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Written by: Greg Dill

Published: 24 February 2018

Created: 24 February 2018

Last Updated: 24 February 2018

Are you at risk for glaucoma?

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes loss of vision – usually side vision – by damaging the optic nerve, which sends information from your eyes to your brain. Some forms of glaucoma don’t have any symptoms, so you may have it even if you don’t have trouble seeing or feel any pain.

That’s why glaucoma is often called “the sneak thief of sight.”

Fortunately, you can prevent vision loss by finding and treating problems early. Medicare covers a glaucoma test once every 12 months for people at high risk for glaucoma, including people who answer “yes” to one or more of these questions:

– Do you have diabetes?
– Do you have a family history of glaucoma?
– Are you African American and 50 or older?
– Are you Hispanic American and 65 or older?

Glaucoma tests are covered under Medicare Part B (medical insurance). An eye doctor who's legally allowed to do this test in your state must do or supervise the screening.

How much will the test cost you? You pay 20 percent of the Medicare-approved amount, and the Part B deductible ($183 this year) applies. If the test is done in a hospital outpatient setting, you also pay a copayment.

To find out how much your specific test will cost, talk to your doctor or other health care provider. The specific amount you’ll owe may depend on several things, such as:

– Other insurance you may have
– How much your doctor charges
– Whether your doctor accepts Medicare payment as full payment
– The type of facility where you’re tested
– The location where you’re tested.

There is no cure for glaucoma. Vision lost from the disease cannot be restored.

Without treatment, people with glaucoma will slowly lose their peripheral (side) vision. If glaucoma remains untreated, people may miss objects to the side and out of the corner of their eye. They seem to be looking through a tunnel. Over time, straight-ahead (central) vision may decrease until no vision remains.

Immediate treatment for early-stage, open-angle glaucoma can delay progression of the disease. That’s why early diagnosis is very important.

Glaucoma treatments include medicines, laser trabeculoplasty, conventional surgery, or a combination of these. While these treatments may save remaining vision, they do not improve sight already lost from glaucoma.

Glaucoma is detected through a comprehensive dilated eye exam that includes the following:

Visual acuity test. This eye-chart test measures how well you see at various distances.

Visual field test. This test measures your peripheral vision. It helps your eye care professional tell if you have lost peripheral vision, a sign of glaucoma.

Dilated eye exam. In this exam, drops are placed in your eyes to widen, or dilate, the pupils. Your eye care professional uses a special magnifying lens to examine your retina and optic nerve for signs of damage and other eye problems. After the exam, your close-up vision may remain blurred for several hours.

Tonometry measures pressure inside the eye by using an instrument called a tonometer. A tonometer can detect glaucoma. Numbing drops may be applied to your eye for this test.

Pachymetry is the measurement of the thickness of your cornea. Your eye care professional applies a numbing drop to your eye and uses an ultrasonic wave instrument to measure the thickness of your cornea.

For more information on glaucoma: https://nei.nih.gov/health/glaucoma/glaucoma_facts.

Greg Dill is Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific Territories. You can always get answers to your Medicare questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).

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Written by: Pastor Chris DelCol

Published: 24 February 2018

Created: 24 February 2018

Last Updated: 24 February 2018

"Lake County is in need of more people who are willing to take up their cross and make a difference here."

Saint Mark writes, “"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.”

Many songs have been written about the need to carry your cross and the reason is quite simple – in order to live each day in God’s Grace, we must carry our cross every day.

One of those songs is performed by Ray Boltz and the words go like this, “Take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Take up your cross every day. Don't be ashamed to say that you know Him, so, count the cost, then take up your cross and follow Him.”

And then the song presents us with questions that we need to answer as we carry our cross: “What are you doing for the King? Have you given everything for the one Who gave His all for you? Don't be satisfied just to know that the Lord has saved your soul. Have you forgotten what you need to do? I know sometimes the road is long, and sometimes you feel like you can't go on, but just go on and carry your cross, and follow Him.”

The reality of those words put us face to face with the challenges we will see when we take up our cross.

Crosses are heavy sometimes … and maybe we need a little help to carry them, but comfort comes when Jesus says in Matthew 11:29-30, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Those are comforting words when we face the reality of the need to take up our cross, for as we do, the cross becomes easier to bear and the burden is lightened.

So, what does it really mean to carry your cross? And what does a cross look like for us? Is it made out of wood like the one Jesus carried through Jerusalem and was eventually nailed to and died on for our sin?

That was a real heavy one, one that few would ever want to carry. But the cross we must bear on Jesus’ behalf here in Lake County and beyond is very heavy!

As we look around us throughout Lake County, we see poverty beyond belief, we see drug and alcohol abuse, we see homelessness, mental illness, unemployment, crime, kids who need direction but are often getting it from the wrong places and end up doing the wrong thing, and we see a desperate need for people to hear and experience the Good News of Jesus Christ, the very Gospel of sin forgiven and eternal salvation.

Lake County is in need of more people who are willing to take up their cross and make a difference here.

What must we do?

Simply, identify the challenges here in Lake County (which most of us already know) and working collectively, church and state and every social support group out there, to address the issues we face.

Things like low-cost housing to help with the homeless situation, youth programs, developing employment opportunities, the need for counselling for those with family and/or mental illness problems, drug and alcohol abuse, and most important of all, getting folks involved with others to make this community a place we can stand up and boldly say, “I live in Lake County and I am very proud to be here.”

Taking up your cross means doing what Jesus would expect us to do here in Lake County for the sake of His kingdom on earth.

Our task is not insurmountable if we work together to accomplish the goal. That is what we will focus on this Sunday, “How to live in Grace by taking up your cross right here in Lake County.”

Please join us this Sunday and every Sunday at First Lutheran Church for Bible study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m. and a hot lunch immediately following worship.

Our food cupboard is offered every third Sunday of the month from 1 to 2 p.m.

First Lutheran Church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive in Lucerne.

All are welcome so please, come as you are as we reach out to this community and beyond to spread the healing Word of the Gospel.

Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.

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Written by: Michael Tabacchi

Published: 20 February 2018

Created: 20 February 2018

Last Updated: 20 February 2018

The successful film "Moneyball" portrayed the Oakland Athletes and General Manager Billie Beane’s strategy to succeed in the highly competitive economic playing field of Major League Baseball.

This story has relevance to the financial pressures facing the county of Lake.

The movie begins by comparing the on-field payrolls of the Athletics and the Yankees:

– $115 million – New York Yankees;
– $40 million – Oakland Athletics.

Later, we see GM Billie Beane seated in a room with his seven veteran scouts. Collectively, these men have over 150 years of experience evaluating athletes who either desire to wear or currently don a major league uniform.

They are gathered because they must replace three key players who were lost to free agency. Which is to say they were offered much larger salaries by franchises with larger market shares, and they accepted. Go figure.

As the discussion wears on, Beane becomes impatient. He’s exasperated because he believes their thinking is medieval and, in large part, reflects a misunderstanding of how teams win baseball games.

Billie not so subtly interrupts by adding “blah, blah, blah” to the mix.

Enter his head scout, “Gee Billie, was that a suggestion? We’re trying to solve a problem here.”

Beane replies, not like this you’re not. “You’re not even looking at the problem.”

He then goes around the room and asks each scout, “What’s the problem?” Each response is met with disapproval.

Beane opines:” The problem we’re trying to solve is there are rich teams, there are poor teams, there’s fifty feet of crap, and then there’s us.” It’s an unfair game.

Oakland can’t afford to replace a player like Jason Giambi because they don’t have the money that the market demands for another five-time all-star.

He continues, “We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter. He dies!” “If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we will lose to the Yankees out there” (on the field).

Beane is talking about a game changing shift in how they think about their circumstances.

Oakland’s strategy to overcome their financial constraints included revising how they evaluated players. Beginning in 2002, Beane and his assistants analyzed player statistics from a radically different perspective and established innovative metrics to target athletes who were undervalued given prevailing baseball wisdom.

They looked at their financial circumstances with new eyes and a laser-like focus.

Which finally brings me to the recent community visioning forums and life imitating art.

The presentations by the county administrative officer suggested that the rising costs of providing county services combined with declining inflows to the general fund is the problem.

I am not disputing the conclusion that our current financial situation is unsustainable. The scoreboard tells the story: The county of Lake is down 10 runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

However, I also want to ask, are we certain that we are looking at the problem(s)?

– Is it time to undertake a comprehensive review of the general plan and area plans with an eye on identifying and revising those parts which may be contributing to our economic malaise?

– Bunts and in-field grounders may win you some games, but how do we recruit more “power-hitters” to step up to our economic home plate?

– To borrow a non-baseball cliche, is it time to start thinking out-of-the-box in order to improve the business climate and economic competitiveness of this county?

– How do we dismantle the prevailing thinking which for decades has resulted in Lake County’s finishing last on the economic playing field?

Note: During the 2002 season, the Oakland Athletics set an American League record by winning 20 consecutive games.

Michael Tabacchi lives in Middletown, Calif.