My second visit to the eye doctor

Coincidentally,on October 24,2009 i found myself at another eye doctor. This time it was a Retina Specialist. I was able to look at all the machines that the doctor used while Ollie was getting his eyes checked.





In the first photo, there i am with the digital fundus retinal imaging system. This machine is used to take pictures of the retina with fluorescence dye. Special filters in the camera allow the dye to be visualized in the retinal circulation. Here is an example of choroidal neovascularization with sub retinal hemorrhage. This represents a growth of abnormal blood vessels, this is a common form of retinal degeneration. Thankfully, Ollies retina was looking good or the Doctor would have had to use one of these.


This is an Argon Laser for Retinal photocoagulation. This laser can be used for treatment of macular degeneration and diabetic retinopothy.



While i was at the retinal imaging system i saw a picture of the most common occular protozoan infection in the eye which is called toxoplasmosis gondii or more commonly called occular toxoplasmosis. The natural host of toxoplasmosis is the common household cat.










At the end of my visit to the retina specialist i felt like i learned so much about the retina. Maybe Ollie will take me back again one day...but in the meantime i will continue to travel the world and learn new things!

My Trip to the Eye Doctor

On October 20, 2009, Leanne Nieforth took me with her to the eye doctor. Leanne was having difficulty with her contact being comfortable in her eye; she felt her vision was blurry, so went to the office. Leanne turned out to have Keratitis, a corneal inflammation, from contact lenses overuse. She was put on an antibiotic-steroid combination to prevent a bacterial infection and reduce the inflammation. From this I learned about the importance of taking care of your contacts. If she had let this issue go, she could have had a serious infection.

Because her mother is her eye doctor, I got to tour the entire office from top to bottom and get my picture taken with very neat equipment!

In the first photo,

I am sitting in the equipment. The center black object with dials is called a phoropter, used for checking spectacle prescriptions. To the right is the slit lamp. This is used to look at the front surface of the eye, like the cornea. To the left is the Keratometer, it is used to measure the surface of the cornea.

In the second photo, Leanne is holding me in front of a diagram of the eye and astigmatism. On the left side is the projector. The projector is used to put the measured eye chart on the screen at the other end of the room. From these measured letters, visual acuity is checked.

I had soooooo much fun at the eye doctor's! I can't wait to go again!

Spirit Week Pep Rally 2009

On October 23rd, 2009, I got to go to the Spirit Week 2009 pep rally. Because Derek is in the marching band, I got to sit with the band in the bleachers. Throughout the pep rally, I got to listen to the music and each of the grades cherring. From sitting with the band, I learned about the sound produced by each of the instruments. The low brass instruments, such as the tubas and baritones, produce long sound waves (lower sounds). The upper woodwind instruments, such as the flutes and piccolos, produce short sound waves (higher sounds). The longer sound waves are typically louder and can be heard from farther away since longer sound waves tracel farther than shorter sound waves. For this reason, the freshmen and juniors on the other side of the stadium could only hear the low brass instruments with long sound waves and not the flutes and piccolos with short sound waves.

In addition to learning about music science, I got to watch the cheer competitions between the grades. I noticed that the junior and freshman cheers were softer and lower in pitch than the senior and sophomore cheers (which were next to me and not across the stadium). I realized that the farther away a sound was, the softer and lower in pitch it was.

In conclusion, I had a great time at the Spirit Week pep rally 2009 and cannot believe that the sophomores (not the juniors!) got second place. I cannot wait for Spirit Week next year!

On October 5^th I had was able to go with Carly to the Morristown memorial Hospital to volunteer with her as a courier! It was truly remarkable what responsibilities they gave us to cover! We were able to take blood to necessary rooms, deliver lab specimens from the blood care center, and deliver flowers to patients all over the hospital. From the intensive care unit to the blood bank I was able to witness all types of biology!

From B positive to O positive I was able to go to the blood bank then take the blood to the room it was being sent to for a blood transfer or other uses. The blood was kept in cool cabinets and organized very neatly so no accidents could happen. I gave them a form of the person that needed blood, their blood type, and the patient number and blood number. After the blood bank doctor retrieved the blood he read the numbers twice so I made sure that it was the right blood and type. From here he put the blood in a bag and told Carly and me to make sure we got the blood to the room in the next twenty minutes so the blood stays cool. When I asked him why the blood has to stay cool, he said it was because the blood must be kept cold in order to reduce bacterial contamination and to prolong its life. I thought this process was very interesting. When we arrived at the bloods final destination – the patient was relieved it had come so quickly because she had lost so much blood in a leg surgery. We delivered almost six packets of blood today! It was awesome.

Another set of instructions we were given was to go to the out care patient center and pick up blood samples for the central lab. There were four tubes of blood from four different patients clearly marked and ready to be tested. I asked the nurse and lab specialist what they were testing the blood for but they said this information is confidential. However, he told me that they usually look for anything special that the blood contains to either look for a cure, other diseases and so on. I thought this information was very interesting and he told me that he went to college for ten years to become in this field!

Overall, I had a great time volunteering and helping other at the hospital. I learned many interesting facts about biology and blood and look forward to using this information to better understand biology!