Lots of Updates!

Wow! We have had a loaded past few weeks! We had seen that there were different trainings to do, but little did we know that there were LOTS of trainings and accompanying essays...we're talking 21 pages single spaced of essays! Woah! We got to learn about a lot of topics, including Global Impact Training, ethics & professionalism, global health, community eye health, sustainable development in eye care, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial volunteering,cultural competency, preparing to travel abroad, safety in international traveling, CDC traveler's health, H1N1 preparation, eye pathology atlas, and Bihar specific site training. And most of those had multiple modules to read through. We then got to write a short essay for each module and topic. All in all, it ended up taking lots of time spanning multiple days. We certainly felt accomplished when we finally finished! :)

We also finished up our fundraising on Monday. We were pretty nervous when we found out the amount we would need to fundraise, but our family and friends went above and beyond and helped us surpass our goal! THANK YOU!!! We were touched by the generosity of those we love, and are so grateful they were able to help us in this area!
 

 Now all we need to do is finish packing! We are so excited that we are so close!

Translation to Hindi

Brayden has been working with his biochemistry professor (who is from India) to translate the survey and informed consent for his research project. It is actually a lot of work. The lettering is so beautiful, it almost looks like artwork.

 

 The IRB who approves the research has asked that all the study materials be translated before the submission process can proceed any further. Brayden is anxiously waiting to have the project approved. Afterall, we are leaving in just about 30 days!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Today we celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary! We celebrated by hitting our favorite dinner spot - The Melting Pot. If you have never been there, we highly recommend it! We had fun thinking back on some of our favorite things we have done this past year, and also started making plans for the year to come. One thing we talked a lot about was our upcoming experience in India, we are so excited to do this together! We have loved our two years of marriage and look forward to many more to come!

Training

We have been very blessed with overwhelming support in our endeavor to go to India. There is no way that we could ever make this happen without the help of so many people! Yesterday we were trained by Dr. Robert Wing MD from the Bountiful Hills Eye Center. This was a very big help and we really appreciate the time, willingness and expertise that he gave us. The training involved hands on interaction with patients and skill training for screening cataracts using a penlight and ophthalmoscope, and visual screening. We followed technicians around the clinic and observed how visual acuity was assessed. Dr. Wing, with the help of many patients, gave us the opportunity to look inside eyes to see the difference from a clear lens vs. a clouded lens from a cataract. He emphasized that there is a big difference between an American cataract and the kind of cataracts that we will see while in India. Because so many people have limited access to health care due to poverty, transportation, and overwhelmed eye care providers (the doctor to patient ratio is around 1:100,000), the patients suffering often goes completely blind because the lens is totally opaque. Due to limited funds and resources, our job will be to screen those who are in the most need of cataract removal (i.e. those who cannot see hand movement or even light). Typically an ophthalmologist will dilate a patients eyes so that the cataract can be better viewed and diagnosed (for removal). While screening in India, we will not have the convenience of dilation, so it was important to become familiar with what to look for.

(a clear lens characterized by a very sharp black pupil)

(an opaque lens from a cataract)

We also were trained on how to perform visual field screening to check for glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease of the eye that involves an increase in pressure inside the eye. The pressure will eventually cause damage to the retina (the back of the eye that sends the image to the brain) leading to irreversible blindness. Usually the only way to screen for this without a pressure reader (like a tonometer) is to check for early warning signs like the beginnings of tunnel vision.

We are so grateful to Dr. Wing for taking time to help us become better prepared for our work in India!

 

Packing the glasses!

For the past two evenings, we have been packing up all the different glasses we have collected into suitcases. We are excited to announce that our grand total is 1,405 pairs of glasses!!! We couldn't take the last 200 pairs because we quickly learned that space is limited and we have a lot of glasses. After spending hours and hours packing them different ways to best maximize our space, we got it right. Check out the pics below, but its really even more impressive in real life when you can see that there are rows and rows of glasses stacked on top of each other.

We are coming up on the last 15 days to donate, we are excited to report that we now have raised funds for 57 cataract surgeries, only 7 more to reach our goal! We are getting so close! Thanks for all of your help! Have a great weekend!

Training training and more training!

We have found ourselves very busy lately! (sorry for the lack of updates) On top of that, we have started doing the different trainings to enable us to participate with Unite for Sight. The past few weeks, we have been working on an online Eye Health Course where you review lots of different conditions, including: eye anatomy, refractive error, amblyopia, sunglasses & disease prevention, color blindness, eye safety, vitamin a deficiency, corneal disease and transplantation, conjunctivitis, trachoma, river blindness, cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes & diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, pterygium, a health education overview and a final exam! phew! We took turns reading it out loud, and also took turns dozing off at times...but eventually we got through it! We just have a few more trainings to go!

We also are getting ready to pack up glasses and figure out how we will be transporting them there. Currently, the majority of our glasses are sitting in the back seat of Laura's car, we need to take the glasses we can't use back to the Lion's Club and then get the rest of them packing. We can't believe that the time for us to go is getting closer and closer!

We also are excited to announce that we are slowly but surely making our way towards our goal of 64 cataract surgeries. Right now we are at 53 surgeries! Woohoo! We are very excited and grateful for our generous donors. (Note, the progress bar on our donation page has not risen yet as donations by check take longer to process - the 53 surgeries are including those checks!) We can't wait to come back with pictures and stories so you can see the procedures you have helped sponsor! Only 17 days left to donate, we are grateful for everyone who has helped us get the word out, you guys are the best! We hope you are all doing well and keep checking back as we get down to crunch time! :)

Here are some pics we got from Laura's mom from the night her family came over to help sort and clean glasses...thanks again guys, that was a blast!