The Poor Dog

I had the immeasurable pleasure of examining my maternal great aunt Martha’s eyes at her own home recently and learned a bit of where I came from. It all started when my great grandfather, his wife and houseful of six children were plunged into poverty at three o’clock one morning. The comment was made about

Blindfulness

Amongst a bunch of other stuff, I learned two really interesting things regarding human beings being deprived of visual stimulus.

Our Facebook

We’re increasing our opening hours – finally

In our heart of hearts, we have known for some time that opticians really need to be open when our patients are not working, but in uniquely human form, sub-consciously we did quite a lot to put this off.

Why is my child’s squint worse since wearing glasses? Accommodative esotropias and the mechanism behind them.

This question and the question, ‘Will glasses fix the turn in my child’s eye?’ are two of the most common questions I get in practice. The hospital does a fantastic job, but often we can fill in a few gaps regarding young children’s care. Before we can understand why it goes wrong, often it is helpful to get

Do you wear glasses? No, well, just for reading.

Even if you only use your wife’s glasses, even if you only use them in poor lighting, even if you only wear pound shop glasses, you DO wear glasses.

Keratoconus – ever thought of getting a pair of glasses???

We have become aware recently of quite a number of keratoconic patient who have been told that they can’t wear glasses, or are wearing spectacles that could be much much better. I think many opticians feel that people with this cornea condition have to wear contact lenses when actually, with careful care even patients who

‘Diabetics’ or patients with diabetes

I had a very interesting conversation with a person recently regarding his diabetic general medical care. It is interesting that our health care system is spending a lot of money in order to keep this gentleman in good health. He takes great care of himself, taking regular exercise, eating healthily, and generally making sure that

NEHW – I didn’t come to see you in case you told me I had a brain tumour

It’s National Eye Health Week this week and I thought I would mark it by showing the gulf between health care professionals and our patients! The title of this post polarises the views of my patients massively. Some of my patients see health screening as an opportunity to detect disease early, ensuring early intervention. Early

Doing more for our patients with Autism

  Following a recent review of optometric care of our patients with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), we found out a couple of really interesting things. Patients with ASD are more than 50% less likely to report for an eye examination, therefore they are much more likely to have an on diagnosed eye condition. The reasons that these patients are not accessing

“Andrew, have I got Kerry Katona’s ?”

    What is Keratoconus anyway? I could write for about three days on what keratoconus is and how it affects people but in short, it is a condition which affects the cornea (the clear structure that lies over the pupil and iris). The cornea acts as the most powerful lens in the eye and