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M E N T A L I T Y :: Olympian Steve Holcomb & Keratoconus + Student Health

As an optometry student, anything pertaining to the eyes always peaks your interest. From a cute glasses print on pillowcases to little bunnies with glasses on socks. This morning I was reading the news and was reading how a young 3 time American Olympic gold medalist passed away at the young age of 37. The article I read mentioned that Steve Holcomb was combatting a degenerative eye disease and I went into full on Google searching  optometry-detective mode. The results of my recon yielded that Holcomb had keratoconus (KC). He was diagnosed with it and attempted suicide, but failed. Which brings up a lot of interesting points about KC. KC is a condition in which the the cornea of the eye bulges out in a cone like fashion. Hence, kera (cornea) + conus (cone) = keratoconus. Onset of KC is usually in the teens to 20s and affects both eyes. Condition is usually really asymmetrical by the time patients are around their sweet 16th. It's genetically passed down in ~10% of cases (a
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I N S P I R A T I O N :: INTERESTING CASES - DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER

Hello again. Interesting how each time I have a vision rehab assessment (or in this case, my vision rehab final in about 16 hours), I gravitate to this diary. Since my last post, I had a NORA meeting featuring Dr. Marsha Benshir as the speaker. I was very glad she came and spoke for NORA, as it was one of the more informative NORA meetings we've had and I believe it helped spark interest in a lot of 1st year students at school. That made me happy to know that NORA is doing what it's supposed to and it made me feel like I was doing my due diligence as the incoming president of NORA. Dr. Benshir was very passionate about the field and was a great example to show how you can practice optometry outside of the realm of general primary care. After the meeting, Dr. Benshir and I discussed an interesting topic. Multiple personality disorder patients (aka dissociative identity disorder, DID). What we discussed in these patients was mainly how to start treatment of them in an o
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H E L L O :: INTRO + VISION REHAB/LOW VISION

Hello! This is a journey of my life as an optometry studying in the United States. I'm currently just finishing my 2nd year and will be entering my 3rd year in less than a month. Just thought the journey might interesting to document - though I wish I would have started this sooner. Currently, in less than 7 hours, I have my Vision Rehabilitation and Low Vision Exam. I'm approximately 60% through the material but it's been painfully slow to get through. The remaining 40% consists of about 4 hours of lecture. Don't worry this becomes the norm and stress levels prior to test taking decreases significantly and rapidly once in optometry school. I've previously worked in low vision patient care as a vision mate prior to starting optometry school with some minor interest in it. After taking this course, I am fairly certain I do not want to become a low vision optometrist as I don't have the strong interest or patience that's required of it. One cool condit
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