60+ year old thread.

Good morning Pals and Gal.

Lots of eye talk here lately. As far as dry eye, I've used Restasis twice a day for several years to good effect. Recently, a generic form, cyloporine opthamalic emulsion, received FDA approval.

An important consideration is if you use an eyedrop such as Refresh, only use the single dose vials. The larger bottle type drops contain a preservative. Retatasis or its equivalent is basically an anti-inflammatory. I am neither an ophthalmologist nor have I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

 

I had this procedure done on both eyes a year ago this month. As others have said, investigate the lenses being used for replacement, the practice doing the surgery and the surgeon. All are important. Understand the process it is not complicated, but it is involved. For me I needed medical clearance from and GP and Cardiologist. This process can take some time to complete. The surgery practice will have a form the doctors will need to fill out. There is also a process to get your eyes hydrated and surgery will not happen till this happens. This is usually eye drops 1 to 3 weeks prior to the surgery. There are two surgery dates spaced a week apart. The surgeon will only do one eye at a time. After the first eye you will need to wear a hard eye protection cup at night. It is important not to rub your eyes, keep up with a very rigorous eye drop routine, usually 6 to 7 sets of drops a day plus a spray that cleanses you outside eye lids from bacteria. You should not get water in your eyes during this time period especially when taking a shower. You will have a follow up visit with your surgeon the next day then at 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month and then at 6 months. At the 6 months visit the ophthalmologist will make a determination if you should have a new prescription for reading glasses or if you need to keep on hydrating the eyes. The eye drops are expensive. Now for my experience, I was apprehensive about the surgery, I should never have worried, but I am careful with my eyes. First impression after one eye was WOW everything looks so bright when looking out using the corrected eye. Over time your cataract yellows with age and is so slow you never notice the yellowing of colors. I am happy with the results but do wish I had spent the extra $1200.00 per eye ad had lenses that correct near and far vision. It is sort of a PITA to put on glasses to read. Another thought concerning financing the surgery, we could have paid cash up front but the practice offered 0% financing, from Synchronicity Bank, if the total price is paid over 18 months. We chose the financing rather than take money out of retirement accounts. Hope this helps your ecision.

Good morning. Doing a little yard work today and out for music tonight.

 

@95SLE
That's a terrific overview of the process and mirrors my experience

 

Morning 60+

 

Chiming in on the Cataract conversation...

Back when I was a fairly young fifty I complained to my ophthalmologist about a fuzzy spot in my right eye; she took a look and said I was developing "juvenile cataracts". I asked her to fix it and she laughed at me, she said, "Dude, you're over fifty and, have 20/15 vision in both eyes, and don't need reading glasses; I'd kill to have your eyes, cataracts and all." As the cataracts developed I went back six months later and asked her to fix my eye because it had gotten so much worse (in my opinion); she still laughed at me because my vision was still 20/20 or better. The next visit I waited an additional eighteen months (by which time the great recession had hit and both my wife and I had lost our jobs/health insurance); she came in and asked me how I thought things were now and I told her I could no longer see out of the right eye, once again she laughed and said I probably still had better than 20/30 vision and that wouldn't be bad enough for her to do anything. When she started the actual examination she got real quiet and finally said, "Well my friend, over the last eighteen months your eye has fallen off a cliff; you are now legally blind in that eye." With my now uninsured status, I asked her what it would cost and she said, an eye as bad as mine would probably cost upwards of $16,000, and with that I just figured I'd keep buggering on and ignore the issue.

Three months after my visit I'd lost my peripheral vision and started falling a lot because I couldn't see well enough to my right and would trip over things in the office or on my walk from the commuter bus station to said office where I worked as an uninsured contractor. At the time I worked with an gentleman from India and he suggested I inquire with a few clinics over there as "Medical tourism" was big business; I called a clinic in Mumbai and they told me they could do the entire thing for $2,700 using U.S. trained doctors, and U.S. sourced equipment and IOLs (I figured with airfare, hotels, and 4 days of sitting in a "Curry House" stuffing my face I could do the whole thing for about $6,700). Someone else suggested I call a clinic a few miles north of where I lived in southern New Hampshire as the owner of the clinic was well known for accommodating folks without insurance; I talked with one of his associates and told her my story, she asked me to hold while she talked to the doctor. When she came back on the line she told me the doctor would match the $6,700, including using a "Crystalens" IOL; needless to say I immediately scheduled an appointment.

When I when in for the appointment I learned this particular doctor was the "go-to" guy for other ophthalmologists when they would botch a surgery, so I felt like I was in good hands. While the doctor was examining me he said, "I've been doing cataract surgeries for nearly thirty years and I have never seen a cataract as dense as yours or one which developed as quickly." In the end he was unable to measure the size of my eye using the standard laser measurement device and had to resort to ultra sound to get an approximate measurement, then he ordered 50 different IOLs so he could trial fit them during the surgery. While I was undergoing said surgery, he and I kept up a running commentary of what I could and couldn't see as he tried one lens after another, and he told me he was encouraged. I asked him why and he said, "Because your cataract was so dense I didn't know if you had a working retina."

Long story short, my right eye went back to 20/20 vision (which was annoying to me because that was so much worse than what I had when pre-cataract), as did my left eye two years later, and now thirteen years after the first surgery, I still have 20/20 vision and only need to use "readers" when I'm pulling a splinter out of a finger or other fine detail work.

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue. 1.75" all day yesterday, I'll take it. Supposed to be more today, but it's not here yet. Son is coming over to get Darth Prius headlights treated. Chilly and damp, but I'll set the EzUp in place to keep it dry.

 

I've mentioned that I'm converting a Chevy Express Van for travel camping.

I haven't come up with a good way to store my propane bottle outside the van. I've been assuming that the bottle should be stored outside... but is it necessary? I have a good place to put it inside.

I've also been looking for a way to attach a sunshade to the drip rail and haven't found any accessories that attach to the drip rail. There are all kinds of magnets, which scare me to death with wind and flying, hard, heavy objects and windows to be broken. I'm about to build a clamp for the drip rail at this point.

I got new tires on it and it's amazing how the drive improved.

 

sixtys/wannabes/eyeballers. I've been under the weather since Monday; my son and his wife came to visit and 3 of us came down with something. Weird thing, fast moving; I was probably exposed Friday afternoon, and symptoms were already present Sunday night. Lungs and sinuses. Wednesday all I did was sleep, waking occasionally to sip water. Thursday, poof! Felt 70% better. Today better still.

+1 for cataract surgery. I have glaucoma and so no fancy lenses, but I've worn glasses since I was a wee tad so that's not a big deal to me. I went from being extremely nearsighted to being farsighted; I don't need glasses to drive anymore. (Hmmm, wonder if I should look into changing something on my driver's license...) My left eye was done first, and didn't recover well, delaying the procedure on my right eye. That one went very smoothly. Ditto the others on not realizing that everything was sepia-toned until the new lens went in! Hardest part for me was reading / computing during the period between surgeries because the vision was so different in each eye and you don't want to get a new prescription until things have settled down a bit.

 

Good morning all. The Easter season is upon us.

 

Discount Tires, here on Tacoma World, have been terrific, they matched the low sale price I found online (Walmart), and the new tires will be in my local Discount store (San Marcos, CA) this afternoon or tomorrow. The rep on the Discount Vendors forum here on TW (Jordan) was super!

 

Like watching paint dry? 7 minutes left from the final step of keeping the headlights clean and dry. I got my son this CeraKote

$18 CERAKOTE® Ceramic Headlight Restoration Kit – Guaranteed To Last As Long As You Own Your Vehicle – Brings Headlights Back to Like New Condition - No Power Tools Required - 10 Wipe Kit

Amazon.com: CERAKOTE Ceramic Headlight Restoration Kit – Guaranteed To Last As Long As You Own Your Vehicle – Brings Headlights back to Like New Condition - 3 Easy Steps - No Power Tools Required : Automotive for Christmas, and lousy day for the install, but simple as 1 - 2- 3.









Best kit I've ever used!

 

Propane bottle brackets are on Amazon. I have an external mount on the tiny trailer. The bracket on my trailer is made from 2" angle and flat aluminum, cheaper than the $100 commercial solution.

For the van, I prefer a more stealthy approach. Dedicated sealed box, with a 4" diameter hole (huge vent) in the floor. Think of rusty exhaust pipes and carbon monoxide leaks, but the tank box is sealed (airtight) with cam latches and the vent in the bottom. Ferry Crossing, they don't like hidden Propane Bottles, so always ask first or be ready to show them your solution.

Do not attach a forty-pound sunscreen to a van. Better to install a rack, and install sunscreen to the rack. Plus solar panels on the rack to recharge your battery, and off-grid power.
Costco has screaming deals on the EcoFlow all-in-one system (880Wh for $480)
https://www.costco.com/ecoflow-delta-mini-portable-power-station.product.100832158.html
Caveat: That system requires a 24V solar panel, irony if you use the car charger it limits charing to 5A (60W); but use a DC-DC converter to boost the car to 24 Input, you can charge at 3x the rate (180W);

The Yaesu FTM-300D radion I won in a raffle arrived. I was asked to send a selfie with myself and radio the club's newsletter. I'm too old to take selfies, and with hand tremors hard to get a good photo. The photo looks like a crazy old mountain man you don't to mess with, so perfect! I need to get to work with a 2/3 rear seat delete, draw, radio gear area to allow my big fridge to slide out.

 

Expand to read reply.

 

Yikes, figuring out my original comments and your response was hard.

Ferry Crossings: I was in Pacific Northwest and remembered a few, hence the propane bottle question (we had the one-pound bottles, which are acceptable).

External Propane bottle mounts:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=propane+tank+mounting+bracket

The radio is a ham amateur radio thing. 2m and 70cm bands, I can also scan NOAA weather alerts, etc.

The nice part about a beard is not having to shave daily and trim up once a week.

 

That's spring detail #2 done. Just Mrs. SpruceMica's minivan left

 

I asked my wife if I had a beard when we got married and she thought not... but had to check a wedding picture to be sure. I've had one so long we don't remember when I first forgot to shave...

 

I had a mustache when my wife and I met. Had for maybe 10 or 12 years and then grew a beard and had that for probably ten years. Decided to shave everything one morning. Walked out of the bathroom and...my wife had never seen without some form of facial hair...ever

 

LOL... I've seen some young kids go nuts when dad shaved. My wife's never seen me without a mustache. She never will.

 

Endangered species:

 

Saddle tank from a square body Chevy?