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Let’s see what we did this past week…

School was pretty good as were now getting into stuff I learned at Georgian. Were learning about the different eye structures (cornea, limbus, sclera, etc.) and there is a lot of pathology that they are also introducing (most I learned at Georgian) but it’s nice to lean it again, since now I actually have to know way more about each pathology. The nice thing is that with the pathologies they’re introducing them now and then going to talk about them more and more over the next three years. They’re actually doing the same thing with all of the pharmacology too. This past week we also had a quick lab learning how to do focimetry (the UK term for lensometry) on spheres. It was so basic, but they had a neat focimeter that was battery powered and the scale was actually inside the eye piece, so you got the stuff in focus and look down to see the value (unlike the normal focimeters where the readings are on the dial/drum outside at the side of the focimeter. (For those that don’t know focimetry/lensometry is how we read the prescription of a lens). In my clinical optometry lab we also just did some more practice with the direct ophthalmoscope, since this Thursday we are going to be assessed on our ophthalmoscopy skills :-O. We will have half an hour to do ophthalmoscopy and draw and label a picture of what we see, but luckily it is only one eye we will have to do this for. (Again for those who have no clue what I’m talking about basically a direct ophthalmoscope is a handheld instrument we use to look at the back of the eye (the retina), and here there is the optic nerve, a load of blood vessels, as well as the macula (an area that is responsible for our central/detailed vision)). They are going to end up marking us by comparing our drawings to pictures they took when we first arrived back in the end of September. After my lab one of my classmates who had bought his own ophthalmoscope did some more practiced on my right eye and since I have some of my old retinal photos on my laptop we then compared. It turned out he was remarkable accurate, but the only thing was that it took about 45min-1hr for him to do it . I’m just so surprised that they have us doing all this already, as some people in the class are still having trouble understanding what the difference is between retinoscopy and ophthalmoscopy. Retinoscopy is looking at a reflex of light coming out of the eye and from this we could determine the patient’s prescription but we usually then take this prescription and then get the patient’s input on what they like to refine the prescription (while as mentioned before Ophthalmoscopy is looking at the structures in the back of the eye).

On Wednesday there was an equipment fair at the school, where a few companies that sell Ophthalmoscopes and Retinoscopes came to show us there instruments. Keeler (a UK company) of course was there and so was Heine (a German company). Unfortunately Welch Allyn couldn’t make it, which was disappointing for many of us from Canada. Most UK students ended up purchasing their equipment on Wednesday since we found out that we definitely need to have an Ophthalmoscope, retinoscope and a trial frame by the end of January. Most UK students seem to be purchasing from Keeler since it’s the most popular in the UK. Yet most of us Canadians are still looking at our options since Welch Allyn is more popular in North America and also since it seems expensive here since its about £800-900 (which converts to about $1600-1800 Canadian) which seems like a lot of money for just a direct ophthalmoscope and retinoscope. Also we’re not too sure about the trial frame, since the one that they seem to be pushing here is a new oculus trial frame, which looks nice but seems very expensive at about £300 ($600 Canadian). But we’ll just have to see what I end up getting, since I have been practicing with all three types of ophthalmoscope, but I so far I seem to like the Welch Allyn the best, even though the Keeler one looks pretty cool.

Aside from school and the studying I have actually been doing lately, I didn’t do too much last week. One thing I did was I had toad in a hole the other night, which is sausages in a Yorkshire pudding cake kind of thing served with of course chips and peas (it seams like everything come with peas and then either chips or mashed potatoes). As of now I’ve tried a Sunday roast, bangers and mash, steak and ale pie, Sheppard’s pie and fish and chips (which I got from a pub instead of a chipper, so it doesn’t really count, but soon enough I’ll go to the a nearby chipper which I have heard is good). Also the other Saturday a Canadian friend and I were hanging out and decided to head to the pub around 11:30pm (yes I have to specify am/pm since here the pubs are open and serve alcohol from around 9am until midnight). We just went to a pub that is kind of on campus. Since it was a Saturday evening we figured it would be relatively busy, but it turned out to be dead. But we ended up grabbing a pint and hanging out. then around ten to twelve they called last call, which initially surprised me but then I remembered that most pubs close relatively early every night, and it’s just the “clubs” that are open until all hours of the morning. So we didn’t pay too much attention since we were still good with our pints, so we went back to talking, but then next thing we knew around twelve the security started coming around telling everyone to drink up and get out. They were even using words like “less talking and more drinking”. It was so odd that they stop serving about 10minutes before they kick people out, which is definitely way different than in Canada where they do last call about an hour before the place closes and in Canada you would never hear the security encouraging people to drink faster.

Oh and I almost forgot I switched my cell/mobile phone over to O2 from Virgin this week. One reason was that I was doing pay as you go and you typically get like 300 free text messages when you top up with either company which is great, but I found out that with virgin they give you the free messages the first month but usually you have to wait until the next month before you recieve the messages, so basically I would have to go a whole month paying for all my text messages (which adds up quickly). I of course called virigin (which costs money to all call the customer service department) and told them that I was thinking of switching to a different company because of this (and unlike in Canada where they do everything they can to keep you) they just said okay and gave me all the information I needed to switch companies. Most of my friends are currently on O2 and one of them got me a sim card so I ended up switching my number over to this new sim card. I thought my phone was unlocked already, but appearently it wasn’t so I went and got it unlocked (which in the UK is no big deal … but well that didn’t go as smoothly as it normally should have … which is a long story) … ultimately I got it all sorted out so I now have the same phone number but I am on O2 pay as you go! I then did an initial top-up and they have a rewards program where I get to play an online game and win a prize for topping up (they do this to encourage people to top up since the money you put on your phone doesn’t expire after a month like it does in Canada). I went and played and ended up winning a prize (well actually I am fairly certain that everyone wins a prize). I ended up getting a free graze pack. Graze is a UK company that basically these packages of fruits and nuts and delivers them to your door (ultimately it usually costs about £3, so it wasn’t a huge win, but still nice). In the package they typically have three different things, one of which is some fresh fruit, but because of a postal strike here I ended up getting four things.

Media Relations
News Releases

For Release Upon Receipt – April 9, 2008
Contact:

Allison Rubin, 617-638-8491, afrubin@bu.edu

NEW OPTOMETRIST APPOINTED TO BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER, BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

(Boston) –Boston resident Andrew McLeod, OD, MS, has been appointed to the position of attending optometrist in the Department of Ophthalmology Services at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and will be recommended for clinical instructor of ophthalmology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and serves as adjunct clinical faculty for the New England College of Optometry.

McLeod received his doctorate of optometry, his master’s in vision science and completed his cornea and contact lenses residency from the New England College of Optometry in Boston.

McLeod’s medical expertise is in general optometry, general and specialty contact lens services, refractive and cataract surgical co-management and corneal disease co-management. His research interests include the use of rigid gas-permeable contact lenses to improve vision through the reshaping of the cornea (overnight orthokeratology and pediatric binocular vision).

McLeod is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, and a member of the American Optometric Association and the Massachusetts Society of Optometrists.

To make an appointment with him, please call (617) 638-8354.

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