Freaky Eye Wednesday

*****DISCLAIMER: THE PICTURES BELOW WILL LIKELY GROSS YOU OUT BEYOND BELIEF. IF YOU ARE AT ALL QUIRKY ABOUT YOUR EYES AND ARE FREAKED OUT BY WEIRD EYE STUFF, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND SKIP THIS POST. THANKS, MANAGEMENT*****






















so, i haven't had a Freaky Eye post in a while. brooke said i had to post about my patient today, so here goes:

16yoBM at Roebuck today. i had seen him last week for a full eye exam, and he was back today for a first time contact lens fitting. well, this young man was very motivated to wear contacts (because he hates his glasses), but he was scared of letting me put contacts in his eyes...a common occurrence. i could tell he was apprehensive, so i explained how easy it would be and how i would not hurt him, etc. so everytime i would try to put the lens on his eyes, he would squeeze his eyes so tight that i couldn't hold his eyelids open. and i'm pretty good at holding people's eyelids open. :) i would stop, explain to him that when he squeezes his eyes it makes it really difficult to put the lens on successfully, and then try again. after 15 minutes of coercing him to NOT squeeze his eyes, i finally got both lenses on. his vision was great with them....they fit well....they were comfortable...everything was going great.

so i take him to our contact lens training room to start practicing how to take the lenses out and put them in properly. our office manager helped teach him how to do that and care for his lenses. in the meantime, i go check a few more patients. right as i am about to go in with another patient, i hear a blood-curdling scream coming from the contact lens room, followed by our office manager screaming "DR. WILLIAMS!!! DR. WILLIAMS!!! DR. WILLIAMS!!!" i rush into the room, thinking he had accidentally scratched his eye while trying to take his contact out. instead, i saw something like this:



it wasn't EXACTLY like this picture. it was only his left eye. i calmed him down, got him to sit back down and relax, and the eye went back into his orbit like it should be.

for all you nerds out there, here's what happened. remember i told you he would squeeze his eyes? well, as he was trying to put his contacts in, he pulled his eyelids far apart to insert the contact. as he went to put the lens on his eye, he squeezed his eyes, trying to shut his eyelids while holding them open. funny, right? that internal pressure he exerted temporarily pushed his globe forward a few millimeters. once he calmed down, he relieved that pressure, and the globe retropulsed back into it's normal position.

and here's the funny part: he actually put the contact on his eye right before it popped forward! once he touched the lens to his eye, he squeezed so hard that it popped the eye forward. but he got it on! :)

that was the first time i've had to deal with a patient doing this. fortunately, i didn't have to physically push the eye back in. i've had a few of my classmates have to deal with that already.

Brian McCann is blinded by the light...

...especially at night games. the reigning NL Silver Slugger recipient is mired in an awful slump after complaining of blurry vision in his surgically corrected left eye. you can read the full story here.

Schaeffer Eye Center

here are a few ads that our practice is running on TV these days. i thought you would like to see a peek into my work life.

This is the eye chart that some people wish I had

(courtesy of Yahoo! Sports)

Haven't had one of these in a while....

first off, whoa! it's been "4-eva" (forever) since i posted last. sorry about that.

so, i had a "first day at the new job" on Monday. it made me think back to when i got my first job back in Macon, and when i had my first day at Sam's as a REAL doctor. but things went well. i'll only be working at this new job part-time until my contract with Sam's runs out (my last day there will be October 4th).

so, i had a day full of learning. their way of doing things is similar to when i worked up in Cullman, but maybe on a grander scale. in the morning, i worked at the Hoover office, which happens to be the biggest/busiest office. i got to shadow the doctor there some, as well as see a few patients myself. the biggest difference for me will probably be record-keeping. Dr. Schaeffer's offices are completely electronic, so there are no paper files....just computer data on a program called "Exam Writer". it's really nice, but i'm still lost in it. it's tough enough learning a new exam form when you work with another office, but it's much more difficult learning a computerized exam form. i kept going to the wrong screen, or not knowing how to find the right screen, or not knowing where something should go. i think that will be the biggest acclimation for me.

in the afternoon, i worked at the Colonnade office off of Hwy 280. the doctor here helped me learn the computer programs better. i will be splitting most of my time between this Colonnade office and an office in Roebuck. i'm very excited about working there.

so, i'll stumble along for the next few weeks, trying to get my bearings in this new job. i'll work there 2-3 days a week for the next 3 weeks until i completely with sam's.

we're doing well here. still waiting on one of our house-lookers to turn into a house-buyer. keep praying!

Well, it's now official

after a lot of prayer and contemplation, i've decided to join a large group optometry practice in the Birmingham area.

it's really a long story, so bear with me as i retell it.

the week before we left for Maywood, this doctor contacted me saying he wanted to interview me about joining his practice. at first, i was taken aback. i hadn't been looking to change my job situation. i certainly hadn't been spreading the word that i was looking for something different. he told me he had gotten my name from a optical rep that visits the Cullman office i've been working at 2 days a week for the past 2 years. so, after talking with brooke, we decided it wouldn't hurt to meet him and see what he had to say. plus, it would be good experience for me to go through the interview process.

so, i met Dr. Schaeffer the saturday before we went to camp. i went in to the meeting knowing that whatever he said, i wasn't going to say "yes" that day. the meeting went really well. Dr. Schaeffer is a unique character. he's a very type-A personality. he's very reputable in the academic field and the community. ever heard of the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil? that's his baby. anyhoo, everything he said made great sense to me. he's offered me a large pay increase over what i'm making now, full benefits, local work (less miles on my car, not to mention the cost of gas), and the ability to practice optometry to an extent that i can't do in my current situation. well, he offered the position to me that saturday, but i told him i needed to pray about it and talk things over with brooke. he understood that i'd be at camp the next week, so i told him i'd get back in touch with him when i got home.

i tried my best NOT to think about it while at camp. and i didn't, for the most part. i'd still pray alot about it, but i wouldn't fret over it. but, as i prayed about it, i came to the conclusion that this had to be a blessing from God. there were a number of reasons:

1. i wasn't looking for anything. this just fell in my lap.
2. though i'm a "doctor", i haven't been able to make even close to "doctor money" in my current situation.
3. i wouldn't have to spend one night a week away from home like i do now (no offense, big red and patti....like i told you before, that's one of the biggest "cons" in my decision: that i won't get to hang out with ya'll every week anymore).

so as the week toiled on, i was leaning more and more towards accepting the job. that first monday back to work, i got a call from the doctor i currently work for in Cullman on thursdays and fridays. she was calling to tell me that she was only going to need me for maybe one day a week starting in September. when i heard her say that, it's like a window from Heaven opened and said, "how much more proof do you need?!? take the job, dummy!" so, i called him up and we met again to discuss particulars. i called up my district manager with Sam's the next day to give him my 60 day notice. then, i called the doctor in Cullman to let her know. i signed the contract today, so i'm official. :)

so where does this take us from here? the next few weeks will still be the same.

if you need to get your eyes checked at Sam's or Cullman, you'd better act fast! my last day in Cullman is September 8th. my last day at Sam's is October 4th. after i'm finished at Cullman, i'll start part-time with Dr. Schaeffer.

thanks for reading my story. keep us in your prayers as i transition. i'll blog soon about more specifics of my new job. here's a teaser that hopefully some of you might get: do you think Julio Jones and Andre Smith might need contacts? i might get to find out one day soon.

Ever feel like this?!?

i rounded the corner at work today in Cullman and found FOUR charts in one door!  it was a family of 4, all dilating in one room.  some days just seem that busy and hectic.  but that was definitely a first for me!

ICURIS - Reloaded

so here goes another shot at blogging.  thanks to everyone for giving me another try.  in the past, i've drifted away from regular blogging for one of two main reasons:

A. i haven't taken the time to sit and write, and

B. i don't think we're quite interesting enough for regular blogs.

here's what i mean:  i absolutely love the life that brooke and i have for ourselves.  God has blessed us beyond what we deserve.  we've been able to avoid tragedy and have been well taken care of for our entire marriage.  i get up and go to work.  brooke gets up and goes to school.  we come home, eat supper, watch TV, and go to sleep.  okay, maybe we're not that monotonous, but our lives are pretty care-free at this point.  

maybe i'm just not good at realizing the crazy things that are happening all around me that make life interesting.  so, that being said, i'm gonna give it another go.  

i was inspired by my sister kristi's recent blog about the wild things that some of her clients have told her.  so here's a short list of the things i've experienced in my almost 3 years as an optometrist:

1.  our eye charts at work have both letters and numbers.  the numbers are designed to denote which line the patient is reading (20/20, 20/40, etc.).  the 20/25 line reads: "A P S O 2 5".  if patients are struggling to get the first 4 letters, i'll usually encourage them by saying, "the last 2 on this line are numbers...".  i'll feel good, because i've just narrowed their selection pool from 26 to 10.  you would not believe how many people respond, "okay...that's Z and S...".  

2. while working as an optician before optometry school, i was dispensing my first pair of glasses to a young boy.  his mother asked if i had already "put the medicine" in the glasses.  

i thought for a second, and said, "actually, there isn't medicine in there....the lenses just bend the light to help him see better."  

she responded, "so you put the medicine in there already?"

i said, "yes ma'am." 

thanks for reading.  i'll try my best to put up new entries at least once a week.