The Director’s near vision clears up

Since retiring from an illustrious basketball career, Hector Calma has become busier than ever. "The Director" has devoted his time to his family, business and job after hanging up his jersey in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in 1994.

Hector, a member of the PBA’s 25 best players of all time and once considered as Asia’s best point guard, is a logistics provider of San Miguel Corporation. He is back in the PBA as team manager of the Coca-Cola Tigers.

As team manager of a PBA team, Hector handles the team’s finances, contracts, schedule, and occasional player problems, among others. Being a sportsman by heart, he still finds time to play basketball at a less demanding level, swims regularly, and if time permits, plays golf and badminton.

"While still playing (professional basketball), I never imagined that life (after retirement) will be this busy," he admits. "When I was an athlete, being physically and mentally fit was a must. Today, coping up with work and looking after my family is just the same. I still have to be fit."

Recently, Hector took a step to ensure that he can keep up with rigors of his various commitments. He had an eye treated to restore his near vision by means of Near Vision CK (conductive keratoplasty). Now in the Philippines, Near Vision CK is a new procedure to restore near vision the way one could see clearly 10 or more years ago.

"After the Near Vision CK procedure, I can now see near clearly," Hector said. "I do not have to pull out and wear my (reading) glasses every time I have to read. Actually, I don’t need my glasses anymore."

As his age advanced, he noticed that reading, looking at small characters and objects have become difficult and that he needed reading glasses. The degeneration or failing of near vision is part of the natural aging process. At around 40 years, the eyes begin losing their ability to focus on near objects. This is the result of presbyopia. Farsightedness, on the other hand, is when the surface of the eye is relatively flat causing the eye to exert more effort in focusing especially for near objects or characters. In both instances, distant objects are clear but near objects are blurred.

Near Vision CK is a safe, non-laser and no cutting procedure that uses radio frequency (RF) energy through a small pen-like probe to shrink collagen tissue within the cornea to treat farsightedness and presbyopia.

The procedure, which takes only from 3 to 5 minutes, is done in an office or clinic with only topical anesthesia (eye drops). Near Vision CK treatment is generally painless. Vision may be fuzzy for the first few hours and the treated eye may have a foreign-object sensation or slight itchiness but all these will subside within 24 to 48 hours.

Near Vision CK is the leading non-laser refractive procedure in the US and the fastest growing procedure since the introduction of laser cornea treatment. The procedure is accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration and Federal Aviation Administration.

To date, CK treatments have been performed worldwide and more than 800 physicians, including only 24 from the Philippines, are certified to perform CK.

Twenty-two of these doctors belong to a group that acquired the necessary equipment and established three Near Vision CK centers in Metro Manila.

The centers are in the Q Eye Center in Quezon City, River Valley Eye Center in Pasig City, and Patient First Medical Center in Makati City.

Information on NearVision CK treatment visit www.ckcenters.com or call telephone number 372-08-28.