Cataract Surgery - We Love To Hear From Our Patients!

"Dear Dr. White,

Am I Happy with my new Crystalens? They’ve changed my life. I feel like I have new eyes. I didn’t think that was possible.

My Mother lost vision in one eye due to glaucoma along with a cataract. I was hesitant to have ANY eye surgery done. My cataracts were beginning to obstruct my nighttime driving so I knew that it was time for some type of eye correction.

Never did I realize that I would get my vision back. Every morning I get out of bed with good vision. No fumbling for glasses. No daily routine of inserting one contact lens for near vision and one for far vision.

I can drive at night, see movies in the theater, read a newspaper, read books, and work on my computer, all without difficulty. It’s like a miracle happened or else new eyes transplanted.

Thank you to the research department that developed the Crystalens.

Sincerely,

Kathy Gregory R.N.,R.D.H., B.S.,M.S.&E.D.

Registered Nurse, Registered Dental Hygienist, Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Education"

Thank you Kathy for sharing your experience with us!

The doctors and staff from Skyvision

RevitalVision Re-Boot!

Here's one of the very cool things about the RevitalVision program: your vision trainer is in contact with you pretty much all the time and responds to your questions right away. Dr. White's trainer is Terry and she realized from Dr. White's questions that he would actually be better off doing one of the other RevitalVision programs in order to meet his goals.

"I was talking to the executives and head scientists about Dr. White and his progress. We decided that what Dr. White was really after was to reduce the amount of time he uses his glasses for things like driving at night. He was doing very well on the Sportsvision module and would likely have really seen a jump in his vision while wearing his glasses, but we felt that he would be more likely to achieve his primary goal by switching to our "Myopia" protocol."

Dr. White did the intro session for "Myopia" today without his glasses and is ready to forge ahead! "I'm very impressed by the responsiveness Terry showed to my questions. I've always loved this part of the RevitalVision program and approach, the interaction between the patient and the people running the program and the software," said Dr. White. "I love that Terry and her teammates are looking after my patients this closely!"

By the way, Dr. White scored a 94 in a 15:00 introductory session on Myopia.  Check back here for updates on his progress!

Debunking Eye Myths*

How many times have you heard someone tell you something about your eyes or your vision that made you scratch your head? Something that you've heard a thousand times and always wondered about? Us too!

Let's look at a couple and see how they stack up to reality:

1) "Don't sit so close to the TV; you'll ruin your eyes!"

FALSE! It turns out that this one was never true. There has never really been anything harmful coming out of a TV screen, at least as far as your eyes go. People have been sitting closer to the TV for decades just to see better. Kids have a natural tendency to do this. It doesn't necessarily mean that you need glasses, and sitting closer definitely won't hurt your eyes or your eyesight. Cable TV might rot your brain...

2) "Don't read in the dark; it'll make your eyes weak!"

FALSE! Reading in dark or dim light just makes reading harder, but it doesn't do any harm to your eyes or your vision. Heck, Abe Lincoln used to read by candlelight as a kid, and HE turned out alright!

3) "If you wear your reading glasses you'll just need to wear them more."

TRUE and FALSE. Once you hit your 40's almost everyone starts to lose the ability to focus up close due to a combination of hardening of the lens in your eye and decreased strength in your focusing muscles. You will need more help with reading glasses or bifocals in time no matter what, but fighting against them by forcing yourself to focus can make you need them a little less for a little longer. Use 'em or don't, whichever makes you more comfortable.

4) "Give your eyes a break, you're gonna wear them out!"

FALSE. Your eyes are different from a muscle like your biceps. You can't wear them out. Go ahead and use them!

5) "If you don't stop it, you'll go blind".

WHOA! Wait a minute. This is a PG-rated blog! :-)

*Props to Dr. Carey Silverman for the idea.

A New Era in Dry Eye Management - Article

A little more about tear osmolarity and the treatment of Dry Eye Syndrome.  The recent article below tells how the instrument used by SkyVision doctors is leading the pack to help give patients the best care for their symptoms.

http://tlc.tearlab.com/resources//articles/A_New_Era_in_Dry_Eye_Management_-_Jerry_Nolfi__OD.pdf

Newsflash: Tear Osmolarity Is Now Covered By Medicare

Skyvision Centers is the top referral center for the treatment of Dry Eye and Ocular Surface Disease in the Cleveland area. Dr. Darrell White has been a leader in the development of diagnostic and treatment protocols in these clinical areas for more than 10 years. Along with his partners Dr. Scott Schlegel and Dr. Gregory Kaye, Dr. White introduced Tear Osmolarity using the TearLab instrument to Northeast Ohio in March 2010.


"We are delighted to let people know that Tear Osmolarity, testing the level of 'saltiness' in our tears, is now covered by Medicare. In order to perform this test Skyvision obtained its certification as a CLIA laboratory. We are very proud to have achieved this, and we are very pleased that this news will make Tear Osmolarity available to more of our patients."

This test is important not only in making the diagnosis of Dry Eye, but in the hands of the Skyvision Centers doctors it is developing a very important role in helping to decide the proper treatment for any individual patient. Once again, Skyvision is on the cutting edge when it comes to making your eyes healthier!

Dr. White RevitalVision Sessions 6 & 7

Dr. White scared the heck out of our technicians when he came out of the RevitalVision room...no one knew he was even in the office! Let's see what he had to say:

"My floaters got in the way!! I've had floaters since I was a young teenager and I almost never see them unless I'm looking for them. One of them sat right in the middle of my vision for about half of my Session 6. Thankfully no one was in the room with me; I would have had a
hard time explaining why I was
shaking my head so hard!

See yesterdays blog for some great info about floaters: http://skyvisioncenters.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-are-those-spots-in-front-of-my.html

I have the rhythm of the sessions down now. About 30 minutes each time. Smaller and smaller, lighter and lighter. I like the "Which one is darker?" sessions--I seem to be able to see them really well. I scored a 90 on Session 6 but only an 85 on Session 7. I'll have to wait for Kelly to let me know what that means. Does your score go down as it gets harder, or does this mean I'm slipping back into the average category? We'll see what she says.

This is really hard work, though. You really have to want to improve your vision to do this, but everything we've seen at Skyvision leads us to believe that it's worth it. I've joked over the years that the faster I get at doing cataract surgery the shorter my attention span gets! These 30+ minute sessions of intense concentration are good training for my attention span, too!"

Tune in for updates on Dr. White's progress.

Dr. White and RevitalVision Sessions 4 & 5

Dr. White is still doing great with RevitalVision and the SportsVision module. Here's what he had to say about Sessions 4 and 5:


"Wow! This is getting HARD! I mentioned last time that the images get smaller and smaller while they also get dimmer and dimmer. It turns out that the better you do on your previous sessions the smaller and dimmer they get as you go on! Tough stuff.

I'm finding that I need to take mini-breaks a little more frequently now since I am concentrating so hard. I've always had a bit of a dry eye problem (I use Restasis) so I've been using artificial tears during my sessions as well. It seems like my results are good, though. The program sends you an email after each session with a graph to show your results, and my trainer Kelly has been very encouraging. Each session is taking just a little over 30 minutes, and I got my highest score yet today on Session 5: a 92!

My goal is to get in at least 4 sessions per week and so far, so good. I'm still wondering when I will have to do this without my glasses, though."


Stay tuned for more updates from Dr. White as his RevitalVision adventure continues.