Optometry Equipment

As first year Optometry students, we purchase quite a bit of equipment that we will be using for the next 3 years and probably as we enter our careers as well. Although it is expensive, we get a 50% student discount from the normal retail price. Even with that discount, most of us spent between $2,000 and $3,000! And we still have to order a few things next year... This year I got 2 cases to transport all the equipment. One is smaller and mainly fits our trial lens set. The other is a larger rolling case that can carry the trial lens set plus a lot of other equipment. They both have the Indiana University logo on them. You can see the trial lens set which has over 200 lenses in it that we use to determine a patient's prescription. The next picture shows some of the smaller random things that we had to get including occluders to cover one eye, cards used for targets and to test reading acuities, and the clear long things off to the left are prism bars which are used to measure if a patient has an eye turn or drift. The next picture shows a close up of a three lens set that we use in combination with a piece of equipment called a slit lamp. With the lenses you can get very magnified views of the retina and other structures in the back of the eye. In the last picture you see more equipment in the rolling case. Here are books used to test for color vision, and stereopsis (depth perception with both eyes working together). There are also various glasses with red/green lenses, polarized lenses and gray lenses for different tests.





















Another major portion of our equipment costs went toward our diagnostic set. This is shown in the left picture. It has a direct ophthalmoscope (upper right) which is used to view structures inside the eye, a retinoscope (bottom) which is used to estimate a patient's prescription, and a PanOptic (left) which is used like the opthalmoscope, but provides a wider view with less magnification and is great for kids. This set came with chargers for the handles that plug into the wall as well as a desk charger set. Finally, we had to purchase a stethoscope, sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter) and cuffs. Surprisingly, it is important for optometrists to check the blood pressure of their patients, mainly because the medication used to dilate eyes can cause problems if the blood pressure is elevated. Now that I have all the equipment, it is time to practice! Most of the time we practice on other students, but if anyone feels like driving to Bloomington to be a practice patient...

Painting and Projects

Over Christmas break, Nick and I decided that we would be re-signing our lease at our townhouse for next year. Since we will be living here for the next 3 years most likely, we decided to make it a little more homey. First it started out that we were going to paint. So we went to Lowe's, picked out the paint and began the project. We painted the hallways and kitchen a tan color and picked blue as an accent for the backsplash in the kitchen. For the living room, we went with green. We decided we would use the extra paint to paint the bedroom and bathrooms, but so far we haven't gotten up the motivation to paint those rooms...I think after spending three straight days painting we are taking a break for awhile. But hopefully sometime this Spring we will paint those rooms. Of course once you paint, you must rearrange...so we moved a few things around in the kitchen and living room. I also found some new decorations including the metal stars that are on the wall in the kitchen. After the downstairs redecorating was complete, we turned our attention to the lack of lighting in the living room. There isn't a central fixture in that room, and the one that was over against the wall hardly put out any light. As we later discovered it was simply a hole cut in the ceiling with a lightbulb and some plexi-glass to cover it...So we found a nice light fixture for reasonably cheap and Nick put that in. It is much brighter now! But that wasn't the end. Nick decided that he wanted to mount our TV on the wall. So with some help from Josh they got that project completed and it looks great!

Kinnick Graduated!

We decided to enroll Kinnick in the same Basic Obedience class that Herky took. He went to class for 6 weeks in December and January to learn Heel, Sit, Down, Stay, No Bark, No Jump, and Come. He did very well, and we are planning on enrolling him in Intermediate Obedience sometime this Spring or Summer. This class will work on learning the behaviors without a leash. Because Herky had already taken this class, he was able to come and re-take the class again for free! Nick worked with Herky and I worked with Kinnick during the class. Herky did much better this time around, probably because he was a little older. This picture is of all the dogs that graduated from our basic obedience!

More Christmas!

Our Christmas celebrations continued on Christmas morning as we went to my parents house to open gifts with my parents and my sister. Then we drove back to Nick's grandma's house for Christmas day lunch and fun there. But our day wasn't over yet...we continued on to my Grandpa and Grandma Perkins' house for sandwiches, gifts and visiting there as well! Before we knew it, it was getting well into the afternoon and Nick had to leave to drive back to Indiana for work the next morning. So he took off with Herky and Kinnick and I stayed a bit longer to visit with family. Our Christmas celebrations were great, but they flew by!

As part of our Christmas gifts, Dad bought our family tickets to see the Rockettes perform in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular performance in Des Moines. So the day after Christmas, we drove down a little early and ate dinner at Spaghetti Works then walked the skywalk to the Civic Center. The show was amazing! I hope someday soon I can watch it again with someone I know performing (cross your fingers for Lezlie!).

Christmas Eve Festivities

Nick and I safely made the trip home to Iowa for Christmas. He could only be home from the 22nd through the 25th, and I wanted to stay a little longer, so we drove seperately. I came home on the 20th with Kinnick, and Nick brought Herky on the 22nd. Despite a big snow/ice storm we were able to spend a little time with friends, including Shaybree, Shane, Casey & Steph. Starting on the 23rd we had a pretty packed schedule of Christmas dinners to attend before Nick had to drive back to Indiana for work. We went to Steve's house on the 23rd to exchange gifts and visit. On the 24th we went to my Grandma Callaway's house in the afternoon to eat soup and visit with all of the aunts, uncles and cousins that always pack her house. Then we left and headed straight to Nick's parents' house for dinner, gifts, and family time. We always try to take a few family photos, and as you can see Bill managed to take quite a few good ones this year.

However, it always seems to get a little bit crazier when it gets to gift time... This year for the annual Christmas game, it was guys vs. girls for Redneck Days of Christmas. And the girls won...of course!