Current Style: Standard
This exchange is part of an email conversation I have been having with a reader. 
[Reader] I am a yoga teacher and I recently came across your website, FitEyes.com.
Below is part of a very interesting email a reader sent me a little while ago. I asked for his permission to share some of it here. I hope this person eventually finds time to start a blog on FitEyes.com or share more of his experiences. I could learn a lot from him, and I suspect many other people would like to hear more about his experiences with intraocular pressure.
Paresh posted an excellent message about dealing with glaucoma in the FitEyes.com forums. He asked seven great questions. I decided to do my best to respond to each question. I'm going to take them one at a time. Paresh's first question was , "what we can do in daily life to limit further damage to eyes?" This blog post is my first response.
Today the following email arrived in my inbox via a post to a glaucoma support group. This email gives me an opportunity to answer some questions, including the original of the name of my (former) blog, The IOP Querent.
David: Greetings!
I read your very interesting blog this morning.
Here are a couple of questions:
What exactly is your background? Your blog says that you are the
director of a research organization. Are you a physician?
Biochemist, etc?
We have a lot of different sections on this website. The newest addition is a help forum that focuses on using the FitEyes.com website. I just posted a message there about navigating around FitEyes.com. I decided to post it here because so many people have asked questions about finding all the content on FitEyes.com. I think this info will help everyone understand the website layout.
We have a lot of different sections on this website. Some people have told me that it is confusing at first because there is so much here. I want to briefly describe they layout of the website so you can see the big picture. I think this will help everyone navigate around the site without confusion.
I just created a new Help forum and wrote several new messages to answer common questions members have about using FitEyes.com.
You can visit the help forum at this link: http://staging.fiteyes.com:8080/forums/ShowForum/56
Notice that when you are signed in, your username appears in the upper right area of the page. Take a look at this image for an example:
Notice that it shows me that I am signed in by saying, "Signed in as Dave." If I was not signed in, it would say "Welcome. Sign In."
UPDATE: All registered users are automatically notified of new content on FitEyes.com via email. See instructions below to change your subscription.
Here is a conversation about setting up Serial Watcher software to collect the IOP data from the tonometer:
Dave: I use something called Serial Watcher
Dave: http://www.devhood.com/tools/tool_details.aspx?tool_id=780
Anonymous: is it freeware?
Dave: yes
Anonymous: turned on laptop :-)
Anonymous: connected serial cable
Dave: now open Serial Watcher
UPDATE: please see new info in this comment: New USB-Serial Port Converter Info in comment-2096
We also have a new software program called FitEyes Insight that makes organizing and understanding your eye pressure data much, much easier!
UPDATE: This information has been superseded by:
How to install FitEyes Insight Application for Reichert AT555 Tonometer (alpha version)
A new research participant asked me:
Q. In a week I am going in for electro-acupunture. How would you set this up so testing makes more sense?
Most of us expect that our intraocular pressure might be higher if we are feeling stress or we are under pressure of some type. We also expect that our intraocular pressure will be lower when we do a relaxing activity such as watching TV or a movie, going to a party with friends, or having dinner with family. And we especially expect that our intraocular pressure will be lower after we perform a stress reduction technique such as meditation or yoga.
Welcome to the pioneering self-tonometry research project!
I would like to offer some suggestions regarding research methodology. This will be the first of several posts on this topic.
One core requirement for this research is high frequency IOP monitoring. I suggest the following guidelines:
Welcome. FitEyes.com features patient to patient discussions about the lastest glaucoma and intraocular pressure (eye pressure) news. All registered users can add posts to this blog. (And if you are a new user of FitEyes.com, you should know that you automatically have your own personal blog here also.)
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