Heathpack 

Nope. I got a newish-to-the-US intraocular lens with the brand name of Symfony. It was FDA-approved last Jan but prior to that had been extensively used in Europe. I'm not sure about Medicare but my health insurance does not cover the cost of this lens, the IOL itself is an out of pocket expense.

The standard IOLs are monofocal, which means they correct your vision at either near, intermediate or far distance. You pick, and then wear glasses for the rest. Really good near-vison correction is difficult to accomplish with any IOL so most people correct far or intermediate distance.

There are available IOLs that are bi or tri focal lenses, just like eye glass lenses. The problem with them is that at the interface between each part of the lens, you get a little light refraction, which gives you more of that halo effect you were trying to get rid of with the surgery in the first place.

I don't fully understand the optics of the Symfony lens but it's not built like a standard trifocal lens. Somehow it gives you trifocal vision (supposedly) without having three different prescription strengths in different parts of the lens- instead it uses the overall shape of the lens with some ability to shift the color prism towards pinks/blues as light comes in your eye. The result is trifocal vision without refraction/halos. (That may be a terrible explanation, I'd have to go back & study optics a bit to speak more intelligently on the subject.)

My general approach to life is to avoid the early generation of anything. So by that principle, I would typically avoid something like this Symfony lens. But the European experience swayed me, plus the prospect of being able to race my bike sans glasses. I'm used to wearing glasses otherwise so that didn't seem like too big of a deal to me.

I knew from pre-op conversations with my surgeon that this lens I chose would possibly not correct vision well at near distance & I might need reading glasses. It just wasn't on my radar that it would make my near-vision worse. Hopefully this is temporary but from what I understand of the lens it may not be. I really just have to see where things are in a week & talk to my surgeon about it then.

Heathpack 

Today, but I can't exert myself. Just moving the pedals for a week, no workouts.

echappist

sorry to hear that. speedy recovery

happybday29475

I'm sorry to hear of your discomfort, HP. I do have a healthy respect for your toughness, though. Fingers crossed for the best possible long-term outcome.

George

Thanks for the reply HP. I'm looking forward to getting this done. Take care and good luck with the rest of the procedure.

Hermes

We have tickets to the UCI World Cup in LA Feb. 25-26, 2017. Tickets are on sale.

USA Cycling Announces team members for UCI Track World Cup – Los Angeles – Feb. 25-26, 2017

Men
Zak Kovalcik – Scratch
Dominic Souza – Keirin

Women
Kelly Catlin – Team Pursuit
Chloe Dygert – Team Pursuit, Individual Pursuit
Missy Erickson – Scratch
Dana Feiss – Keirin
Kim Geist – Madison
Jenn Valente – Team Pursuit
Ruther Winder – Team Pursuit
Kim Zubris – Madison

Heathpack 

@Hermes, we're thinking about going too. It will depend a but on what's happening with my eye surgery.

I have been in a weird "puttin' food by" mode lately. Using our lemon crop to churn out quarts of lemon curd (it freezes perfectly). I was planning on making marmalade too but I'm digging this lemon curd so much that I can't get past it. What will I do with it all? Very likely the vast majority will be a mix-in for Greek yogurt. Man that lemon yogurt is seriously tasty.

I did finally break down today & make some cream scones. Nice warm scone with lemon curd & some blueberries before my ride. Mr H ate two, the rest are in the freezer.

I also have a grapefruit tree and my standard winter fruit snack to carry to work is a salad of Oroblanco grapefruit (this is the variety we planted), navel oranges & pink lady apples. Usually with blueberries, blackberries or grapes. All this citrus and all of a sudden I cannot stand throwing the peels away. So I've also been churning out candied citrus peel. Orange goes in my morning muesli, lemon is a yogurt topping, and grapefruit peel gets chopped up & added to the fruit salad.

Then last weekend was the Great Marinara Project. I can't bear sickly sweet jarred pasta sauce. But I miss tomatoes in the winter. I have a great marinara recipe. It uses what works out to be 1/10th of a bottle of red wine. Last weekend I decided to scale up the recipe 10x to be more efficient with the wine usage. (I know! Drinking the wine would have been easier. I did not entirely think this through.). Lol, no way did I have a pot big enough to cook this ginormous batch of marinara, wound up using my three biggest pots. Took all day between cooking & packaging the sauce. Twenty quarts in the freezer. Damn, we better not lose power after all that.

Mr H is still a little traumatized by TGMP. But he was pretty happy with the baked rigatoni with sausage that we had for dinner tonight.

That is all. Just in case anyone gets hungry, you now know where to go....

revchuck 

South Louisiana tip: If you lose power for an extended period of time, cook all that up and invite the neighbors. And tell them to bring the beer. (That second part is for California; down here you wouldn't have to remind them because it's a cultural norm. )

Hermes

For those interested in aging, genetics and mind body connection, I am reading The Telomere Effect https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...words=Telomere

I highly recommend reading.

It is written by Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 alongside two colleagues for their discovery of telomerase and telomeres' role in the aging process. She is currently president of the Salk Institute. Blackburn was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research and is a recipient of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, among many other awards. In 2007, she was named one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people.

Telomeres are the ends of the chromosomes and act like the plastic ends of shoelaces. When the plastic comes off the shoelace, the shoelace is no longer effective. Telomeres protect cells during division to ensure a perfect copy. They give up a tiny piece of themselves during the process. Over time, telomeres keep getting shorter.

This book is about the science of telomeres with some practical information and exercises on how to slow the shortening process. The longer ones telomeres the healthier we humans are. The goal is to keep our telomeres long and stay out of the disease zone during ones life.

Ways to keep telomeres longer...

Meditation
High intensity exercise
Relaxation
Proper diet
At least 7 hours of sleep per night and more the older one gets.

Ways to shorten them...

Conflict and anger
Too much exercise (overtraining) and aerobic exercise per se will be at best neutral.
Stress
Environmental stress (air pollution and chemicals)
Lack of sleep

So much is common sense but like most things we encounter in training for racing and maintaining a diet, not so easy to execute perfectly and consistently over time. YMMV.

As a final note, telomerase is an enzyme that is produced by the cell to make the telomeres longer. It was initially thought that telomerase could be commercially made and could be the fountain of youth. In reality, the telomere telomerase relationship is very precise. Too much telomerase causes and expedites cancer. YMMV. Telomerase is available on the web. The author positively states not to take it. So much for my public service announcement.

Racer Ex 

I do big batches of a slightly modified Mario Batali basic tomato sauce. Carrots, celery, onion, canned whole tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. No wine. Freezes well and beats anything from the store. Do my own chicken stock as well. I portion it out into various size containers so I have 1,2, and 4 person cooking portions. With the tomato sauce you can always add ingredients as needed to change the dish or increase the portions.

And every time I do the tomato sauce I think "I should have done more".

sarals 

I microwaved some instant grits.


I got nuthin....

revchuck 

Add a slice of pepperjack cheese and you got sumthin'...

sarals 

@Hermes, as luck would have it, I have to work the weekend of the UCI World Cup. Darn it, I really, REALLY want to go to that, too.

BTW, I met Kim Geist and her Madison partner (also Kim) when I was doing my certification at VSC. I introduced myself by telling her not to worry about me, I was no threat, because I wasn't on form yet. I got to watch her and her partner do Madison throws up close and personal. Totally wild! I then got to see her do some 200 meter efforts. She is one strong athlete, just incredible.

sarals 

Hmmm....now yer talkin' !

Heathpack 

So I think I have mentioned the Boy Wonder before. He is the 17 year old son of one of my Nightcrawler friends, races all disciplines but track is his thing.

They just found out yesterday that he has been invited to a camp next month to choose the development team for the 2020 Olympic track team. He's the youngest one invited, so his prospects for getting on the development team are not great, it's more likely 2024 will be his Olympics if he ever really makes it to that level.

But still, just going and riding at that level has got to be pretty cool.

shovelhd

I sense an impending addiction.

Hermes

Pretty amazing Superbowl game. I thought the commercials were pretty boring and lacked past years creativity. Lady Gaga was excellent and looked in fabulous shape. Who would drop from the roof of the stadium via a cable harness???? Not me. I would still take her out on a date.

Congrats to the Patriots. Never give up.

Hermes

WSJ Headline. The Biggest Choke in History?

What a terrible headline. I think the media has lost all sense of responsible reporting. The Superbowl game was a game for the ages with two great teams that slugged it out to the end. Anyone who is an athlete knows that there are swings in momentum and teams and individuals come from behind to win.

The win is not evidence that the other team choked. Or that somehow the win should be diminished due to a choking opposition. This type of news coverage that IMO now typifies news media is disgusting.

IMO the Falcons played a magnificent game and made amazing plays. Championship games usually come down to a key play at the right time and even some luck. This game could have gone either way. Congrats to the Falcons for a great performance.

Tell the WSJ to take a hike and work on better reporting and writing skills. They are the losers and chokers.

revchuck 

I decided to get my truck inspected today and found that I'd need a new windshield to pass. The inspection sticker is still good for a month, so I went to the Ford dealer for an oil change ($13.95) in preparation for the Tucson trip at the end of next week. I wandered around the lot while it was getting done and a salesman came over to see if I needed help. I told him I was just waiting for the oil to be changed in my truck, and since he's another geezer we just hung out for a few minutes. He mentioned that they were blowing out 2016 Focuses. I've been thinking about trading the truck for a car about that size, so I let him show me what they had. I ended up with a dark gray hatchback and the lowest car note I've ever had. The test drive was going from the Ford dealer to the shop where I work to ensure that a road bike fits in the back. Indeed it does.

Hermes

Nice purchase. I dodged that bullet today.

I took my Subaru in for service and hung out waiting for the oil change to get done. I stayed on computer and talked on the phone and stayed out of the sales office.

Cleave

@revchuck, I've been driving a 2013 Ford Focus Electric for a bit over 4 years. I just barely fit my track bike in the back without having to take off the front wheel. The batteries definitely reduce rear cargo capacity. I really like the car and it works great in its intended role (daily commuter). Enjoy road tripping with your new car.

Racer Ex 

I'm heading down to the Jaguar dealership to check out a key chain...

First World Problems, Part XXXCVI:

Waxing and tuning skis this morning and my iron quit with pair left in the pile.

First World Solutions Part XXXCVII:

Wal Mart has chuck 'em when they quit irons for <$10. I think I paid $6 for this one at a thrift shop 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation that's $9.18 for a used iron back then.

Who says global trade is bad?

echappist

First class idiocy for buying a Jaguar

sarals 

I guess many of you heard what I've been through recently.

I wish I could say I had an all expenses paid getaway to a five star resort where I was pampered and oiled and sunned and all of that. I did stay in what could be termed a five star facility, and I was pampered, but I'm going to have to pay for it and it wasn't on good terms that I went there.

I raced Sunday morning, went home, feeling good, wrote my race report, ate dinner, sat down to watch some football game, and then my stomach started in again. By 7 PM I needed to go to bed. At around 8:30 I woke up, and from there things continued to deteriorate until 0230 when I was so sick that my pea brain finally registered that something was seriously wrong. I woke up my roommate and asked her to drive me to the ER. Three hours later I was admitted with a diagnosis of pancreatitis, since changed to chronic pancreatitis (it's the second time it's been diagnosed in me). I spent three nights in Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, which is a really beautiful facility, and they took very, very good care of me. I came home this morning. My lipase level is still elevated, but the MRI showed a clear common bile duct and no inflammation in the pancreas. I tolerate solid foods, so far, with no issues. There are no answers as to why I developed this biliac disease, or why I tend to have gallstones (I have no gallbladder). I have none of the markers. My cholesterol is low, I am not overweight, I am fit, I have a good diet, I don't have a family history of biliac disease, and I don't have any structural defects. My doctor told me he WISHED he could give me an answer as to "why", but he just didn't know. He pointed out that I now know the signs of impending trouble, and when they come again (!) to come see him immediately.

The fun part? The nurses set the alarm on the my monitor for HR for 45 BPM, and I STILL set it off (42 - 44 when I was sleeping). I perversely giggled about that one!

valygrl

I'm really glad you are on the mend, sarals. Hope next time is a loooooong time from now, or, like, never.