(the impact of) dermatitis and eczema

[Rockhorst]

Update: had cataract surgery on my left eye last week. The left eye was almost blind. It was an amazing experience to have the veil lifted. I see details that I haven't seen in months. I was amazed of what my son actually looks like, that there are separate leafs on trees, tiny wrinkles in skin...that sort of stuff. I haven't tried soldering yet but hope to get to it this weekend. Next eye in 2 months.

[Tremster]

Good to hear you're recovering!

[cooder]

Wow I just stumbled across this thread, that's a tough cookie to deal with by any stretch of imagination...
Glad to read things are looking upwards and the veil is lifted on one eye, best of luck for the next operation and for the general well being and recovery in body and mind!

[davent]

Glad to hear things have improved enough to see again somewhat normally and ready to try soldering again.

One eyed soldering, i've found it easiest to find the solder joint first with the solder then bring in the iron and complete the joint. The tactile feedback of being in contact with joint appears to help in finding the joint with the iron, more consistent success.

dave

[Rockhorst]

Thanks for the tip Dave. The right eye has very blurred and washed out vision but funnily enough it provides enough feedback to still see depth. Yesterday though, I looked at a PCB with my +3.0 reading glasses and was again amazed at all the details I could see but hadn't seen in months. I also looked at the previous soldering attempt before the operation...my oh my that was pretty bad. The thing to now get used to is having to switch out glasses a lot. Because the left eye has only one fixed focus point (about 2.5 meters away), looking at a computer screen requires +1.25 glasses, grading tests is +2.0 glasses and fine detailed work needs +3.0. So when the other eye has had surgery, I'm probably going to get +1.25 glasses with a hint of 2.25 in there and then it should be workable in most every situation. As you may know, I teach physics at the high school level, so I'm constantly doing eye experiments, determining and checking the focal length of the left eye lens. It still shifts around a bit, but is getting close to settling.

[alanp]

Heh, you should get a pair of mad scientist glasses that have additional little lenses on moving arms, that can be placed in front of the fixed, normal lenses

(I googled, but could not find out what those are called... all I got was a torrent of shitty, shitty steampunk nonsense...)

[Rockhorst]

Better yet, those glasses should be connected to my scalp with electrodes that read my brain waves so I can control the lenses with my mind.

A multifocal lens implant was an option at additional cost, but supposedly the experience with those is that there's never a truly sharp image and a lot of halos around lights in the dark. So I opted not to go for that.

[chromesphere]

Wishing you the best mate, that sounds like a hard slog.  Its easy to underestimate the effect long term health problems have on your mental state.  How slowly it takes effect, so slow sometimes you dont even realise the dark tunnel you have been travelling down. But even if your condition is a lifelong journey, there must be ways to improve your situation.  There is always hope of improvement. Hoping things turn around buddy.
Paul

[Rockhorst]

Wishing you the best mate, that sounds like a hard slog.  Its easy to underestimate the effect long term health problems have on your mental state.  How slowly it takes effect, so slow sometimes you dont even realise the dark tunnel you have been travelling down. But even if your condition is a lifelong journey, there must be ways to improve your situation.  There is always hope of improvement. Hoping things turn around buddy.
Paul

Thanks Paul, it's much improved right now, don't have to spend a whole lot of time on it. The dark tunnel thing is a good description, glad I'm out of it. Let's hope it's going to be a nice long stretch.