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Archive - April, 2010

My laser eye surgery – Part 5 Living in HD!

April 30, 2010 in Day to Day with 0 Comments

Today is my birthday and I can’t thank the wonderful people at Iris enough! This morning it was like waking up in HD!

Yesterday morning I went for my 24 hour checkup after the surgery. I now have 20/15 vision in my right eye. That’s better than it was with glasses or contacts and my left eye is 20/30. My right eye is dominant so we corrected it for super distance vision and my right eye, we corrected it for good distance and great up close vision. My check up was very good as my eyes are healing very well.

I know all this to be true because I can see better than I ever did before even with my contacts. My right eye vision is very clear however my left is still a little hazy. My vision with both eyes working together is great! Before, with contacts, I could see great in the distance however I couldn’t read a map in front of me. Now I can do both without the irritation of the contacts and the cool thing is I’m only at day 2 and my eyes are still improving.

Here’s how it works and what I am to expect…

at 24 hours:
Hazy/blurry
Foreign body sensation
Light sensitive

at 1 week:
Vision fluctuates
Some blurriness still
Dry eyes
Haloes/Starbursts improved

at 3 months
Fluctuation possible
Dry eyes still improving

at 6 month
Should have clear stable vision

to be continued….

My laser eye surgery – Part 4 It’s surgery day!

April 28, 2010 in Day to Day with 0 Comments

John Gilliat just minutes after laser eye surgery with Dr. Ma

It’s 7am and it’s surgery day! My appointment is at 10:30am. I’m a little anxious but mostly very excited as I continue looking through my glasses. I can’t wait to throw them away.

It’s now 9am and I’m going to the library to pick out audio books to enjoy while I rest after the surgery. I’ll have to keep my eyes closed for a few hours then lounge around for the rest of the day.

Ok… so much for audio books. The library is closed until 10am. No big deal as I have 3 days of DIY podcasts from Cd Baby at home from independent musicians and industry professionals.

It’s 10:30am and I’m now at Iris where I’ll have my procedure. I have filled out all the consent forms and was given a bottle of water to keep myself hydrated. I then met with the optometrist once again to check my eyes and confirm my prescription.

Next it’s off to counseling…

In counseling I received a kit that contains all my eye drops I’ll be using after surgery, sunglasses, tylenol, and clear plastic eye shields to prevent me from rubbing my eyes when I sleep at night. I’ll be taking 2 eye drops 4 times a day and be using lubrication drops every hour.

Now it off to surgery…

1st I was brought into a room just outside the operating room were I was fitted with green slippers and a green hair net. Then I proceeded into the surgery room were I was greeted by the lazer technician. The technician had me lay down on my back on a flat massage style bed, she put pillow under my knees and then covered me with a blanket. I was very excited and a little nervous.

The operation…

Carl Zeiss Meditec's new MEL 80 Laser used for my surgery

I’m looking up at the ceiling and the laser machine is moved above my head. My right eye was is the first to be done. The laser looks like a green LED light surrounded by a white light ring cluster. The nurse was wonderful and was talking me through the entire procedure. The doctor was now in the room and was preparing me for the surgery.

1st my right eye was frozen with drops. The drops didn’t bother me at all. Then a small clamp was used to hold my upper an lower eyelids open. Again everything was fine and it was not uncomfortable at all as I continued to focus on the green LED laser light.

Next I could see a ring similar to what a jeweler looks through to view diamonds. It was placed up against my eye to hold it in place by suction. I could feel a little pressure against my eye and then could hear a buzzing sound as the doctor creates the hair sized corneal flap and the technician counts down from 10 to 1. My vision goes a little grey when the flap is created then I’m back to looking at the green LED. Next the Dr. Ma tapes my eyelids back and then the laser does it’s work to correct my vision. Now I see blue, green and red colors. It’s like watching a little colored light show.

Then my eye is rinsed and the corneal flap is put back in place. My eye was rinsed with a fluid and wiped. For anyone worried, There is no pain at all. During my surgery Dr. Ma laughed as I told him it’s like having your windshield cleaned! What I ment by that is if you lay on your back and put a glass disc infront of your eye then wipe the glass with a brush. That’s what it looks like at the end when my eye was washed with a fluid, the flap is put back in place and the fluid is wiped away. (at least I think that was happenning)

Once my right eye was finished it was on to the left eye. Now that all my anixetes have been put at bay I was able to relax and enjoy the left eye light show. And again had my left eye windshield cleaned!

The whole process felt like only minutes. As soon as we were done I had my picture taken with Dr Ma and his laser technician (shown above). I could see pretty good already. From there I went to a quite dimly lit room where I closed my eyes and relaxed until T arrived to pick me up.

The next 2 hours I was to keep my eyes closed as much as possible. I drank a little water and took the tylenol they gave me however, I was never in any pain. I sat around most of the afternoon listening to my audio books and took my eye drops every hour. Everything was fine and I think because I was so used to wearing contacts nothing bothered me. Eye surgery so far was wonderful.

That evening I put on my sunglasses that were given to me then T and I were off to walk the dogs. What a beautiful night. My vision was much better and NO Glasses or Contacts!

So… the first 24 hours there was no real discomfort. I whore sunglasses so there were no problem with light sensitivity. My vision was a little hazy and my left eye was a little blurry. all of which is very normal.

Tomorrow I’ll go for my 24 hour check up…

Two gigs – One day

April 24, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 1 Comment

Today it’s a double header! From noon to 3pm I’ll be playing at the Salt Tasting Room located in Blood Alley Square, Gastown, Vancouver. Then it’s off to Coquitlam to play a fund raiser gala diner “La Fiesta”. I’ll be helping to raise money for a long term care facility to provide music therapy and other services.

So off to the first gig…

One of the great perks to playing as a musician is being paid to travel around to some very interesting places that you may never hear about. This venue was very awsome and right in my own back yard. (so to speak)

Gastown is a very cool part of Vancouver, old brick buildings, brick and cobble stone streets. The Salt Tasting Room is a small restaurant with a very cool cellar which was were I was performing. The event was part of the Vancouver Playhouse wine festival.

The cellar was quite small with a group of 50 to 70 people. Once again I used the small sound system. Everyone seemed to really enjoy my performance and I was asked to play overtime however, I had to go right away to get to the next event.

Here’s a fuzzy cel phone pic of what I see while playing for the event. Most corporate events are similar to this where I’m playing background music while everyone is busy networking. This was a really nice group to play for in a very nice sounding room.

I had 30 minutes to tear down the gear and an hour to get across town to set up for “LA FIESTA”! Looks like the client will have me back next year.

So off to the next event…

This next gig didn’t pay all that much however, it’s not allways about the money. Like I wrote earlier, this was from a good friend of mine and former guitar student who was raising money to help enhance the lives of the 76 older citizens that live at the residence.

Sometimes I will bump into other musicians working the same event. Today it was wonderful to see Pancho & Sal! They are really good friends and musicians that I had not seen in a long while. You can read more about them at: www.panchoandsal.com

Pancho was playing guitar and played the coolest kick drum I had ever seen! I wish I had a photo. They sounded great!

Here is another photo of my set up at the venue.

It’s a birthday guitar performance!

April 23, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 1 Comment

Today I’m playing guitar for a birthday party! It’s at a private residence about a 45min. drive from my home. The client doesn’t have a lot of space and I have a short setup time frame. So my sound system will consist of my Boss T1 mixer and 2 Yamaha pa speakers on stands. Again I’ll be miking my guitar with my akg c535eb mic. I have another guitar that I can plug in however I really love and prefer the miked sound. The akg c535eb mic is a fantastic choice for miking the flamenco guitar and is fast becoming the mic of choice for most players in spain. Vicente Amigo would be a good example. (BTW… If anyone knows if Vicente Amigo uses a preamp live, I’d love to hear about it)

I arrived for the gig at 8:15pm and setup to play at 9pm. Every now and then you have a private or corporate gig that is simply, perfect! Most days you’re stuck in a corner and play as background music for the event.

However tonight was different…

My performance was more of a house concert. The client and guest were a fantastic group of people. I got to personally meet everyone as I arrived and even had help setting up. The house was very nice and the room I was in acoustically sounded amazing. Everyone sat around and listened as I performed my first set. During my break I was able to watch some of the hockey game. (usually I would find a quite corner, have a quick coffee and practice for 15 to 20 min.) Then it was back to play my second set and again everyone came to listen. It was a wonderful event!

The photo on the left shows my small set up. 1st to the left is my Boss T1. It works as a mic pre, compressor and gives me a nice reverb. Then it’s plugged into my Yamaha mixer. (from my Yamaha Stagepas 300) The Yamaha is then plugged into 2 small Yamaha pa speakers on stands.