Eyelidoc

May 19, 2013 (Hong Kong All checked in and ready to board at the HKG Airport. Built on the island of Chek Lap Kok, an island largely reclaimed specifically for the construction of the airport itself. We have a 3 hour flight to Chengdu and are all looking forward to meeting up with the SPPH ophthalmology team there. The airport is an impressive layout, one of the largest and busiest passenger and cargo airports in the world. Very new and modern, it has all the amenities one could wish for - from Jimmy Choo shoes to Swatch and Starbucks. We fly Air China, which from previous experience has always been a pleasant service oriented carrier...i.e. they serve lunch!... read more

May 18, 2013 (Victoria's Peak, Hong Kong Island) As Dr. Farris likes to say - "its tradition". Around 5 PM local time we all met up at the Star Ferry landing on the Kowloon side to take the ferry over to Hong Kong island. Dominated by the world's 8th tallest office building - the 88 story International Finance Center, the Hong Kong skyline is an impressive endless line of high rise buildings. As the sun sets, the city's buildings are lit up with a variety of interesting and unique lighting schemes. Viewing this cityscape from Victoria's peak gives one a breathtaking view of the skyline. Many evenings the cloud layer is just above (sometimes just below) you, and the city lights reflect off the canvas of swirling mist and fog. The Peak has a viewing deck ... read more

An aerial satellite view of Hong Kong Bay.... read more

This story has a nice ending. Insomnia at 3 am...so I turn to problem solving: When we travel, I usually carry an extra stash of electronics to help connectivity issues - plug adapters, cords, flash drives, etc. I tried something new - to make them more accessible during the airport stays and flights - and put them in a small nylon pouch about the size of a shaving kit. I forgot it on the Airport Express van and realized this when we got to LAX. I wasn't sure if I'd lost it or forgotten it on the van. I called Airport Express. Dee the dispatcher answered and said she would contact the driver and try to call me back. She called while we were flying to HKG. I didn't answer. No voicemail. I called her back ... read more

May 17, 2013 (Kowloon) We made it! CX885 touched down after 14 hours and 33 minutes of flight to a warm and humid Hong Kong. We all caught up on movies and reruns of TV shows during the flight. We passed through immigration with ease, and then gathered up our luggage and 3 taxis to the Harbor Plaza Metropolitan Hotel in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon and in our rooms before 9 PM local time. We've stayed here before (typically we stay at the YMCA hotel), but because the Y was full, we stay here - they strike a good package deal for us. Everyone was a bit tired, but not too bad considering the length of the trip on a full flight. We met up with Paul Chen on this flight, so slowly ... read more

May 16, 2013 (Los Angeles) All team members scheduled to be on this leg of the trip made it to the flight with plenty of time to spend. We took the American Airlines regional jet flight directly from OKC to LAX. The Oklahoma team had a smooth timely flight to Los Angeles where we are scheduled to have a 4 hour layover. I’ll briefly introduce you to the current group, and will give you more detail on each team member later on. Dr. Brad Farris is an ophthalmologist at DMEI specializing in neuro-ophthalmology. He’s been the veteran initiator of the international programs at DMEI and this will be his 13th trip to Chengdu through this program. His primary area of interest has been to help foster the academic exchange with the Chinese to develop better trained ... read more

The four of us from DMEI met at the institute and were picked up by Airport Express a few minutes after five...actually closer to 5:20...long enough to get just a bit worried the van wouldn't show! We met up with the OU CCEW team to fly to Los Angeles. We are all at Will Rogers World Airport ...lining up at Gate 6...off to see the world! Next up date from LA!... read more

May 14, 2013 (Oklahoma City, OK) Final preparations for Dean McGee's Global Eye Care Program's visit to Chengdu, China are underway. Final clinical responsibilities, packing, and getting the best seating we can on the flights over are all done. One more day of work to tidy things up before we leave for ten days. The team this year includes two DMEI faculty, one fellow, one resident, two ophthalmologists from Kaiser Permanente Northern California and eight members from the University of Oklahoma's CCEW program. The primary goal of this trip is to finalize and sign an agreement with Sichuan Provincial People's Hospitalto pilot and implement a plan to open the Sichuan Eye Institute (SPEI) in Chengdu. This "sister" eye institut... read more