La Clinica Revisited

So I thought I would give an update on how my work in the school's clinic was going. Besides prescribing glasses for my patients, I've been able to diagnose, and in some cases treat, several ocular diseases and disorders (unfortunately there are some diseases that aren't able to be treated). Below are a list of some of the diseases that I've seen. This is by no means a complete list of diseases:

Normal, Healthy Retina









Diabetic Retina










AIDS Retina










Lupus Retina










Macular Degeneration











Glaucoma









Herpes Simplex Virus









Herpes Zoster Virus



















Bacterial infection








And of course, glasses

The Adventures of Smingers!

Quick update since our last post:
*Smingers woke us up in the middle of the night by playing with a GIANT moth.
*Smingers brought in a mouse and chased it around the kitchen.
*Smingers was named "The Mascot of Lakeview Courts" by his new friends, Larry and Lenora (our neighbors).
*Smingers got dizzy after spinning on the computer chair and fell down...on his neck! (No injuries, just laughs).
*Smingers jumped into the lap of a houseguest WHILE AT THE DINNER TABLE to beg for spaghetti. (I was so embarrassed! What, it's not like we don't feed him!)
*And finally, one of my personal favorites: Smingers got stuck on the roof of our townhomes and couldn't get down by himself. I went over to help, but he was just barely reachable on my tip-toes and hands over my head. So I went to get him around his middle, but he is so flabby that what we affectionately refer to as his "waddle" was shifting around and his lard fat was hard to hold on to! He did, however, make it safely to the ground after a shaky ride down.

That's the quick version of the adventures of Smingers. Meanwhile, Smokey Bones was cowering in the shadows growling about life and how hard it is to be a misunderstood cat. Well, maybe she wouldn't be misunderstood if she didn't change her mind every .7 seconds! Or if she could speak English! Gosh, is that so much to ask?

Larry and Lenora (mentioned above) were interesting to get to know. I met them the day after Smingers got stuck on the roof. I went over to see if he was stuck again because he didn't come to greet me when I drove up, like he usually does. Well, what to my wandering eye should appear, was little orange Smingers, and a guy drinking a beer! (Okay, so he wasn't drinking a beer, but it rhymed so well, and he looked like the type that might!) Umm, okay back to the story: This guy was out there in the parking lot, and there was Smingers, rubbing up against his legs and hamming it up. I told him that he was our cat and introduced myself, and he told me his name was Larry and his wife or girlfriend was Lenora. Now, mind you, Larry was this true Florida guy, the transplanted from New York type that enjoy the weather in their open shirt, hairy chest, gold chains-and-all type of guy....he's got this motorcycle that he tinkers around with all weekend (we know, he just starts it up, not to go anywhere, just to tinker with it all Saturday...and Sunday...all afternoon....yeah.) But he couldn't stop gushing about how nice this cat was..."what's his name?" "Smingers". "Oh, Smithers?" "No, Smingers." "Smengers?" "Yes, SMINGers." And Lenora even chimed in that he apparently comes in their house, and jumped up on her bed! Anyway, so they were quite a nice couple, despite Larry calling Smingers "Smithers" and "Smith" a few more times before we went on our way.

So, side note: My mom and dad are going to be visiting us in less than a month! They will arrive Dec. 3rd and stay thru the 9th. I am excited and hoping to show off good weather and a warm Atlantic Ocean...though it probably will be "cold" by then. I am also excited to decorate for Christmas in our new home, such great bannisters for Christmas garlands! We are leaving for California on the 24th of December this year (blah), but at least if it's going to be that late, I will be able to enjoy my festive decorations for longer to put us in the holiday spirit.

Fido the Iguana

So yesterday Emilee and I went to a fruit stand in Hollywood to buy some fresh produce and a couple of pumpkins for Halloween. We got a little lost trying to find the place which caused us to drive back and forth down a busy highway as we tried to find the stand. I was a little annoyed with myself because I had looked-up the location online and should have known exactly where I was going.
The extra drive was worth it, however, when a taxi passed us in the right lane. I had to do a double-take as I saw a large iguana hanging its head out the window like a dog! Emilee and I couldn't believe our eyes. His head was bobbing back and forth and his hanging waddle thingy was flapping in the wind. I quickly gave my cell phone to Emilee and she snapped the picture below. It was one of, if not the weirdest things I've seen here in Florida.

Three Repairmen, One Day: The Saga Begins

Saturday, Oct. 11th.
I'm about to host a lunch party. I have mopped the floors, put up Halloween Decor, picked up the living room several times, and wiped down the kitchen. When I start to get lunch ready, cupboards start falling off their hinges! Literally! I thought, Steve can fix it. But Steve didn't have time to fix it. I'll just call Wayne, the Property Manager, he says. Yeah, AFTER everyone sees this wonderfully clean kitchen....with stuff spilling out of these ghetto cupboards sagging on one hinge.

Thursday, Oct. 16th.
In the midst of the worst BYU game by far this season (and a few previous seasons), Steve noticed that there was a giant stain in the middle of our kitchen ceiling. We quickly realized this wasn't usual ceiling ornamentation. Steve got on a chair and touched it, and sure enough, it was wet. So adding to the frustration of the game, we realized there must be a leak. And not just a little leak, a big one. That got even bigger after the game. Time to call Wayne, who's still on call for the ghetto cupboards.

Saturday, Oct. 18th.
I was busy cleaning out our bathtub in preparation for someone to look at the bathroom pipes due to the leak. I started getting really hot in there with all that humidity, and I just couldn't cool down! I turned on the fan in our room, which connects to the bathroom. Still hot! So I turned the A/C down to 74--usually it's at 78, to save on our power bill. STILL sweating! Finally I told Steve, I'm burning up! I already turned on the fan and the A/C, and it STILL says it's 81 in here! Then we looked at each other.........*realization*. It's the A/C that's out. Wayne's on speed dial.

Smingers vs. The Giant Iguana

Smingers is a very curious kitty and because of his such a friendly cat, he has actually made a few friends here in the neighborhood. There is a little Buffy-like dog who is his friend, as well as a black and white stray that comes around. And those are his animal friends, I'm not going to start with the humans he has befriended (let's just say one neighbor woke up with Smingers in her bed...). If Smingers was on Facebook, then he would be one of those people who tries to get as many friends as possible.
Well today Sming tried to expand circle of friends with one of the giant iguanas that hangs around the lake in our back yard. I don't want to give away what happens next, but keep one thing in mind, iguanas defend themselves by whipping you with their spiny tales. Enjoy--

It's been a while...

Ok, so Emilee and I have been really busy (and at times lazy), so wehaven't updated our blog for a long time. So much has happened inthe last three month or so that I don't even know where to start.
Maybe I'll begin with our new house. We found a townhouse about 1/2 mile from our old apartment that was bigger, cheaper, and next to a lake. It was kind-of a hassle to move out of our old place and into our new one, but we think it was well worth it. Below are some pictures of our new digs:

Dallin's Florida Extravaganza

Dallin's visit to Florida

Here are some pictures we took on Dallin's recent visit. The rainy wet photos are of us in Shark Valley in the Everglades where we biked a 15 mile loop. There are some pictures of us lighting off fireworks and some pictures next to our apartment.

The Passing of an Era

After driving the Lumina for five years and 70,000 miles, Emilee and I finally sold it a couple of weeks ago. The car had become unreliable the past couple of months due to some electrical problems. Some of the wiring harnesses had become brittle with the insulation beginning to to harden and flake off. One harness in particular began to arc and short out causing the car to die. The problem with replacing that harness is that it you had to remove the intake manifold to get to it, which would have cost more than the car was worth. Though it had electrical problems, the engine and transmission were in excellent condition and would have run for a long time to come.
I put an ad on craigslist.org and sold the Lumina a couple of days later to a person from Miami.

Before we sold the Lumina we were fortunate to buy another car. A member of our ward unexpectedly needed to move to the Northeast and wasn't able to take his Ford Escape. He tried to sell it for a couple of weeks leading up to his move, but had no success. He called me up the night before he moved and offered to sell me his Escape for about 1/2 the Blue Book value. We test drove it and decided to buy it. Initially I was worried about the gas milage that it was going to get, but I have since realized that it gets better gas milage than the Lumina. We are very happy with it as it's nice to have something bigger to haul stuff around and go to the beach in.

Same Story

So if you look at the below post that includes the story about Pooh and the snake, just insert "Mouse with foot caught in a Mousetrap dragging himself around and squeaking" whenever I wrote "snake", and you'll pretty much have the gist of what happened last night.

My trip to Jacksonville, FL

Johnson & Johnson owns a contact lens company named Vistakon. Their headquarters are located in Jacksonville, which is in the northeast corner of Florida. Vistakon paid for me and some fellow students to fly up there for three days of contact lens training and education. At first I was skeptical because I thought it would be a three-day commercial for Acuvue contact lenses, but that wasn't the case.
I flew in on Sunday afternoon, then for the next two days I attended training and seminars about contact lenses and new designs that are being developed from Vistakon and other companies. We fit real patients with new lenses and they seemed to like the comfort and vision they had with them in. They also brought lecturers in to educate us on improving our patient communication and gave us a tour of the manufacturing plant.
Johnson & Johnson and Vistakon are not hurting for money. The first night I was there I was given a $50 voucher for dinner at a Japanese hibachi steakhouse (I'm pleased to announce that I used $49.40 of it). Then the next night they paid for a fancy dinner at a beach-front restaurant. During the day I had access to all the food I could eat in their company cafeteria. The accommodations were very nice too.

A New One for Smokey Bones!

Smokey Bones caught a nice big rat and called us in early one morning to see it. (It was dead, by the way). She decided she had no more interest in it and let us know she would relinquish her prize for us to do with it what we would. Of course, that meant Steve immediately disposing of it. GROSS!

On a related note, last night (our anniversary) Pooh came around in the middle of the night. She started meowing every once in awhile as I could hear her pacing back and forth between our room and the next. It woke us both up and Steve said "Ignore her, she's just hungry." Well, she wouldn't be ignored. She started meowing Louder. "Are you sure she's hungry?" I asked sleepily after awhile. "Maybe there's something wrong." Meanwhile, she's meowing and meowing, and heading toward our room again. "Yeah, she just wants food." Steve said between mini-snores. And then Smokey was in our room, MEOWING! "Look, you guys, LOOK!" And so I looked, and she has this nice long little black snake (see previous post of our old friend) that she has laid at the foot of our bed. "She got a snake!" I hissed, and this produces the desired effect. "Hurry!" But Steve is already up and picks that snake right up (I could never do this--too many rattlesnake in the Chicken Coop nightmares) to throw him outside. "Thanks, Pooh, but we don't want you to keep catching this poor guy!" He tells Smokey, as the embattled snake writhes in a scared way. It kind of struck me as funny, actually--a Snake, afraid of US! So out he went and Smokey Bones didn't even look at him twice. She just wanted us to know what a good hunter she is.

My First Day in la Clinica

Yesterday was the first day I was able to see my first real patients. For two years I have been practicing techniques on fellow classmates, but that all changed yesterday as I was able to see total strangers.

My first patient was a 44 year-old male construction worker with a mini-mullet. He had bilateral bacterial conjunctivitis (eye infection) with his left eye worse than his right. I took a case history and performed pretesting (pupil responses, extra-ocular motilities, visual field testing, etc.) and did a slit lamp microscope exam on both eyes. I then instilled fluorscein dye in both eyes and looked at the corneal staining with the cobalt blue filter which allowed me to see any defects that the patient had as a result of the infection. It turned out that he had several corneal infiltrates, which are clusters of white blood cells that infiltrate the cornea in response to an infection. Corneal infiltrates are bad because they can cause a decrease in visual acuity because they can cause to overlying epithelial layers of the cornea to sluff off thus exposing the the cornea to further infection and possible ulceration. Infiltrates can also be one the pupillary axis and thus make it seem like something hazy is in front of the eye.

He was taking Vigamox (an ocular antibiotic) and Medrysone (steroid to reduce the infiltrates and inflammation). He had these medications from a previous infection. When I measured his IOP (intraocular pressure) I noticed that he had pressures that were about 30 mm Hg (about twice the average pressure). Since his pressures were high I told him to not take the steroid anymore because a possible side effect of ocular steroids is an increase in IOP. High IOP is worse than having corneal infiltrates and a little swelling so that's why I told him to stop using the steroid. The doctor wrote him a new prescription for Vigamox and I told him to come back the next day to check on the progress of his infection.

My next patient wasn't really my patient. It was another student's patient who spoke only Spanish. I was the translator during that exam. I love being able to use my Spanish skills and converse with the Latin people. They always seem so surprised that I can speak their language and are also very grateful. The only noteworthy finding was pterygia (see picture) in both eyes due to the patient being exposed to UV light in excess. The patient also had cataracts, which weren't that bad but were advanced for her age because of UV exposure. I was the only one in the clinic that day that could fluently speak Spanish, and because of that I was extremely busy as most of our patients didn't speak English (remember, Emilee and I live in Miami).

Is there a downside to being fluent in Spanish? The short answer is yes. I was so busy translating for other students and faculty that I wasn't able to see my own patients besides the construction worker that I mentioned above. Toward the end of my clinic experience yesterday, I realized that I needed concern myself more with practicing optometry and less with practicing my Spanish skills.

My friend Ben, who served his mission in Honduras, is starting a Spanish class for optometrists this summer. He asked me to help teach the class and I agreed. We start tomorrow and the class will last six weeks, during which we will cover how to get through an exam in Spanish with minimal confusion.

Here's a New One...

Here's the latest catch, brought in by Smingers! He was real proud of it, prancing in with it flitting it's wings while hanging out of his mouth. Then he dropped it in the middle of the living room floor in presentation fashion, only to have it try to start trying to fly again! Steve took it went to let it go, and Smingers was so disappointed.

My Formal House, a Few Months Later

Just to give you an idea how fast things grow here in Florida. The impatiens in the front are about out of season because of the heat, but they are still looking pretty good here. I was most pleased with how far along the back has come. If you look across the pool in the second to last picture, there is a lovely tree in the background that has very pretty lime, orange, and red tones to the leaves. It is a Queen Crape Myrtle, and you almost never see them as nice as this one. We relocated it from the side yard and all the leaves turned bright orange and red and then dropped due to the expected shock. But I couldn't believe how well it came back and how healthy all the new leaves are! This tree is one of my favorite things about this particular job. And, the flowers are a very pretty lavendar, matching closely with the ground orchids I put in the opposite corner.

Also, the Bulbine (yellow spike flower) and plumbago (blue flower) have really begun blooming as expected, and is giving the desired effect as a complementary pool backdrop. Watch out if you walk under those Coconut Palms though, heavy coconuts fall down in clusters unexpectadly on these particularly fertile specimens!

Look at What the Cat Dragged In...

So here is the latest "catch" by Smokey Bones....brought in just this morning. Good thing she was making a big deal about it--meowing, thumping around--or else it could have gotten lost in our house! BLECH! I watched to make sure it didn't get away while Steve jumped out of bed and grabbed the closest shoe. WHACK! And it was all over. Pooh just couldn't understand why we would want to smash her prize!

I WON A TRIP TO TAMPA!!!

So I FINALLY did it! I WON a radio call-in contest! I've been trying since we moved to Florida, because I was so amazed at the big ticket items they give away! So I'm going to recount everything as it occurred:
I remembered today that Majic 102.7 (The local Oldies Station) had emailed me because I am a member of their Majic Fun Club (just keep reading, being a member is worth it!) Their email conveniently gave me the inside scoop of exactly when the 'song of the day' was going to play (one of the perks of the Majic Fun club). Each day this week, they give away one prize of $500.00, and the other is a Tampa Bay 2 nights for 2 getaway. I always make a conscious choice to go for the trip, because it is something we usually couldn't afford. Today I took a breather-break from work around 4:40pm, when I suddenly realized the song of the day was supposed to play at 4:45! I rushed back to my desk and programmed the radio station number into my desk phone. (I got superstitious about using the office phone since on it I had been caller 1, 3, and 6 (and a one-time- winner-on-a-different-radio-station-only-to-be-thwarted-by-my-age, but that's a different story). So I started calling a 4:43. But the radio station was behind--it was playing some song by the Supremes well into the 4:45 minute, not the song of the day: 8 Days a Week, by the Beatles. So the song finally ended, and I rang once. Busy. Then I redialed...and it RANG! Then they were asking me my name, and I was wondering why. Usually the just say what caller number you are. Then I realized he was telling me I won! He told me all the stuff it included, but I couldn't even hear it. I was all shaky and was trying to remember my name and what radio station I was listening to since I knew they were about to put me on the air, and I was trying very hard not to embarrass myself! So from what I remember, I won a 3 day, 2 night two person suite at a Private Resort in Tampa Bay on a golf course and country club, including a Spa Package for two, at over $1000 value! We are attaching the link they gave me so you can all be jealous! Anyway, it is supposed to be available to us sometime in mid-June (sounds like it will work perfect for our annual anniversary trip!) So I was so excited, as you can tell, and it was the perfect anniversary/birthday present for us!
http://www.emeraldgreensgcc.com/index.asp

Emilee's Birthday

So here's me on my 24th Birthday. I bought that pretty green shirt earlier that day with some money my mom sent in a card for my birthday. She also wrote a little poem to go with it that was funny and really nice.

Steve got me this ice cream cake (cookie dough!) and it was DELICIOUS! And look at all those presents in front of me! He got me a funny red shirt with my favorite quote from Talledega Nights (really the most memorable part of the movie) that said "I'm gonna come at you like a Spider Monkey!" and a crazy picture of a monkey. Then there was a gift certificate for a Deluxe Pedicure--Steve said he had the choice between a "regular" pedicure or the deluxe, and he chose the deluxe, so it looks like I'm all spoiled now. That would probably make only about the 3rd or 4th pedicure I've ever had!


Before I got to open Steve's presents, we went to have a Barbecue with all my friends. We had it at Elliott and Molly's place at their clubhouse pool, because there is a nice little nook there with a big BBQ grill area. Rob, Bonnie, and their twins Ben and Bella were there, Bryce and Brittni Hardy, Barbara and Pete Mills, Naomi and Marcos Aguilera, and some of Naomi's family even came when they got into town, and we had lots and lots of delicious hotdogs, Bratwursts, hamburgers, potato salad, yummy ice cream bar deserts, drinks and snow cones!














I wish I would have thought to take the camera for the Barbecue, it was a really fun night. Barbara and Bonnie got me a new purse and wallet (much needed, I might add, and they knew it!) Molly got me some tennis balls, with the promise that we would go play soon...I'll hold her to it! Anyway, it really was one of my favorite birthdays because I was spoiled all day.






Then I included a picture of Smingers because he does funny things.

Fur Children Update

Our kitties, or "Fur Children" as Emilee likes to call them, absolutely love their cat door that we installed. I allows them to come and go as they please and let's them do their duty outside (no more litter box).
The only problem is the kitties keep bringing their prey into the apartment to play with it until they think it's dead. But really the little critters just pretend they're dead and then scurry off once the cats get bored and leave.
Here's a list of little animals we have found so far (note: these are only the ones we know about):


2 field mice







3 ringneck snakes










2 baby birds










1 Frog











And countless lizards and geckos

Finals Update

At last I'm done with my finals and my second year of optometry school is in my rear-view mirror. What started right after our Seattle trip last June, finally ended yesterday with an Anomalies in Binocular Vision final exam.
I did very well an my final exams--much better than I thought I would do. Many thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.
What's next? I start working in the clinic in a couple of weeks and I'll take a couple of classes this summer, but overall my schedule will be light.

Christmas Break Update

After a lot of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, the administration at school agreed to close the clinic after Christmas and give us a vacation until January 5th.

Christmas Plans

Ok so Christmas is eight months away but it's never too early to start planning our yearly trek back to California, especially when you're in the throes of finals and all you can think about is a vacation from school anyway.
I received this email from the Dean of Student Affairs regarding my national boards (NBEO) that are coming up next March:

Class of 2010-

As you probably know, KMK Educational Services has been contracted for the last several years to provide Part 1 NBEO reviews for our students. Students have been exceptionally pleased with this review and have found it to be very helpful in guiding their NBEO preparation.

We have contracted with KMK to provide reviews for the new Part 1 that will be held on March 17th & 18th, 2009. In order to provide a timely review, we have arranged for most of the review to be given during the month of December of 2008. The specific dates are:

December 3rd & 4th Wednesday morning and Thursday (will not conflict with clinic)

December 17th & 18th Wednesday morning and Thursday (will not conflict with clinic)

December 22nd & 23rd Monday & Tuesday (all clinics will be closed)

KMK will also return for one date in the spring, probably the first week in March, for a final review session.

Please take these December dates into account when making any personal commitments. Attendance will be mandatory and, in all likelihood, requests for excused absences on these dates will not be granted.

So there you have it, I have to be here in Florida through December 23rd. Also, I may have to work in the school's clinic sometime during the week after Christmas because the clinic will be open during that time. In years past the students have split the Christmas holiday with half of the students working before Christmas and the other half working after Christmas. But with the board review classes now scheduled before Christmas, I have a feeling everyone in my class will request to have the week after Christmas off. They can't grant everyone that request so about half of us are going to be out of luck :(

The Florida Keys

The famous Florida Keys are actually further from our home than I had realized. I guess that I had always thought Miami was on the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula, but the keys are actually quite a distance south of Miami. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the first key--Key Largo. If we had wanted to continue on to Key West, that would have been another 90 minute drive!
Anyway, we had a blast down there with Raymond, Kendall, John and Carolyn. It was windier than normal, but that didn't stop us from renting jet skis and going out on the choppy water. We also stopped along the seashore and waded around a bit to see what we could find. We caught some crabs and teased the ones that we didn't dare pick up.
Raymond and Kendall left on Wednesday of that week, but we returned to Key Largo on Saturday with John and Carolyn and visited John Pennecamp State Park. The park contains a large coral reef as well as lots of shoreline to swim and explore. Unfortunately, it was windy and poured buckets of rain while we were there, but that didn't deter us from signing up for a boat ride out to another coral reef to see the famous Christ of the Deep statue. It's a large statue of Christ under water in the middle of the coral reef that has been there for years. The boat ride out to the statue was miserable to say the least. As we traveled in the boat we were pummeled with wind, rain, and crashing waves. Everything got soaked and I was afraid to get out my camera and take pictures. Miraculously, once we got to our destination offshore the wind and the rain was reduced to a sprinkle and then eventually stopped altogether.
We were able to snorkel around there for about an hour and see the statue. If you were really good at holding your breath you could dive down and touch the statue's hands. You can't touch anywhere else on the statue because there is fire coral growing on it and it's sharp, and it's a protected reef so you're not allowed to touch anything anyway--not even the sand on the bottom of the ocean. After snorkeling and before we headed back to shore, Emilee and I got seasick and were the only ones on the boat to lose our lunch over the side. We were surprised to see scores of fish come up to the surface and help themselves to our second hand peanut butter sandwiches. The captain of the boat joked, "Don't worry, it's the only hot meal those fish ever get."
I have to mention that on our way back we stopped at one of those road-side tourist shops that sells local crafts. We went inside and bought a frozen chocolate covered key-lime pie on a stick. That could possible be the most delicious thing that I've ever tasted. (Mom, I thought you would like to try one of those!). Emilee had actually been there before because she had done some work in the area and recommended that we stop there. We were glad we did!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and definitely want to go back. Here are a few pictures that we took:

The Everglades

This past March some of Emilee's family were able to visit. Raymond, Kendall, John and Carolyn all made the trip to South Florida. Among other things, we were able to visit the famous Florida Everglades. We went to a place named Shark Valley, rented bicycles, then biked around a 15 mile loop in the middle of the Everglades and saw some incredible wildlife. I was told that you could see over 100 alligators if you made the 15 mile bike trip, but I think we saw over 200! There is no fence or anything for that matter to keep the gators from getting you so it's best not to get too close (they advise you stay at least 15 feet away from the gators at all times). We had a good time and everyone stayed safe. Kudos to Carolyn for biking the whole trail while being pregnant; she's a trooper.