To See or Not To See, That Was The Question

Apparently, the cat is out of the bag. Only a handful of people knew I had bad eyes, and only a select few even knew the extent of how bad they were. Well, not sure how or why, but it was announced to the world during the World Championships in Altenberg, Germany. Oh well, now that you all know, I'll fill you in on the details.


I have a degenerative eye disease called Keratoconus. Here's a good definition, "A progressive disease of the eye in which the cornea becomes progressively thinner and the development of an irregular, cone-like corneal protrusion occurs. As the disease progresses, vision becomes increasingly distorted." Notice the "increasingly distorted" I was diagnosed in mid-2001. It's been 7 years; that means I'm not doing so well.


Anyway, for some fun, I'll show you some images that a couple gentleman created to show the rest of the world what it is like to have Keratoconus. Here is what Dr. Elio Spinello and Ian McCain said about what they have created: "KCVision is a compilation of images designed to help communicate how and what individuals with Keratoconus see. Keratoconus impacts the cornea which is the clear window of the eye and is responsible for refracting most of the light coming into the eye. Therefore, abnormalities of the cornea severely affect the way we see the world making simple tasks, like driving, watching TV or reading a book difficult. One of the best descriptions of keratoconus vision is that it is similar to looking through a car windshield on a rainy day. These images may be useful in helping to communicate the severity of vision problems to friends and family members of KC patients, they are also useful in helping to understand some of the limitations that those with KC face on a daily basis."
(Have I told you what Keratoconus is yet?)


So, please observe, learn, and appreciate what these individuals, including myself have to live with on a day to day basis.













These two images show what a normal person sees, and what a person with moderate Keratoconus sees. This is what we call "Double Vision"

The Glare Effect

This is Ghosting

I'm sure they all look pretty much the same; but as an expert, they aren't and it's interesting to talk to Opthamologists about the condition because they actually know what I'm saying. For your information, I was more on the "Ghosting"/"Double Vision" side. I usually had to choose, the middle one. That may be why when I have few too many drinks and people tell me to follow the one in the middle, I don't have much of a problem; I was already following that one. OK, bad joke. But if you can't laugh about it, you can't live with it.

Well, the reason for this post is to tell you that last week I had my vision corrected with an ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens, or which is easier to remember Implantable Contact Lens)

If you would like to see how it goes, here is a link to the "Today Show" that did a live filming of an operation; the day before I had my operation. I had to dodge some of their equipment. Here is the video. (I'll post a link just in case you can't see it)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/23463382#23463382

So, as you can see. (haha, pun intended) I can see now. It's been a week and I'm still getting used to my new vision. In fact, I keep running in to things because I'm not used to the depth-perception. It's awkward. I'm sure I'll manage. Anyway, my vision has gone from 20/500 to 20/20. It is still fluctuating because my eyes are still adapting to the ICL, but whatever the outcome finally settles at, it will be better that what it was before.

See you next season!!!

P.S A great comparison that has come to my attention over the weekend, is the strength of contact lenses. I can't tell you how many times I've had to hear, "you have bad eyes? Well, gee, let me tell you how bad mine are". For years people have been trying to 1-up me; but they are always floored when they hear where I am, in fact, they don't believe me half the time. So, for all of you out there that know your prescription and have worn contacts I'll let you in on how my eyes are, or were. Most people have lenses that are -1.00, or -4.00, maybe even -7.00. That is pretty bad, I'm not going to sugar coat it. Well, for all of you out there that think your eyes are bad, my prescription was -16.75. That is not a typo, I'll say it again, -16.75. I'm not going to go any further in to it because I don't have to. -16.75

I would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for making this happen:

The United States Olympic Committee	The United States Bobsled & Skeleton Federation
Wes Barnett	Brian Shimer
Dr. Scott Stoll	Ted Offit
John Ball	John Donovan
Marci Francis	John Rosen
Doug Bagley	Kevin Ellis
Valerie Fleming	Darrin Steele
Lisa Carlock

The World Championships

All I can say is that this has been two rough weeks. We are in Germany, a country that actually cares about Bobsledding, which means they are on their home track, and to make things harder nobody, other than the Germans, has been able to train here. So it's basically a battle for 4th place. If you get 4th you can consider it a win; the Germans are going to win this hands down. I know it's sounds negative, but it is, and unfortunately, that is how it works in the bobsled world. Not much I can do, other than my best.

Let me start off by saying, Altenberg is my worst track. In 6 years of driving my worst results have been here. This just isn't my track. So, when I tell you how the 2-man went you'll understand. Actually, it might be better if I just skip to the end, we finished 10th.


Just as the FIBT would have it, the Team Event was the very next day after the 2-man. We don't need to take a break. No, none at all. I wasn't totally worn out from racing as hard as I could 2 days in a row. Let's make it 3. So, we did. And 3 seemed to be the magical number of the day. I'll tell you why in a second. First an explanation of the team event, apparently they are trying to make it an Olympic Event. I doubt it will ever happen, but hey, who knows. If nothing else, it is a lot of fun. Here's how it goes, each country that enters the race gets to enter 1 female skeleton athlete, 1 male skeleton, 1 female bobsledder, and 1 male bobsledder; it covers the entire federation of sports. It really doesn't count for anything because there are only a few countries that actually have all 4 disciplines, regardless, it is the most fun anybody will have sliding. Because it doesn't really hold any weight just yet, everybody lets loose and has a great time. What is really cool is that each country has their own strengths and weaknesses; and to be honest the US has by far the strongest all-around team. We have Katie Uhlaender, the 2007 and 2008 World Cup Champion and 2008 World Championship Silver Medalist; on the men's side we have Zach Lund the 2007 World Cup Champion, and Eric Bernotas who is always fighting for that top spot as well. For the Women's Bobsled we have Shauna Rohbock who is 2006 Olympic Silver Medalist, 2007 World Cup Overall Runner-up. On the Men's side, well, you have me, and of course that is the most important of all. ;-) I'm like the 4 leg of the Men's 4x400m Relay. (You trackies know what I'm talking about). Plus, I have to say that, it's my blog for crying out loud. Anyway, as usual the standing changed each heat, this team was in first, then moved to 2nd. That team went from 4th to 2nd, and so on. It all came down to the Men's bobsled, the last event. I know what you are thinking, but really, it came down to the last run. We were sitting in 4th place, just outside the medals. We had to beat Great Britain, Canada, and/or Germany to get on the podium. Well, I did the best I could. I started out with a 0.28s deficit. In the end, we lost by 0.08. I did what I could, unfortunately it just wasn't enough. We ended up 3rd behind the Canadians, and of course the Germans won. Go figure. Regardless, not only myself and my team, but the entire field of atheltes had a blast. I can't wait for the next team race.

The 4-man was actually kind of exciting, at least for a few of us. Of course GER I won the race by over 2 seconds. Which is just stupid, that's not really racing now is it. Oh well. There was however a great race for 6th place. The top 6 sleds get trophy's, so at the worlds a top 6 finish is great. After the first run we were way behind, more that 1.10 seconds behind GER I. Gee, this is fun. They are the only team that has been able to go down the track in the last couple of years remind you. If they don't win, it would be a disgrace. Anyway, Latvia was only a few hundreths behind us. The next two runs we went back and forth, fighting for 6th. We all wanted a trophy, and to say we finished top 6. It came down to the last run and what should happen? Mesler strains his groin. No, really, he did. I swear. I couldn't make this stuff up. Now, we are fighting to the 100th of a second, we can't afford to have 3 guys pushing a 4-man sled. We did everything we could but the rules stated that Mesler had to race. We only had one choice..... to come together as a team, for Mesler to "Just get in the sled, we'll do the rest."

We took off from the start block like our lives depended on it. Which in a sense they did. When I called the cadence and hit the sled, I put every ounce of effort I had; Pavle did the same, and so did Curt. Mesler did one hell of a job not slowing us down even though he was hurt, which is not easy by the way. (Read a few post back about my groin injury, I went through the same pain.) We train in such a way that the 500+ pound sled gets moving pretty fast after just a few steps, for Mesler to keep up and keep from pulling back was an athletic feat. He did all we could ask for. Team Holcomb pushed 5.31; which tied the worst time all week. When we finally loaded into the sled we were 0.28 seconds behind the Latvians who were out for blood. Now, going into this run I knew that I had to do everything right. I had 19 runs to figure out all the turns, now is the time to make sure I applied what I learned over the 2 weeks. Not sure how, but it somehow came together. We went from 0.28 seconds back to 0.31, to, then 0.25, then with only 3 curves left we were 0.19 behind, and eternity in bobsledding. When we finally crossed the finish line we were 0.05 ahead at the bottom. It was a near miracle, in fact I would have to say it was one of the best runs I have ever had; and what a time to have it. We maintained 6th place and got a sweet-ass trophy. What an end to a rough season. Did I mention that the Latvian's were pissed? Well, they were. I don't blame them .

The best part of this chaos is that we came together as a team and stepped up to the plate; then we hit a home run. That is what we need, my crew did everything they could to give me a good start, and they did. All I could do is return the favor.notice the crowd in the background.