Daily Tips: Do not try out the trial contact lenses when purchasing

September 7th, 2008 Posted in Tips
1 Comment »

I am a paranoid man, for good reasons. I don’t believe in unnecessarily risking your health, and possibly life. We are all exposed to enough risk already:

  • Possible accidents on the road when driving or even when travelling in public transports due to own fault or other people’s fault.
  • Natural disasters.
  • Health related risks.
  • Fire at home or other home related risks.

However, it’s not the end of the world.

Paranoid people like me learns to deal with such risks by accepting the fact that such risks exist, and manoeuvre through their lives minimizing existing risks as much as they can without too much impact on living normally. People that fail to deal with this ends up isolating themselves from society, and a good example is Howard Hughes, whose story inspires the movie “The Aviator“.

Having said all that, the point of this daily tip is to advise people not to try out the trial contact lenses when purchasing it. Most of the optical giants has stopped distributing trial packs for hygiene purposes, but some of the smaller ones still do.

Unlike the hospitals and clinics, the optical shops are not tightly controlled with strict procedures that ensures the well being of people and minimizing the spread of communicable diseases. They do not wear gloves, and they do not have strict procedures that ensures that the trial packs that they use are properly sterilized when it is tested from one customer to another.

Although the risks are small, it doesn’t mean it does not exist. Contact lenses, when not sterilized and disinfected properly, can be vectors for communicable diseases. It’s okay when it’s a treatable one, like eye infections, but what if it’s an untreatable one? Who’s at fault here?

So please beware, and don’t expose yourself to unnecessary risks.

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Daily Tips: Runny nose in the mornings

August 5th, 2008 Posted in Tips
3 Comments »

I’m writing this with the hopes that it could help someone with the same problems I had during my teenage years. When I was staying back in my hometown, I have a runny nose almost every morning. My mom would complain that every single morning I will make so much noise (without realizing) that it will wake the entire house up! Which is, a good thing since we had to wake up for school anyway.

She would send me to ENT specialists, and chinese sensehs, but it would never get better. The ENT specialist even suggested an operation to straighten the bone in the nose, but I refused. And this went on for years, with me thinking that this will be what I have to live with everyday.

However, after coming to KL for work, it stopped. I didn’t realize it until a few years later, when a friend complained of his runny nose, and I was reminded of mine. I tried to recall when was the last time it happened, but all I can recall was, it doesn’t happen very often nowadays, but it was a daily thing back in hometown! And the weirdest thing is, we’ve always thought it was because of the cool temperature at night, but I’ve gone to work in the US, at a place where it’s snowing, and my nose didn’t react at all!

After doing some research, I have come to conclusion that it could be allergy reaction to something back home in the hometown, probably pollens local to the house or something. Nowadays, whenever I get exposed to dust and my nose starts to react, I will take some anti-histamine to contain it. It doesn’t work very often, but it works most of the time, and according to the local pharmacist, you need to take the anti-histamine every day to lower your histamine levels. I’m not the kind to take meds every day, but you might want to consult your local pharmacist or family doctor for advice.

Point is: if you have a runny nose, it could be because of allergens. Try to monitor it and see if it happens when you go out of the country or city. One way to do this is by keeping a log.

Also, I have a friend who had the nose job thing (fixing the bone in the nose) but it didn’t work. It could be a case-to-case basis, for him, the bone problem may not be the root problem in the first place. Same goes for me. Try to look into the root cause, and then make the right decision. Whatever it is, always consider the experts’ advice, get second opinion, and look into the root cause.

Good luck!

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