MIRACLE OF SIGHT

From our Australian Bureau

At 40 years old most people can read within arm’s length and see literally for miles but something happens between the ages of 50 and 60. The arms get shorter, the menus are darker and the lights are dimmer but that posed no problem when we were 40. Enter denial! Hold things further away and make out you see objects in the distance when really you can’t! There is only so much denial one can plough through before the inevitable happens … buy reading glasses.

But that’s not the end of it. One pair of reading glasses is quite inadequate. Do you wear them all the time? No of course not. Vanity wouldn’t allow it. So you leave the singular pair in a convenient and central place. After a while you are up to your eyebrows with having left them at home; with having forgotten where you put them albeit sometimes they might be perched on your head awaiting the next reading duty.

Within a year our sight impaired victim has purchased at least a dozen pairs of reading glasses which after a short period of time do not quite do the job so the next step … buy stronger ones.

Inside each eye there is a natural lens, shaped much like a magnifying lens, which is situated just behind the coloured iris. This lens focuses light as it enters the eye. If this lens is not of the correct strength then corrective spectacles or contact lenses are necessary for best vision.

When a person is young this lens is crystal clear and it is highly flexible which allows it to change shape to change focus from distant objects to near ones. As a person ages this lens slowly becomes less flexible and hazier. At a certain age, usually in the 40s, a person will need reading glasses even if they have never worm them before as the lens is not flexible enough to change focus properly. With the passing of still more time the lens will gradually become stiffer and hazier, eventually becoming cloudy resulting in impaired vision. When the vision is sufficiently blurred surgery is performed to restore sight.

A clear lensectomy is a surgical procedure that removes the natural lens of the eye and replaces it with an artificial intraocular lens which gives the recipient better unaided vision.

Dr Mac Wei is one of Australia’s foremost specialists in this field. After graduation from the University of Queensland Medical School he underwent specialist training in ophthalmology at the Royal Brisbane, Princess Alexandra and Mater Hospitals in Brisbane which culminated in a Fellowship of Ophthalmology in 1998.

He further obtained training in glaucoma, cataract and paediatric ophthalmology at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children and at Kings College Hospital in London UK. He is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Eurpean Society of Refractive and Cataract Surgeons and the Australasian Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons and is actively involved in research and presentations at ophthalmic conferences worldwide

Marc has now completed over 4,000 surgical procedures and aside from the resume above is the reason he was selected by your correspondent who recently underwent the procedure.

There are really two options one being the insertion of two lenses which allow near perfect long vision. Thin reading glasses are required for close work. The second option relies upon the patient’s ability to mentally adjust to having one lens inserted in the dominant eye (which is the one you don’t close when you shoot a rifle) for long vision; and, another lens inserted in the other eye for reading and close work.

As your correspondent came to hate the wearing of glasses he chose this procedure but before the non-reversible operation takes place the clinic inserts contact lenses prescribed exactly to the proposed specifications of the intraocular lenses. If the patient can readily accept the “monocular” vision then it’s all systems go.

Having agreed to the procedure and accepted the cost which considering everything involved works out pretty cheap then a little trepidation sets in. I only have two eyes and I can’t get another one! What if I don’t like it? Will it hurt? Will it affect my lifestyle? But most of all … will it hurt?

The simple answer is NO. During the entire two procedures as one eye at a time is done with a two week gap, the greatest pain felt was the small sting of the needle into the hand to emplace an IV device for the purpose of allowing sedation during the procedure. The rest happens so quickly you would never believe it happened. It is all done without any intrusion of scalpels or other instruments of fear and over and done with in 15 minutes!

Three weeks on and your correspondent is a new person having sources all known caches of reading glasses the 26 pairs found will be donated to St Vincent de Paul Society.

The first appointment is free so get ready to donate those reading glasses.
Call Laser Sight right now and make sure you get an appointment with Dr Marc Wei
1800 00EYES

From our Singapore Bureau:

Smoke yourself to death.

Rather than receiving blessings from long lost ancestors the popular ritual of burning incense, in homes, in hallways, in alleyways, in streets and at temples, may be putting the worshippers at risk of developing cancer of the respiratory tract.

A 12 year study of more than 60,000 Chinese residents of Singapore found a link between heavy incense use and cancers of the mouth, nose and throat. The results of the study are published in the medical journal Cancer.

Incense is derived from fragrant plant materials that can potentially produce cancer causing substances including benzene and plyaromatic hydrocarbons.

Until now no studies have linked the burning if incense to an increased risk of cancer.

Anthony Hedley, community medicine professor at Hong Kong University said Hong Kong people living in smaller flats than those in Singapore may be at even higher risk. “Smaller rooms are likely to have higher concentrations (of funes) than larger rooms,” he said.

Cancer specialist William Foo Wai-lum said: “The lesson to learn is perhaps we might as well abandon the practice in Hong Kong.”

Workers at the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple – which receives more than 1.2 million visitors each year were untroubled as one worker put it: “I am not worried because I still see people who have been working here for over 10 years stay very well.”

Priests in charge of the temple could not be reached for comment.

The lesson is to ensure plenty of ventilation. Old habits die hard and it would be almost impossible to stop or prevent the age old custom of burning incense. Little hard can be done if the smoke is allowed to escape to the outside.

On another incensing note it was recently reported that because of the rampant inflation in Viet Nam, the spirit world are not getting their just deserts. Inflation has cause massive price rises in facsimiles of Mercedes Benz, Visa Cards and Hell Money to name but a few offerings. Chinese who have the tradition of ancestor worship or respect as finding that they are able to offer up less and less replicas of earthly goods to their heavenly ancestors. Will this incur the wrath of the angry ghosts?

As they old expression goes … “there ain’t no free lunch”!

From our Hong Kong Bureau

Free Air Tickets

But how do you get one?

Air Asia recently announced an offer of a staggering One Million free air tickets but you have to read the fine print with some amusement first.

Air Asia cleverly do not announce the travel dates of the free tickets so it is impossible for a traveller to book ahead. To take advantage of this fantastic offer you would have to be lucky enough to be able to travel on the very day you are offered a free ticket … not only that but you would need to have your travel documents up to date just in case the ticket takes you to somewhere a visa is compulsory for most travellers like China for example.

When you are lucky enough to be one of the chosen few to be given free air travel to a destination of Air Asia’s choice remember to pack plenty of sandwiches as there are no hot meals provided and be such to travel light as the cost of your luggage could easily equate to full freight.

But that’s not all. The free air tickets and just that – air tickets! The traveller has to fork out for such things as airport taxes, an administration fee (whatever that is) as well as the ubiquitous fuel surcharges.

According to Tsing Tao News reporter Adele Wong, the free tickets are available for flights from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong. When flying from Hong Kong, travellers will have to fly to Kuala Lumpur even if they are heading backwards to a final destination.

A spokeswoman for the airline said that they had succeeded with similar gimmicks in the past. “We have been offering up to one million free tickets each year for the past few years now”, she said. She went on to say that Air Asia has a quick turnaround time meaning once it lands it can be prepared for take off within 25 minutes that is provided air traffic control allow a take off slot.

The airline also saves money on landing charges by using secondary airports whenever it can.

A Cathay Pacific spokesperson said it would retain competitiveness in the market place by continuing to improve its products and services.

Roll up, roll up! Bid for the biggest bed in the Olympic village. Yes it is true. An entrepreneurial spirit has come up with an auction site which includes all kinds of bric-a-brac left over from the the greatest show on earth including the purpose build bed for Yao Ming the famous Chinese basketball player. But what would you do with it? Would you toss out your tried and true orthopaedic king size and replace it with a bed fit for a giant? Or would you place it in your front garden and charge admission for the curious to lay on it? Imagine - “Yao Ming Slept Here!”

What else could they sell? A discarded shoe from the Lightening Bolt? A sock or two set aside by Olympic champions? Goggles left behind by Phelps? The vaulting pole that didn’t quite work out?

There is no telling the extent to which people will go to own something “famous”.