Freaking Laser Beams

Well, it's kind of all over the news, but if you haven't heard, a former FDA regulator, Dr. Morris Waxler, who was an early proponent of laser eye surgery, now thinks that the benefits of peeling your eye back and shooting a laser at it might be outweighed by the risks of the procedure.

Did you know that the word "laser" is an acronym, by the way? It stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, according to the article I read,

"Waxler's analysis of FDA data shows half of Lasik patients experience side effects and more than a third continue to need glasses or contacts."

But it goes on to state that another eye doctor dude had this to say -

"'In this day in age [sic] unless you have a really extreme prescription, it's unusual to develop glare or halo after surgery.' added Dr. Michael Walker of EYE-Q laser center in Fresno. Dr. Michael Walker is a Valley ophthalmologist and has performed Lasik surgery on more than 16,000 patients. He disagrees with Doctor Waxler's analysis because the data comes from the late 90's and that technology has improved dramatically over the years.

'It gets better every year, it certainly get faster and more refined but if I didn't believe the procedure were safe and effective I certainly wouldn't be doing it.' Dr. Walker added."

Keeping It All In Perspective

I've been thinking recently of an old friend who died from injuries sustained in a car accident 7 years ago. I keep his funeral card in the visor of my car and consider him a guardian angel. It happened on August 23rd, so I'm thinking of him more often this time of year, and can't believe it was so long ago.

Just today, in my pursuit to know everything that's going everywhere in the world all the time (this is a futile one, obviously), I happened upon an article on NPR's website about a support group for people who have outlived their children, called  The Compassionate Friends. It's important to know that there are many people struggling with this alienating situation and that we should be appreciative of the ones we have in our lives.