Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Newsblurb: Gee, I wish the solution were this simple for all of us

Not that it would hurt to try, of course!

McCann’s vision has improved since he cut out caffeine

Brian McCann has a noticeable new look – no glasses, and a hop in his step.

Going on a recommendation from his eye doctor to cut out caffeine, and hydrate with plenty of water, McCann said his problems with dry eye and blurry vision has improved.

“I’m real excited about it, real excited,” McCann said. “It’s the first time in a year and a half, two years that I’ve come to the baseball field and not had to worry about my eyes.”

McCann has undergone Lasik surgery twice, once in October of 2007 and then a tune-up procedure on one eye last October. He continued to have problems with dry eyes and blurry vision, though, and started wearing glasses last year during games.

McCann started this season without glasses or contacts but after struggling to see at the plate in night games, McCann resorted back to wearing glasses in May. He’s worn them on and off recently but since going on a recommendation from his ophthalmologist Dr. Alan Kozarsky last week, when the Braves were in Arizona, the glasses have been off.

“I see fine, way better than I did at the start of the season,” McCann said. “It’s hard to explain. I’ve been through a lot these last two years. I finally found a solution that works.”

McCann said he quit drinking Red Bull and 5-hour Energy drinks before games and now sticks to strictly water, and a lot of it, before games. He said he noticed a difference within about three days.

“I had chronic dry eye,” McCann said. “I was having to put drops in; now I don’t have to do the drops. My eye wouldn’t even hold a contact, they were so dry. And now that I’m hydrated and my eyes are fine, I can rub my eyes and tears will start forming. I couldn’t do that before.”

Since the Braves got to Arizona on June 7, McCann has hit .313 (10-for-32) in 10 games to raise his season average to .263 entering the weekend series with the Royals.

1 comment:

Teri said...

I love the wording here. Like, gee, he had Lasik twice, and his eyes are *still* dry!

This sounds more like a case of him reacting to something (caffeine or something else?) in all of those energy drinks.