss, the bad news is that I have to go in for an intestinal biopsy to confirm the positive blood work up. If the biopsy comes back positive, which is normally a given as the blood tests are 90% accurate, then I will have confirmation for what ails me. Which will be good as it is highly treatable but I will have to avoid that food for life. I will have further news when I get the biospy but I am not sure when I will be able to get the biopsy done. I have to wait for a referral to arrive in the mail then make an appointment. In the meantime, in order to not throw off the results, I have to continue eating what is making me sick. I still have to keep avoiding milk for now as that is a bad trigger. Another spot of good news is that once my intestinal tract heals from the major intolerace, I will be able to go back and slowly introduce milk into my diet.