Living With Allergies

Suffering from nasal and eye allergies is often depicted in the movies and on TV in a way that makes it cute: Scenes of sniffles and little sneezes seem to represent the ailment in a way that, if you don’t already have an allergy, you want one.

“Oh, look, that Kardashian sneezed. Isn’t that cute?”

As an allergy sufferer myself, I’m here to tell you, it isn’t like that. When allergies hit, and when they hit hard, the experience can flatten me out, and make me ineffective at the most basic level: I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.

What are allergies? Allergies are the body’s defense against what it identifies and perceives as a threat to its well being. For example, some bodies may perceive tree pollen as a threat, and enact sneezing and sinus drainage as a defense mechanism to clear the threat out. Is the pollen an actual threat? Well, not really. But try telling that to someone who’s in the throws of itchy eyes and incessant sneezing, and they’ll insist, “This is really happening!”

Why the eyes and nose? The sinuses and the eyes are tissues where allergens come into direct contact with our bodies. Unlike your kneecap, or elbow, which are difficult to pass through, our moist membranes are much more exposed, and like castle gates, that’s just where the body expects to find trouble.

What I see most often are the itchy eyes, inflamed eyelids, irritated corneas and red noses. Some of this is from the basic allergic response, while much more of it is the result of eye rubbing, face scratching and nose blowing. The more some patients try alleviating the suffering, the worse it can get.

Numbers as high as 50 million are attributed to allergy sufferers. The exact number would be hard to define, as even more will never take it to a clinical lever and talk with their health care providers. An abundance of over the counter medicines and no shortage of OTC medicine marketing make allergies one of the most media, or self diagnosed ailments around.

To many allergy sufferers, avoidance is the most basic medicine. Those who are allergic to cats and dog avoid them. Allergic to peanuts? Don’t eat them. Allergic to pollen? Mold? Don’t go where those elements are found.

But is that always possible? In the Pacific Northwest’s lush, always damp, sometimes soggy environments, avoiding these things can be as difficult as avoiding air itself. Closing yourself up indoors with door and window sealing will get you away from the pollen. But once you’re inside, then there’s the dust. And aside from constant air filtration, maybe even mask wearing, sometimes there’s just no getting away from it.

What can I do to help you? Well, we know that an allergy is just a moment of trigger, followed by a lifetime of reaction and fall out. Getting the body to not worry about an allergen like pollen is some deep science, so we find ourselves treating the symptoms like watering eyes, swelling, and itching, with eye drops, anti-histamine medicines and even steroidal concoctions.

Finding the most effective symptom fighter is key, and through my knowledge of patients and their unique physical natures, Seattle Vision Clinic is very good at managing and treating such allergies.

The dangers of fashion contact lenses.

Whether or not colored and designer contact lenses make people who wear them more alluring is an argument better suited for the pages of Cosmo. Its editors just might endorse bright, flaming purple eyes as a way to attract Mr. or Mrs. Right. Or they may not.

What I can say, as an eye doctor, is that there are major risks.

It’s unfair to say, “Colored contacts are dangerous.” So are kitchen knives, even marshmallows if misused. Contact lenses can be very safe and effective, as we see in our patients every day. The real problems arise largely when users get these products without prescription, and use them improperly.

By the time I become aware of a problem, patients will have irritation, ulcers, or full-blown infections requiring immediate medical, even surgical care. People have been known to lose their eye sight altogether from the improper use of these products.

When Seattle Vision Clinic fits a patient with contact lenses, we aren’t just fitting the strength of their corrective prescription. Eye shape is unique to each patient, and our precise measurements identify the shape of each eye, and contacts are ordered to fit each eye like a glove. Only better.

We also educate patients on how to use and care for their contact lenses. And as they start using them, we monitor their progress and if there are issues with their use, we know about them early, before more serious problems can arise.

When people get their hands on unregulated contacts and put them on their eyes, these contacts are more like foreign objects that irritate the eye and invite bacteria, viruses, parasites and worse. And without proper training, users of these contacts compound the problem by not caring for them properly, leading to dirty lenses full of bacteria, viruses, and you know the rest.

The fall sees a lot of these lifestyle health issues, as the pressures to impress loom heavy on students. They include eye problems due to fashion contacts, skin irritations due to perfumes and fabric allergies, food allergies due to diet changes, and so on. If the pressures are on you, do it right, as taking good care of yourself is half the allure.

Newton, and Seattle's Small World

“It’s a small world.” We say this, usually, when we run into people who know people we know. The world is even smaller when we run into these people halfway around the world. Hence, “It’s a small world.” And it’s getting smaller.

July closed a chapter in optometric history, when Dr. Newton Wesley (Uyesugi) passed away in Freeport, Illinois. You might think, ’What does that have to do with our little world here in Seattle?’ It’s a fair enough question. And here’s where the world gets smaller.

Newton was born to Japanese immigrants in Westport, Oregon in 1917. By 16 he’d graduated high school and by 22 he’d earned a degree in optometry from the then North Pacific College of Optometry, and had his own practice in Portland. Uyesugi is a difficult name to navigate to, and so he borrowed his wife’s name, Wesley, for his practice.

Keep in mind, he had a sister.

If such success wasn’t enough, Newton and a classmate, Dr. Roy Clunas, bought their Alma Mater, only to see the start of World War II, which wasn’t kind to Japanese Americans in the West. Newton’s family was interned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho. Newton, with so much momentum behind him, was allowed to attend further education at Earlham College in Indiana. He went on to establish himself in Chicago, where his family joined him after The War.

The fateful twist here is that at some point Newton learned he himself was afflicted with keratoconus, a condition that if left alone would render him blind. Treatment for the condition included the use of contact lenses, which at the time were big and uncomfortable.

Newton’s search for his own cure led he and partner George Jessen to establish Jessen-Wesely, Inc, where they pioneered soft contact lenses, the predecessors to what we have today. Their company was bought by Schering Plough in 1980, which in turn was bought by Ciba Vision in 2001. Small world.

But what happened to North Pacific College of Optometry? In 1945 the school merged with Pacific University, to become the Pacific University College of Optometry, from where Dr. Greg Chin, Dr. Lund Chin, and Dr. John Kikuchi graduated from before joining the family business at Seattle Vision Clinic.

Now remember Newton had a sister. Her name was Corrine Uyesugi. Corrine married Terrance Toda, and in 1945 they established Seattle Vision Clinic.

Corrine Toda also passed away recently, and together their memory will live on for future generations of doctors and patients here in our little corner of this great big, but small world.

Seattle Vision Clinic Goes Digital

We've been face to face with our patients and friends for so long that it never crossed our minds to connect through digital media. However, with so many friends and patients now relying on us and our clinic, and the internet becoming second nature to everyone, it now seems natural, almost necessary. So, welcome everyone to the new Seattle Vision Clinic's foothold in digital media!

Since we've always been a dynamic outfit, you can expect our digital window to be the same. Through Keep Current, we'll keep you informed with week-to-week notes on current events, health care developments and other news relevant to our office and the people we associate with.

Stay tuned, and keep in touch!

Dr. Greg Chin