How To Avoid Going Blind with Dr. Mervet Hachem

When Brad Weisman started seeing flashes of light in his peripheral vision followed by spider-like shadows crawling across his sight, he knew something was seriously wrong. This frightening experience leads to an enlightening conversation with optometrist Dr. Mervet Hachem about the critical eye emergencies we should never ignore.

Dr. Hachem explains that Brad experienced a posterior vitreous detachment—a specific type of floater that occurs as the gel in our eyes liquefies with age. While uncomfortable and visually disruptive, these floaters themselves aren't necessarily dangerous. However, for people with high myopia (severe nearsightedness) like Brad, they can signal an increased risk for retinal detachment—a true emergency that can lead to permanent blindness if not treated within hours.

Through fascinating explanations of eye anatomy using visual models, Dr. Hachem demystifies common conditions including cataracts, glaucoma, and dry eye syndrome. She reveals surprising facts about vision health: the three-layer composition of tears (oil, water, and mucus), how UV exposure accelerates cataract formation, why polarized sunglasses offer superior protection, and how modern cataract surgery can simultaneously eliminate the need for distance glasses by implanting customized prescription lenses.

The conversation takes unexpected turns into seasonal challenges like allergies and environmental irritants, innovative treatments like punctal plugs that block tear drainage to combat dry eye, and the potential permanent damage caused by viewing solar eclipses without proper protection. Throughout, Dr. Hachem emphasizes that many serious eye conditions develop silently without symptoms until significant damage has occurred, making annual comprehensive eye exams essential for everyone—even those with perfect vision.

Whether you've experienced concerning eye symptoms yourself or simply want to protect your precious vision for decades to come, this episode provides crucial information about when to seek help and how to preserve your sight through proper protection and regular professional care. Your eyes are irreplaceable—give them the attention they deserve.

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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife 

Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller. 

Transcript

Brad's Frightening Eye Emergency

Speaker 1 0:34

from real estate affects the market as a whole, which then sometimes will affect the right. You know the real life. We all learn in different ways. If you think about it, wayne dyer might not attract everybody, and everything in between mission was really to help people just to reach their full potential the brad weisman show, and now your host.

Speaker 1 0:56

Brad Wiseman. All right, wow, it is Thursday again. Thursday, thursday again. It's unbelievable. So no, you know this is going to be an interesting show.

Speaker 1 1:07

Something happened to me. This is several months ago, I think, actually we talked about. It was around the Christmas time and I wanted to tell you this, hugo, because this story is pretty interesting. I was, I was um my eye doctor, who is Mervet Hachem. She said you know, if you ever have any issues, like if you see any flashes of light, or if you ever like, or um, you know, see something that doesn't look right, she had said, because you're of your prescription, that you know there's that you definitely want to let me know if you see something like that.

Speaker 1 1:35

So I'm going to take the kids to CCD and I'm seeing these little flashes off to the right-hand side. Now it's raining, so I'm thinking it's probably just somebody's lights, it's car or lightning. Yes, exactly Something that's like a car or something lights. And then it keeps happening. Then on the way home, I do this, I cover my left eye and I'm like, okay, it's definitely just the right eye. This is kind of weird. I get home I'm thinking, okay, it's going to go away, I'll wake up tomorrow, I'll be fine. So I, um, I, I start brushing my teeth, which is good, so I have good dental health to brush my teeth. And as I brush my teeth, all of a sudden, this, like a spider, starts going across my eye, like inside my eyeball, and I was like all right, this is. This is not good at all. So, thank goodness, we have a friend.

Speaker 1 2:21

Her name is Mervet HM, she's an optometrist and she's also she's my optometrist and she's also a friend of the family and I said to Jess do you have her phone number? I need to get in touch with her. Jess was like, oh, you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't do that. I said, no, I'm going to. So I thought we got to get her in here because there's other people that are going to be going through. So I want to introduce Mervet, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2 2:42

I'm doing great, thank you. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 2:44

I'm good I can see. Thank God. Thank God is right, holy mackerel, that was a scary night for me. I.

Speaker 2 2:51

I believe it. Yeah, I believe it, yeah, it's. Every time I hear the story. It sounds pretty traumatic for the individual.

Speaker 1 2:58

Right, and it was, it really was. And Hugo didn't really care, I mean, he's just sitting here.

Speaker 2 3:03

No, I've seen those spiders too, when I was a little boy.

Speaker 1 3:06

Oh, you did Okay Inside your eyes. Yeah, oh, wow, it was very hot where I.

Speaker 2 3:11

So I will always tell my mom I was carrying like a big chunk of wood. And I would say my mom, my eyes hurt. I said, no, you're just lazy, you're just lazy, oh wow, she would just slap me in the head.

Speaker 1 3:21

No, just hurry up A little different. Around here we don't do that. That's pretty funny. So you should have met Mervet, she would have helped you out. She would have helped you out, she wouldn't have smacked you in the head, but no, so that was an interesting night. The floater thing scared the crap out of me. I had floaters before. We had those little ones that you'll see sometimes, but this thing was like massive, like coming over, and thank goodness you know, we know you and you were able to come in that night into the office and checked it out and you saw it right away. You're like whoa, this is a big floater.

Speaker 2 3:53

But thank way, you're like whoa, this is a big floater, but thank god it was a floater.

Speaker 1 3:55

Thank god it was a floater. What could, what could that have been? How bad could that have been?

Speaker 2 3:59

so the reason why I wanted to see you that night, yeah because retinal attachments are time sensitive okay so if you have a retina detaching superiorly from the top and it's starting to come down, right and then once it gets to the middle of your vision and kind of takes that, that is a different kind of detached retina.

Speaker 2 4:16

It's called a macula off retinal detachment. Once that macula which is a part of our eye where we get all of our good vision from, once that's gone it makes the repair of a detached retina much more difficult and it could make some pretty serious permanent vision loss.

Speaker 1 4:32

Right. So if it was the worst case scenario, I could have gone blind on that. I right Crazy.

Speaker 2 4:39

Yep and so. And then, how fast was I going to get you in for a repair? Yeah, so all of that it's all timely, very timely. It is, it's very timely, which which makes making those decisions of do you see now, Do you see it tomorrow morning?

Speaker 1 4:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 4:53

What do you do? It makes all those decisions a lot harder. Now, a retina specialist will decide, you know. So if I would have called a retina specialist that night and say, hey, I have a friend here, his retina is detached, they would ask a bunch of questions and then they might say okay, well, I think we're good till tomorrow morning.

Understanding Retinal Detachment Risk

Speaker 1 5:10

Gotcha, but you need all that information to get to that point. Yeah, and that's information that we just wouldn't have. I wouldn't have that, I wouldn't know how to tell somebody that, well, I'm very fortunate to have you as a friend and be able to take that text and that call, and it did work out and it's still there. I mean, I still see it and, like you said, it's something that just really never goes away. It kind of settles down sometimes and then sometimes it kind of rears up. You know what I've found too and I wanted to talk to you about this when I'm driving during the day, if I don't have sunglasses on, it's really annoying Because I think all the bright light is making that shadow in the back of the retina Like a white wall or a blue sky.

Speaker 2 5:50

Oh, it's horrible, like if you're in a bathroom. Oh, horrible if you're in a bathroom oh yes, it's terrible.

Speaker 1 5:53

That's it. Brushing my teeth is where I really see it so that's why, that's why you, that's why you called me after you brushed your teeth?

Speaker 2 6:00

because you were like oh, wait a minute oh, it was just so vivid.

Speaker 1 6:02

I mean it was. It was not like I thought at first. There was literally a bug going across the mirror when I was brushing my teeth and I'm like, wait a minute, that's not a bug, that's inside my eye and I'm thinking, oh man you know a lot of people describe it as cobwebs, yeah, or a bug, or I'm like swatting at a fly that's not actually there.

Speaker 2 6:19

You know a lot of people describe it that way. It's the. Is there a curtain or veil coming down over your?

Speaker 1 6:24

vision, yeah, yeah yeah, you know, the flashing lights happen with a floater okay, and they also happen with a detached retina oh, so it does it on both yep and then sometimes the kind of floater that you had can also detach your retina later.

Speaker 2 6:36

Oh, jesus, remember I had to see you back.

Speaker 1 6:38

Yes, that's right, yeah I came back and you even said there was a little bit of bleeding. Uh, in the back of there too remember, that's right you did and then it healed. But by the time I came in three or four days later, that had already dissipated was gone.

Speaker 2 6:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah crazy yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 6:51

It's amazing. Well, you know, and something, let's talk about this. You had said the reason that I had that was because I'm so my eyes are so bad. My right eye is really bad.

Speaker 2 7:01

So let's talk about that, the reason why you had a posterior vitriol detachment, which is what yours was called the special kind of floater is because the back part of the eye is filled. So when I say the back, let me bring out my trust.

Speaker 1 7:15

Oh, we got, we got.

Speaker 2 7:21

Oh, you could show that up there too. Look at that, look at that. Yeah, there you go, this entire back part. So this is the front, this is your cornea.

Speaker 1 7:24

This is the part that we can where you put your contact lens on.

Speaker 2 7:27

Um, and then this is the lens, that's inside yeah. We'll talk about cataracts later.

Speaker 1 7:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2 7:32

This whole back part where your retina is, this whole, it's just.

Speaker 1 7:36

You know it's fluid right.

Speaker 2 7:38

So it's like a gel fluid gel. And then what happens is that gel fluid as we age.

Speaker 1 7:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2 7:44

And when we get to a certain age it will start to kind of that gel fluid, will start to like liquefy. And when it liquefies, it contracts and kind of comes forward off the back part of the eye. So then you get this special kind of floater called a posterior vitriol detachment, which is what you got when it finally pulls off the back of the optic nervous Gotcha. So, and because that optic nerve is smack dab in the middle back there you, that floater is annoying, because it's right in the middle of your vision.

Speaker 1 8:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:14

So that is the kind of floater that you had, but because of how nearsighted you are, I was petrified that it was actually a detached retina.

Speaker 1 8:24

Because you said I'm more prone for that because of the fact that my eye is elongated. Correctly. Correct, that eye's done. Correct. That person can no longer see it's over for them so correct.

Speaker 2 8:38

Your eye is longer because you're nearsighted.

Speaker 1 8:40

So your eye is longer.

Speaker 2 8:41

So that retina it's the same retina we all have, so that retina is a really thin. What's the retina?

Speaker 1 8:46

Yeah, let's talk about that. Yeah, let's do the retina, let's figure out what it is.

Speaker 2 9:01

It's many layers, but very, very, very thin layers. That is adjacent to the back part of the eye. That retina has a bunch of cells and photoreceptors that collect the light as it comes into our eye and then it turns that signal into something that the brain can read. It's unbelievable. So it sends those signals to the brain through that optic nerve and so that retina is super important.

Speaker 1 9:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2 9:30

And that retina is there when we're born, and as we're when we're born, our eye is smaller. So we're usually farsighted when we're born. Oh, wow, and then we can either kind of stay farsighted, stop, or become nearsighted. Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:44

What makes it keep going? I mean, is it just muscles and stuff?

Speaker 2 9:47

It's the same as like why are some people 6'5 and some people?

Speaker 1 9:50

6'0. Like it's encoded in your DNA, it's there.

Speaker 2 9:53

Yeah, and hereditary.

Speaker 1 9:54

So it is hereditary. It can be oh, okay, it can be Like I don't know about your children, but your amount of.

Speaker 2 10:02

Not going.

Speaker 1 10:02

Jess has good eyes, she doesn't she barely well, you know you see her she barely needs glasses. I mean, it's like nothing.

Speaker 2 10:09

But the amount of myopia that you have is typically can be hereditary, Not all my mom and dad are both.

Speaker 1 10:15

that's terrible.

Speaker 2 10:17

Oh see, yeah, they're both terrible so the good news is it would have probably already showed up in both your children, definitely your oldest, I think we're good so far I was wearing glasses at like, seriously, like really young.

The Anatomy of Floaters and Vision

Speaker 1 10:28

Yeah, like six, seven, yeah, probably Exactly I was wearing contacts by like 10 or 11, I think.

Speaker 2 10:32

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 10:34

It's just it's great and it and it just kept getting worse, you know over time but now it's kind of settled in.

Speaker 2 10:39

I mean it's settled, yeah, thank goodness. Jesus Dude, I wouldn't make it to the studio I mean, as you were growing, it was really changing yeah because it kind of goes with growth oh, it does okay for a good. I mean up until I mean the eye can still change after you're done growing. But when you have your growth spurts you're going to have those bigger changes. So you know, between the ages of maybe 10 and 15, 16, we see these big jumps usually that's when it was.

Speaker 1 11:06

Yeah, that's when I really went. It went real fast.

Speaker 2 11:09

And then after a certain age.

Speaker 1 11:10

Oh, yeah, and I have that too. Yeah, I have both of that, pretty much everything you know, I don't know where this is going to end up.

Speaker 2 11:16

Maybe a dog at some point you know where it's going to end up one of these days you'll be old enough and you get cataracts. That's what you keep saying, and then when they remove that cataract lens, let's go back to my trustee.

Speaker 1 11:26

Let's go look at this, the trustee. I'm move your water bottle there a second just so people can see there you go. If you're not, if you're listening to this on on spotify or something like that, she has a little, actually a big eyeball here that she's showing what, what these things are. So if you get a chance, watch it on youtube so you can see everything so the we're going to go from back to front. This is the cornea, which is that's where my contact goes Exactly.

Speaker 2 11:49

And people think it's the color part of the eye, but it's actually not the color part of the eye.

Speaker 1 11:52

It's clear, it's clear.

Speaker 2 11:53

Right and then behind. That is the color part of the eye. Behind the color part of the eye, which is called the iris. Behind that is a lens. So, this is the lens that will become cloudy with time.

Speaker 1 12:05

Gotcha.

Speaker 2 12:05

And this is where the cataract is that cloudiness? Is a cataract. Okay, that's what that is so then this has a bunch of power. You see how thick that is. Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 12:16

So remember so it's that it's thicker.

Speaker 2 12:18

It's pretty thick. So remember many years ago, when you would see an older person and they would have Coke bottles. Oh, you would see an older person and they would have Coke bottles.

Speaker 1 12:26

Oh, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 12:26

That was because they had this removed and they didn't put an artificial one back in, and so now they need this. Coke bottle.

Speaker 1 12:33

Oh my gosh. Just to see, In order to see, oh gosh.

Speaker 2 12:36

So now we don't do that anymore. They remove this, they put an artificial one in. And guess what they do, Since this one has so much power to it. Let's say this is a plus 20.

Speaker 1 12:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:45

And let's say your prescription is a minus 10, which is pretty close to where you are.

Speaker 1 12:48

Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 12:49

They would just put a plus 10 in there.

Speaker 1 12:51

Get out of here.

Speaker 2 12:52

Fix your prescription up.

Speaker 1 12:54

Awesome, and then you don't need contacts, then For distance.

Speaker 2 12:56

You'll still need something to read.

Speaker 1 12:57

You'll still need something for reading Right. And we're very lucky and he went in and he hasn't worn glasses since then.

Speaker 2 13:14

Isn't it weird to see him like that? But it was weird because as a kid I was like maybe you should put them back on.

Speaker 1 13:18

I'm not sure if I like your face without them, and my mom even said my mom's like.

Speaker 2 13:23

I'm not used to you like this, I have some patients that'll come back in and they'll say my wife said I need to get glasses I have to wear glasses. Well, so they'll get. They'll still get a bifocal, so that's like maybe clear on top. Maybe, there's a little prescription left over and then the reading part on bottom. So they'll still wear them, because some people just don't know who they are without glasses.

Speaker 1 13:43

And it's funny. I just do not like. Like I have glasses for at night, which you guys set me up for for when I'm watching TV or whatever and at nighttime, but I cannot stand doing anything with them on, like I don't know how anybody can exercise with glasses on, or how do you like? Here's my thing, putting something together. Yeah, like you know, during the holidays you're putting something and the and they're, they're moving down and you got to push them up.

Speaker 2 14:04

That drives me nuts and when you're sweating sweating.

Speaker 1 14:06

It's horrible, they slide ever. Yeah, I mean it's the best, it's the best. But once I, once I get the cataract, then I'm doing that. I'm doing that lens thing. Yeah, that's definitely.

Speaker 2 14:18

And then there are other options. With the cataract you can get like a multifocal lens which will correct your distance and your reading. Oh, wow, yep. So there's I mean there's lots of options. I don't remember, but I don't think your astigmatism is real bad.

Speaker 1 14:28

No, it's not bad at all, yeah, so those are that.

Speaker 2 14:32

You're having your shirt there. Those are reading glasses.

Speaker 1 14:34

Yes, those are your old man glasses. Yep, my old man glasses. She had to say old man glasses, didn't she Unbelievable? Yeah, these are my reading glasses. But you know what they work. They're like one and a quarters or something like that Works perfect.

Speaker 2 14:56

There you go.

Speaker 1 14:57

Yes, I just finally found a really nice pair of red reading glasses. She is going to kill you for saying that. Yeah, so she'll be like I wish he had more floaters. No, she's good, she's good, so let's go into. Here's some other stuff. We just passed the pollen season, so why do our eyes do that watery, itchy, like terrible is, and is there anything we can? We wash our eyes stuff? Is there something you could do to get rid of the pollen?

Speaker 2 15:24

so it is, I mean, great question, just like why does it if? Why do allergies affect our nose? Yeah, exactly, absolutely they literally get in there because it's in the air. Yep, so it literally gets in there and you know's in the air? Yep, so it literally gets in there, and you know. So you can actually have an actual allergy, you know, infection in your eyes, or it could just be really dry from all of what's going on in the air Gotcha, even last year when we had all those fires in Canada.

Speaker 1 15:48

Yes, we're having them again and we're having them again.

Speaker 2 15:51

Yes, that was a rough time for a lot of my patients too.

Speaker 1 15:57

Because same thing even though it wasn't pollen, it was poor air quality, Right yeah.

Speaker 2 15:59

And so you're. You know that's going to get in your eyes and it's going to dry you out.

Speaker 1 16:04

That's interesting.

Speaker 2 16:05

So the itchiness is a difficult thing because that is very hard to deal with. So there are allergy eye drops over the counter. That you get and they'll take care of that. And antihistamine, just like you were taking your Allegra.

Speaker 1 16:14

And that works, that works Sure.

Speaker 2 16:17

But that dries your eyes out then too.

Speaker 1 16:19

Yeah, oh, right, cause it's an antihistamine. It's actually a drying agent. Yes, you're right, cause it's supposed to dry up your.

Speaker 2 16:24

So it's a very difficult thing to take care of. So it's almost like, well, these are my allergy eye drops, these are my lubricating eye drops. What do I do about all this? So I mean, there's lots of things that we can do for dry eye to kind of help, but the the I feel like 17 years this month I've been in practice. Good for you, I know it's crazy.

How Nearsightedness Affects Eye Health

Speaker 1 16:43

Like lots, a lot of eyes, a lot of eyeballs. It is a lot of eyeballs.

Speaker 2 16:49

So I feel like the dry eye situation is just getting worse. Wow, every year that I'm in practice, I'm like the dry eye situation is just getting worse.

Speaker 1 16:55

Wow, every year that I'm in practice, I'm like how Well you hear it on the radio or on XM. All the time they're talking about dry eye. But what is? Is dry eye the symptom of something? Or is it something that's wrong with your eye, or what is it so?

Speaker 2 17:08

it's something that's wrong with your eyes. So you can have dry eye temporarily from like a fan blowing.

Speaker 1 17:12

Yeah, yeah, have dry eye temporarily from like a fan blowing yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. And then like until you replenish it.

Speaker 2 17:16

It's dry, it's good yeah you can have dry eye because you don't produce enough tears oh so those tears are going to come out from these pores those are people that are heartless, by the way.

Speaker 1 17:25

They don't have, they have no heart, they don't cry, they don't just kidding, go ahead so. So it's from just not producing of tears.

Speaker 2 17:32

So your tear duct or the tears that you do produce don't have enough. So there's three layers in your tears a fat layer, an oil layer and a watery layer Unbelievable. And if you don't have, if there's too much, not enough oil, then it won't stay on and it will evaporate a lot faster.

Speaker 1 17:51

Oh interesting. Okay, so you can have so it's not just salt water evaporate a lot faster. Okay, so it's not just salt water, it's actually. It's not just like a saline, it's actually oil in there to keep it so it doesn't dry. Correct, so?

Speaker 2 17:59

if you don't, if something's wrong with the chemistry of your tears. Let's put it that way then you're, you might dry out faster. So I have horrible dry eye. Oh, no way no fan can ever be pointed towards me. Wow, I would never be able to wear contact lens. Really, I wouldn't even be able to tolerate it. Yeah, you're very lucky that you don't have dry eyes.

Speaker 1 18:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:15

Yeah, cause I would not minute. It goes on there, it just takes everything out All the moisture Yep. Yep Everything that I have on there, it takes it out.

Speaker 1 18:23

That is so crazy right.

Speaker 2 18:23

So I actually put a little piece of collagen, little, tiny little piece of collagen, in this little hole in the bottom part of my eyelid called the puncta. I put a little piece of collagen in there and it expands. And then after a couple months it dissolves. And then I put enough piece of collagen in there. How do you get collagen in there? They're called puncto plugs. It's an actual thing. I do do this at my practice. You're kidding me? I swear to.

Speaker 1 18:45

God, you put little plugs in the tear duct.

Speaker 2 18:47

Yep, so it's called a puncta and that actually helps it, because, think about it, I'm clogging the drain. The tears drain out of that hole. It goes to the back of the nose and the back of the mouth. So I'm clogging that drain.

Speaker 1 19:01

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 19:02

And then the tears I am producing will at least stay on my eye.

Speaker 1 19:05

Unbelievable. That's crazy, yeah, unbelievable. And so there's also. I had one of these before. I had like, wasn't it just a sty? It was in the middle, it was called chalazion, I think it was called. Had one of those and had it removed, had it surgically removed.

Speaker 2 19:19

So usually it starts off as a sty or what we call a hortiolum, and then it can harden. That's what happened. And when it hardens, it's called a chalazion. He said there's nothing you can.

Speaker 1 19:30

It was in the top and I remember him saying to me he goes, this is going to feel like a little bee sting, right, I don't know what kind of bees this guy got stung by, because this I gripped the chair. I gripped the chair and I went ah, and he goes, I go. I said you need to check out the bee sting story because it's not true. It's not true. No, and he did, but then once he cut it, got it out.

Speaker 2 19:50

It was fun, but yeah, you know it's not the most comfortable thing. It was not fun, but if you don't do that, it'll stay there forever.

Speaker 1 19:57

Right and well, and it was very annoying. It was very sore and annoying and stuff like that. So let's move on. So we got summer coming up. Yeah, what are we supposed to do to protect our eyes from the sun? I mean, we're always trying to protect our skin.

Speaker 2 20:07

We're trying to it up. Right, you got to put your sunscreen on, you got to put your sunglasses on. So UV protection sunglasses are better than nothing. Polarized sunglasses are even better. That's what I have.

Speaker 1 20:21

Like a Ray-Ban or what's the other one. There's a bunch of other sunglasses that have the really good stuff.

Speaker 2 20:27

So nobody's going to do this but, the best thing would be those old-fashioned cataract surgery sunglasses your dad still have a pair, those big dark ones. Well, think about it it's protecting from all angles.

Speaker 1 20:38

Yeah, that's a real sexy look on the beach, by the way. What do you think, hugo, should we get some of those?

Speaker 2 20:43

Oh, my gosh, I'll bring some by. Yeah thanks, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 20:47

And imagine the tan line too. You go to dinner that night. It would be on the side. It would look like you still have them on. Oh my gosh, no way. So you said those actually are.

Speaker 2 20:58

They're that good for for protecting for you absolutely, because they're blocking like all like I mean I wear fashion sunglasses who am I kidding, you know I mean, but like you know, absolutely, I can always tell a difference when I have, like, my aviators are like real thin, yes, on the temples and stuff. You know more sun's getting in and I I have some that are thicker and. I can definitely feel like I'm being better protected.

Speaker 1 21:20

And when you're laying down on the sand and you're you're trying to get a tan or whatever, you're out there and you know you're absorbing the sun, because sun is good to a certain point. Yeah, you need to have those on, not just closing your eyes.

Speaker 2 21:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1 21:30

Because it still goes through your eyelids doesn't it Correct?

Speaker 2 21:31

I've heard that To a degree, absolutely A lot of people say that your eyelids don't do everything. Correct. That's why, in a tanning bed, they make you wear those. Those things, those little things.

Speaker 1 21:38

Yeah.

Cataracts and Treatment Options

Speaker 2 21:39

But a hat is also really important too. Okay, because when you're wearing sunglasses most of so, that hat will add that extra protection Typically not the hat will add that extra protection. So you know kids are tough.

Speaker 1 21:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 21:54

I mean I've got three, and making them wear sunglasses Three boys right yes? And making them wear their sunglasses and hats is not easy.

Speaker 1 22:00

So I understand that.

Speaker 2 22:02

Yeah, I really do, but it's very important so it can make cataracts come.

Speaker 1 22:07

Oh really.

Speaker 2 22:08

A lot faster Smoking.

Speaker 1 22:10

Wow.

Speaker 2 22:11

And sun exposure are the two bigger high risks.

Speaker 1 22:13

For cataracts, for cataracts, yes, wow.

Speaker 2 22:15

And other things like vascular disease, diabetes, that kind of stuff. But yes, Interesting. And it can cause damage to the retina. Solar eclipse time.

Speaker 1 22:25

Oh, yes, you got to be careful with that one. You got to be careful with that one.

Speaker 2 22:28

And I had my first person with the damage that you can get. What?

Speaker 1 22:34

does that do? If I'm looking at that, what does that? What does it do? It just burns the back of your retina Pretty much.

Speaker 2 22:39

Yeah, yeah. So that's very specific spot that I was talking about earlier. That's very important to our eyes and I I finally I had one. When was that? This past year?

Speaker 1 22:48

Yeah, I think we had one this year. There was a solar, I think there was a solar eclipse.

Speaker 2 22:51

I don't know if it was 2025 or 2024. It might have been last year. Yeah, okay, yeah, and so I had a patient this year.

Speaker 1 22:56

Yeah, it was because I was with the kids. We did the whole thing. You put a pin and you can see all that stuff.

Speaker 2 23:00

Yeah yeah, yeah, did they have their solar?

Speaker 1 23:01

eclipse classes.

Speaker 2 23:05

Yeah, that's right, they did give them out, which I thought was very interesting of the school to take on that huge task.

Speaker 1 23:12

It's a huge task, but it was cool because it was a nice learning experience.

Speaker 2 23:15

And I was there. I was there for that too, yeah.

Speaker 1 23:17

I went there with the kids to meet with them. Yeah, it was neat. See, I love that kind of stuff, I'm into it.

Speaker 2 23:24

So so it actually burns. That's permanent, then it and or it can kind of slowly come back and you might have some residual damage from it um, in this particular situation, he lost like two lines of acuity and we did not get them back oh wow, yeah, two lines of acuity you know when you read those letters. Oh, yeah, yeah, so he was like two lines up from the bottom and and that's it's gone whoa in both eyes or just one?

Speaker 2 23:49

No, In his situation. It was one eye, because he said he closed one. Oh geez.

Speaker 1 23:55

Well, at least he was protecting one eye. He's like, if this doesn't work, oh man, that's crazy. You know, and I always tell the kids you can, you can. Everybody says this too you cannot look at the sun during sunset either. Everybody thinks that sunset it's okay because it's less harsh, it's that you don't feel it really, but it's sunsets it's, it's still. You're still looking at the sun, it's still. That's why you got to look away. Just look a little bit. Look away, look.

Speaker 2 24:21

Yeah, I mean and we use completely different cells to see at night than we do during the day. Oh interesting. So that's why a lot of people have trouble with dusk and dawn, because we're kind of in between which ones are supposed to be during the day, like and which ones at night, and so we're kind of in that in-between period. So people will complain all the time about, like, their dusk and dawn vision. Oh, interesting.

Speaker 1 24:41

Yeah, yeah, I always. I always notice if I need an upgrade in my prescription. I noticed at night with reading, driving on the signs as soon as it starts to get a little blurry.

Speaker 2 24:50

You're like oh man is this happening again and it's raining.

Speaker 1 24:58

Oh, it's even worse. Yeah, it's even worse. So let's go into some of the more the real serious stuff. Let's talk about the big ones that people really need to be aware of and maybe some of the signs for that. You know we talked about cataract a little bit. Let's talk about we have glaucoma which is a pressure, I believe in the eye, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 2 25:15

So good question. Glaucoma is a um like a group of diseases that affect the optic nerve, so that nerve inside the eye, the one in the back there. Yep, the one all the way in the back here. Um, so it's. Glaucoma is a disease of that nerve.

Speaker 2 25:26

Oh wow, so high eye pressure can cause that nerve to become sick and diseased, and so glaucoma is an interesting disease because you have no symptoms at all until you're like, I mean I don't like to say too late, but it's pretty far along. So with glaucoma, that's something that we have to catch on routine exams.

Speaker 1 25:51

You check for that every year, every single time you walk in those doors. I think I come in every year, right, it's once a year, it's every year, yeah, so every year I come in.

Speaker 2 25:57

you guys are checking that, so we check your pressure, because that puts you at if your pressure is higher, it puts you at risk for glaucoma, Gotcha. So why does that nerve become diseased? So that's a very difficult thing to answer. We don't have to. So we have so many tools in our toolkit for helping with glaucoma, but most of those tools involve getting that pressure down. But, you can have normal tension glaucoma when your pressure is completely normal, but your nerve is still Diseased.

Speaker 1 26:26

Yep Degenerating. My dad has glaucoma. Does he? Is it under control? I think yeah. He's medicated and he gets checked all the time.

Speaker 2 26:34

So if it's caught early it really can prolong before you know anybody has any symptoms, and he's been fine and he's had it for years, but he's always checked on and glaucoma takes your side vision Ah. And then in the worst case scenario it would just keep going like this until it reached complete blindness.

Speaker 1 26:50

Wow.

Speaker 2 26:50

In the worst case scenario.

Speaker 1 26:51

So he's good. He's I mean 77, he still sees pretty well, and you know so and then that's a good point.

Speaker 2 26:56

Like you know how long is our optic nerve going to last? Us you know we're outliving, you know are they?

Speaker 1 27:04

is there things that we are doing in order to have better eye health that we didn't know years ago?

Speaker 2 27:09

Well, I mean, just in glaucoma alone, all the different things that they can do now to get that pressure down, to keep that optic nerve healthy. It's amazing. So it's technology.

Seasonal Allergies and Dry Eyes

Speaker 1 27:19

Yeah, so everybody should be getting their eyes checked once a year, whether or not you have glasses or knee glasses or have been using contacts, exactly Because something like that there's no way you would know Until that. There's no way you would know until it's too late. Yes, so it's, it's such a good thing to do. I just yeah, so that's interesting. So let's you know that's what. Let's go into one of the things too here, before we wrap this up. The LASIK which has become this. You know, you hear it all the time and you know there's, there's. It has done wonders for people, absolutely Is. Is that still the thing? Is that still how we're correcting?

Speaker 2 27:51

vision. So, interestingly enough, lasik is not as popular around here as it was prior to COVID.

Speaker 1 27:59

That's interesting.

Speaker 2 27:59

Yeah, so I don't know if it's because of the added cost.

Speaker 1 28:03

Right.

Speaker 2 28:04

I don't know if it's.

Speaker 1 28:05

That's a weird thing, because what would that have to do with COVID? You know what I mean, like how would COVID affect that? But there's got to be something and costs would be one Right, I mean. But they usually do really good ways of paying for it, don't they usually?

Speaker 2 28:18

like monthly payments, and you can do all kinds of stuff with that. Yeah, there's all sorts of of of different ways to help out with that, so real quick. You would not qualify for traditional.

Speaker 1 28:26

LASIK.

Speaker 2 28:26

I've been told that you know who told me that. Daryl told me that. Okay, he told me that a while ago, but you would qualify for them to put in a lens right behind this other lens that we already have in there. They would put a lens, just like the prescription that would be in your contacts.

Speaker 1 28:41

They would put a little lens right behind it yep, and it's just an implant and um and then what is that something they put you out for? Is that something that they just they you're? Is it kind of like lasik, where you're just kind of there and your head.

Speaker 2 28:52

Just make you happy. They make you happy. Yeah, they don't put you out because they want you. They want you awake and they want to be able to. You know, have you that?

Speaker 1 28:58

sounds like be more expensive too than just lasik.

Speaker 2 29:00

Yeah, that one's a little bit more, a little bit more so I can't tell if it's the expense or if it's, you know, just people getting nervous to do such a thing. I have to say my brother and my sister both had it done.

Speaker 1 29:10

Um, I have to say they I didn't need it I would if I needed it, so you don't have any prescription at all not yet not yet she's coming, it's coming she's, she does, she looks at everybody needing this stuff and you don't need it.

Speaker 2 29:22

That's incredible. I know it's kind of you're lucky in optometry school. Everybody was like what are you doing here?

Speaker 1 29:26

but you're lucky, that's not. I mean, I would say probably what 70 of people need some kind of corrective, something sounds about right, right, yeah, yeah, I know I'm very lucky.

Speaker 2 29:35

Both my siblings needed them, both my parents did not oh, there you go, yeah, there you go, so I got lucky that's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 29:42

Unbelievable. Is there anything else about eyes that we need to know or anything that you wanted to that you're like? You know what? I just wish people knew this. Or, or, and also why eyes how did you get? Did your parents get into? Was this like just something you always liked?

Speaker 2 29:56

Little girl who wanted to go to medical school and, as she kept getting closer and closer, thought maybe not medical school?

Speaker 1 30:03

maybe not as much blood and guts, a little bit more, it wasn't blood and guts.

Speaker 2 30:05

I'm going to be honest. It was like the. It was more about spending time with my children, my future children, who didn't exist yet, didn't even exist.

Speaker 1 30:15

Yeah, it was more about a balance of life.

Speaker 2 30:19

I mean, trust me, I did not fall into eyes very easily. It was lots of tears and trying to figure out what. I wanted to do with my life and I had a great advisor in college who was like all right, mervet, you don't have to go to medical school. Feet, backs, eyes, teeth.

Speaker 1 30:36

I said I pick eyes. I would never pick feet. I can tell you that much. There's no way I don't know who in the world picks the foot thing. I never understood that one. But yeah, eyes it's a good one. Yeah, it's a good one. That's exactly how it happened.

Speaker 2 30:48

Yeah, it's a good one. Exactly how it happened. And then and then I went and shouted a few people and I was like done.

Speaker 1 30:53

Yeah.

Sun Protection and Eye Safety

Speaker 2 30:53

And I love this area and. I love. You know all the people I get to meet and all the people I get to talk to, and you know I have made so many friends through this career of mine. So, no, you know, and you do a really good job.

Speaker 1 31:07

You make people feel comfortable. You're very kind and conversational, which is nice too. Thank you, and I appreciate you coming on here.

Speaker 2 31:15

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 31:16

To basically help people with this. I mean, hugo got hit in the head when he was told about his eyes, but we're trying to get past that. We're trying to do something that will be a little different.

Speaker 2 31:25

Hugo, come see me. We have to see if there's any damage in there. Yeah, exactly, absolutely, but I appreciate you coming on the show and thanks for seeing me that night.

Speaker 1 31:35

It was really helpful, absolutely my pleasure, awesome, awesome. All right, hugo, there we have it. I'm seeing so much better already. I can just. I just feel better. It's like I can see through everything. But no, go see Mervet Hacham. She's at the Lindsay Eye Care Center over here in Wyomissing. She's amazing. You'll love her. She'll fix you up, she'll make sure that you can see as well as you possibly can and go every year, just in case you have glaucoma or you have cataract or anything else. You want to make sure you can get that taken care of right away. All right, that's about it. Thanks for seeing us every Thursday at 7 pm, all right.