Day 6 Post Procedure.

What a difference a night makes. The morning of the 6 day was considerably better. Still blurry but almost no double vision. Working on the computer was a bit of a challenge. As the day went on my vision seemed to get better with moments of blur. My eyes feel like they are hunting for focus and when I blink they are blurry. The longer I keep my eyes open the clearer my vison got but then I had to blink again and the blur would return. Later in the day I could tell my eyes were tired as I started to get an ach behind them. Ibuprofen, eye drops and eye shields for bed time.

PRK Progress Day 5 Post Surgery

Tuesday was day 5 post procedure and a follow up appointment. I checked in and waited to be called back to my appointment. When I was called back after a short wait, I was taken back for a eye measurement test and then taken to an exam room. The tech got everything set up and put a dye in my eyes to check the surface of the cornea. While waiting on the Dr. I was looking at the eye chart and was surprised I was able to see about 20/40. This excitement was short lived. When the Dr.came in he asked me how I was doing and pull the slit lamp up to my face. He grabbed some forceps and removed the contact bandage from my eyes and everything went blurry. Very blurry. Like before I even had surgery blurry. I was a little discouraged but from research I wasn't surprised. For the rest of the day my vision was very blurry and I could only see a couple of feet clearly. I continued with my drops and eye shields at night.

PRK Vision Progress Thru 4 Days Post Procedure..

I would have to say as far as pain wise the first 3 to 4 hours after the procedure was probably the worst, My eyes felt like they were throbbing with an accompanying headache, light sensitivity and blurry double vision. But later on that day I was able to go outside, with sunglasses, and do a little yard work without much discomfort. As far as vision wise the worse was yet to come. On Saturday May 20th, 2 days post surgery my vision was very blurry and the light sensitivity was turned all the way up to maximum. I kept my sunglasses on most of the day even inside. Watching T.V. in the blur felt like someone was shining a very warm flashlight in my eyes. The light seemed to dry my tears in seconds and my eyes reaction to the brightness was one of almost the feeling of crossing your eyes. It was like my eyes were in self preservation mode and would not allow me to look into the brightness of the T.V. or any semi bright light. My eyes felt gritty and my vision had diminished to just a few feet. I could see the ground at my feet and everything else was just blurry. Sounds like a perfect day to help pick up tree limbs at the cemetery right. It didn't take much of that for me to find out I wasn't much good help. As the day went on the light sensitivity got a little better but was still uncomfortable. I was still doing my drops routine and sleeping in my eyes shields. I was very surprised that the eye shields didn't effect my sleeping as I am a very light sleeper and even the littlest of things keep me awake.

Sunday 3 days post procedure, the light sensitivity and vision was much better. I would almost say the blurriness was almost gone but the double vision was so bad I couldn't be certain. When riding, not driving, in a car, a single center line was now two some 30 or so feet away only to merge together just in front of the car hood. Riding in the car was a little upsetting on the stomach.

Monday 4 days post procedure, The light sensitivity was gone and the double vision was a little better. Nothing like a road trip to a nice place to eat to lift your spirit. The car ride didn't seem to upset the stomach as bad which was a good thing since we were going out to eat. By the time we got home that evening I could tell my eyes felt a little achy. I am guessing because the constant eye shifts while tracking the scenery as you ride down the road.

PRK 24 Hour Follow Up.

The day after procedure I was relatively pain free. I did my morning drops routine and then Needles drove me to my appointment. I was shortly called back to do a quick eye measurement and then into an exam room. The tech informed me that my vision would most likely get worse before it got better and that 24 hours to 36 hours is usually the worst. My eye chart test went pretty quick because I could only read about 4 of the 5 letters at the top of the chart even though it was very blurry and still some double vision, I am not sure what line on the eye chart it was. I was told the Dr. would be in in a moment. When the Dr. entered the room he asked me about pain and looked into my eye with a very bright light which was uncomfortable due to the light sensitivity. The doctor told me that I was 50% healed and said I needed to come back on Tuesday May 23rd. I would have to say my vision was about the same as just after the procedure.

PRK Procedure Day

I was given 3 prescriptions on my initial appointment Moxenza eye drops (antibacterial), Durezol drops (Steroid) and a Rx for a couple Valium. On the day of my appointment I checked in with my drops and pills in hand and after a few moments they called me back to the exam room to sign paperwork, pay for the procedure and pop one of the Valiums to relax me for the procedure but I think it was more for the post procedure. It was then that I was given Prolenza drops (anti-inflammatory and pain), the Refresh artificial tears drops (rewetting) and my eye pack containing eye shields, tape and sunglasses. I was returned back to the waiting room and sat in the waiting room for about 2 minutes and was called me back to the procedure/surgery room. They laid me down on an exam chair/table and then proceeded to lower my head below the rest of my body. They placed a hair covering on me and tucked some gauze under the band of the hair covering at my temples. They placed a numbing drop in each eye and then placed a gauze with tape over my left eye. The laser device was placed over my face and centered over the right eye. It was at this point the Dr. entered the room and a eyelid spreader was placed into my right eye and a ring was placed contacting my iris. I was told I might feel some pressure as the ring cut a circular slice in the cornea. Some drops was dripped into the ring and obscured my vision. When the fluid was removed after a few seconds with a small triangular sponge. This apparently is alcohol that softens the corneal and the fluid and cornea is wiped away with the sponge. Looking up into the laser there is a red center light that you are to look at during the reshaping. My reshaping took 35 seconds per eye. When the laser is on you hear a popping/Taser type sound and when you hear the popping the red light you are looking at kind of dims a little and I noticed a little blueish halo start to form around the red light and get more prominent with every pulse of the laser. When the laser part is over they put a circular bandage over the reshaped area of the eye for just a second, I'm assuming this is some kind of medicine infused gauze. They washed the eye with a cool solution and then placed a contact bandage over the area. They then move the gauze and tape from the left eye and placed it over the right and repeated the procedure on the left eye. In total the procedure lasted maybe 10 minutes. When finished I was instructed to go home and take a 3-4 hour nap wearing eye shields that and was in my eye pack which also contained some sunglasses. I noticed when I left that I was able to see road signs although the were blurry. I had some light sensitivity and a double vision thing going on, Honestly I do not remember much of the trip home. I know we stopped at Subway and got some food to take home. Needles was very sweet and went in a got the food so I didn't have to go in all groggy. When I got home I did notice that my eyes felt like they were throbbing so I took some Ibuprofen. I went straight to bed for a couple of hours and woke up hungry as I hadn't eaten anything all day except for a Valium. I ate my Subway sub in what felt like slow motion and then went back to bed for a couple more hours. When I got up I started my eye drops. The rest of the evening just consisted of blurry vision and some light sensitivity followed by an early turn in.

PRK Adventure

My boss had PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) about a month ago and had very good results. My brother had Lasik's a couple of years back and even though he had good results he did have some complications that kind of concerned me. The price my boss told me was reasonable and cheaper than I had imagined it would be so I decided to take the plunge and do it. I called and made my appointment on May 8th. I went into my appointment not knowing if I would even be a candidate for the procedure as my boss and brother had a much less prescription than myself. My boss said she was about a 20/100 were I was probably around a 20/500. First you have to keep your contacts out for at least 3 days before your appointment. I arrived a checked in and was quickly called back for my appointment. After a few eyes measurements and some eye charts they sat me in an exam room and told me that I would be a good candidate. A very nice lady came in and discussed my options, potential side effects of the procedure, financing and asked when I would like to have to the procedure. I said I would like to have it as soon as I could so I was told they could do it May 18th and if I wanted they could continue the pre procedure testing today if I would like. Dilated eyes and several tests later the Dr. came in to do the final test with the photoropter and answer any questions I might have. We did discuss Lasix's vs PRK and he recommended without a doubt that PRK would be the better procedure with a better outcome for my prescription strength. He was afraid that the flap (Lasik') would not seat well with the amount of material the laser would need to remove from my eye. After the discussion they did one final pressure test on my eye and I was good to go. With my eyes being dilated they gave me a pair of plastic film sunglasses to protect my eyes as it was a very bright and sunny day.

Wheel Job

After I mounted the new tires on the wheels the bar scuffed up and peeled some off the paint of the wheels so I repainted them. They were a silver color from the factory but I thought a nice matte black would look nicer.

 Before

After

Unusually Warm February

 

Well the groundhog saw his shadow but I think he might need glasses. We have had unseasonably warm weather for February. We have had several days in the 60's and a few touching 70's. Tomorrow night we are supposed to be getting severe storms tomorrow night so I hope they aren't as bad as they have made them out to be. Valentines Day has come and gone and Needles and I went out to eat at Thainamite to celebrate Valentines Day. The service was a bit lacking and they ran out of propane to cook just after opening. I would think that for a restaurant, that would be something you would check before opening on a weekend. We might try them again sometime but it will be awhile. Last weekend I took my 4 wheeler down to the farm to try out the new tires and I think they did quite well. It was a bit muddy in the field so the ATV got a nice mud bath. Luckily most of it missed me and landed on the fenders. March just might come in like a lion, time will tell.

Happy New Year!

With all the people we have lost in the entertainment community I guess I am lucky to make it to the new year. 2016 was a doozy so I hope that we can make it through the next few years healthy and happy. I hope the new year finds you the same.

Merry Christmas!

I had a nice Christmas and got way more than I deserve and ate way too much, as usual. On Dec. 17th we had X-mas with my family at my Brothers house. Mom and Dad made the 3 hour drive up and after we ate and open gifts they turned around and drove back home due to a chance of freezing rain later that evening. It did get rather nasty here for part of the next day. Christmas day we headed down to the farm with cooked turkey packed up. After all the uncles arrived and we exchanged gifts  and conversed as some of the food was still cooking. We usually exchange scratch off lottery tickets every year as something fun to do. The most any of us has ever won was $100 by Needles Mom several years ago, that is until this X-mas. I got a ticket from Needles Uncle K and after scratching the ticket I could not believe my eyes. I won $1000 dollars. I told the family and we all were amazed that finally after many years of exchanging tickets and winning a dollar or two here and there that one of us finally won a nice chunk of change. Probably the most unbelievable thing was that it was me. I am the most unlucky person alive. If there was a room of 10 people and they were handing out 9 prizes, I would be the one walking out with nothing. Anyway I was extremely surprised at my luck and Needles and I had to send the ticket off to be processed. I hope that this might be a sign of what the new year has in store for me as other things seem to be swirling the shitter. Above is a picture of the bridge at the south end of the farm built for the logging that will be happening this year.

Thanksgiving

 

 

Thursday we went down to the farm after putting the 22 lb. turkey in the oven at 6:20am. We slept in and around 10am we pulled the huge bird from the oven only to find that it wasn't near done at 130 degrees. The giant bird needed another hour at least, so this delayed our leaving for the farm. The bird got to temp and we packed up the food and headed down to see the family. We got there around noon with a few things to finished up when we got to the farm. We all ate way too much as usual and finished off with a desert of squash pie. On Friday we headed down to Kentucky to see my family. The traffic was surprisingly light for it to be black Friday. We arrived around noon and Mom had lunch ready. While we were there we did some shopping and again ate too much. On Saturday we went out to eat Chinese at their local place. We return home on Sunday to enjoy what was left of the weekend before returning to the work week. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

Southern Illinois Irish Festival 2016

 

Just a few clips and photos of our visit to the Festival.

Goats on the Roof!

 

We just got back from a vacation in Pigeon Forge Tennessee where I got to ride a very fun rollercoaster. Watch the video above. 

Follow Me

 

Just a quick clip testing out the Hubsan 501S Follow Me Mode.

Excitement last weekend.

Last Saturday Needles and I was setting in the living room and all of a sudden we hear what sounded like a bomb go off. Too quick for a earthquake so I went outside to see if a low flying jet may have flown past. That's when Needle noticed the neighbors house was being burned and the geniuses started the fire with gasoline. They started out with a little bit of the house in a hole and was supposed to add portions of the remaining house into the already burning portion a little at a time. Well it did go as planned. Apparently when pulling the dozer bucket from the already burning part to grab more of the house yet to be burn they transferred a flame that set all of the existing house a blaze. The local fire department responded and a couple of trees caught fire and there was heat damage to a neighbors house. The blaze was so hot we could feel it on our back patio and we were a go 80 yards from the inferno. Anyway here is some clips of the excitement.

Bit by the drone bug.

As you read before I had some ups and downs with the Syma X5C drone with one flying away and a another flying into the tree but I have now got several hours of drone flying under my belt and have progress to get a little more advanced machine. After a few weeks of investigation and not really wanting to commit to a Phantom, I decided to go a little more affordable route. Gearbest was having a sale so I purchased a Hubsan H501S. It has several nice features that will allow me to fly without constant input and fighting the wind. It also has a higher transmitter frequency so it has a lot more range than the Syma. About a week ago I took it down to the farm for its maiden flight with a lot of open field and very little wind for my first time flying the new drone. If you would want to watch a few clips from that flight I will attach the video below.

Drone Crash Video

Drone ups and downs...literally.

 

 

I purchased my first drone on my birthday. I had it about a week until I got too cocky and tried to fly it in too much wind and also not knowing how to switch it into high range to better fight the wind. The drone caught some wind and was carried out of range of the transmitter and well long story short the drone is probably in a tree within 150 yards from the house. I searched off and on looking high and low for the better part of a week and no dice. Drone number 2 came in the mail about a week later. I promised myself to keep it close and in range and also switched up into high mode when fighting some wind. I few about 150ft high one day directly over head of the house and noticed some signal drop off but was able to recover and land without incident. I noticed a modification for extra range by using an old modem antenna. I had 2 transmitters so I though I would do the modification on one and try it out. The modification was a success, or so I thought. Friday July 15th  I took the drone out for its maiden flight post modification and I did get some increase range. I probably got up to 200ft and no signal loss. I started to cruise back down to ground level and thought I shouldn't have any issues as I didn't think I needed to be going that high. I flew past the house and up over the neighbors house and got up about a 90 feet or so and all of a sudden the signal dropped out and the drone kind of tumbled and glided into the neighbors tree. About 45 feet up in the tree. I was mad at myself and upset that I have now lost 2 drones. Even though I knew where the drone was this time, I figured the drone was lost for in just a few days we were going to be getting rain and that would be the end of the drone. We wen to the local hardware store and I bought some lengths of 3/4" pvc pipe and I rigged up a pole that would reach close to 50ft. The bad thing was that the pvc was too flexible and would bend before it got anywhere close to where we needed it to be. We did however attract the attention of both neighbors and the mailman while partaking in our hopeless endeavor.  Needles and I walked away dejected and thought that's it, we tried. I went ahead and ordered my third exact drone and it is to come Tuesday. Here is was Sunday evening and I noticed the Ameren Illinois truck pull up to the corner. I thought for a brief moment...Maybe I should ask if they could retrieve my drone. Was it too much to ask and pretty silly request and just about the time I was going to go outside. The truck pulled away and that was the end of it until about 10 minutes later the truck came back and pull under that same tree. I thought now or never so I went outside and I overheard my neighbor mention the drone to the Ameren guy but he didn't know where it was. It turns out about an hour before they started having power troubles with lines touching from that same tree. We had a brief wind storm about a week ago with lines galloping and sparking and I think some power lines got push up on top of the limbs. We had a chance of storms today but all we got was a little bit more wind that I guess made the lines touch and cause the outage, hence the Ameren truck. The gentleman after trimming the tree limbs to let the power lines separate asked me where the drone was. I told him where it was and within 15 minutes he had it and delivered it into my hand. I could not believe my luck. I am still just dumbfounded as we are supposed to get storms over the nest 2 days which would have rendered the drone toast. I did also recover the footage from the drones fateful flight. I may render it and upload it to YouTube and share the link here soon. Of course I will cut the additional 25 minutes of tree footage. I still can not believe it. I hope you had a good weekend.

Happy Early Birthday To Me!

 

My birthday is in a couple weeks and I have ventured into a new hobby. It has been the craze for a few years but very cost prohibitive until recently. When drones first became available to the public a few years ago it was too expensive and the technology something that I just didn't think I would be able to master. Todays drones are much easier to fly and the quality is much better while the cost has come down...way down. A brand new Phantom a few years ago would easily set you back a grand or more, but recent models have become cheaper. A basic Phantom now can be had for around $500. Although this is still a lot of money to me, the price is more in my price range. Also the technology has improved so that it is a lot easier to fly them without spending large sums of money and have it end up in a smoldering crater in the dirt. I am still just a noob with only having my drone for 3 days, but it seems like something that I enjoy. I'm still learning and hope to improve,master and build my confidence with the drone I have and work my way up to something with a little more capability.
Have a great day.

May Activities

 

Well May has zipped by quicker than expected. On May 5th we planted the garden, four different kind of tomatoes; Celebrity, Charger, Jet Star and Super Sweet 100s. We have planted all before except for the Charger. We got our bush beans in the ground on May 19th and about half have come up. We have already did a replant on several of those recently. Cucumbers have broken ground but one hill had to be replanted, peppers are looking nice and the zucchini are doing OK but the yellow squash hasn't made an appearance yet.  Our Alaskan vacation with my parents went off without a hitch, thank goodness. I think I worried myself almost to an ulcer prior to going and unfortunately during the trip I was a little less relaxed than usual. Our quick trip there an back afforded me a addition week away from work but when we came back Needles picked up a had cold and so she was sick most of the week and I ended up getting it the last half of the week so the week off wasn't very productive at all, to say the least. If you would like to read about our trip head over to my vacation blog, the link is in the right gutter. We had a lot of fun and got to see some amazing thing on our trip. I am just thankful that Needles and I got to travel with my parents and share Alaska's great beauty with them. Have a great day. The picture above is Mendenhall Glacier from Auke Bay.