Joyce,
My Father-in-law also has vision problems. (He is 83 years old and
was diagnosed with PD in 1985 though he thinks he had it for at least three
years before that) They started out as cateracts in both eyes. About two
weeks after surgery on his left eye to remove the cateract he had a
detached retina and now is completely blind in that eye except for
"shadows" that he sees out of the far left corner. Needless to say he
would not let anyone touch his right eye. He is told that he has macular
degeneration (which has nothing to do with PD). It took him a good while to
accept this. We hired a "reader" for him, and she is a Godsend. He has
written a book on religion and loves to read the New York Times daily. He
is coping with PD, macular degeneration, prostate cancer and the death of
my Mother-in-law, far better than any one of us ever expected.
He is a retired physician from the NIH who specialized in
"Preventive Medicine", and taught many years at Harvard. He is home alone
a lot during the day and runs up monthly telephone bills which average
about $500.00. When I come home in the afternoon, he has the table set for
dinner, which isn't for several hours later, but he knows I appreciate it
and he feels like he is helping (even though I know it took him a good 30
minutes to set the table, it is one way for him to keep up a little
exercise, he says). There are days, when he gets "down" but we don't let
him stay there. Our ten-year daughter needs only to read to him,talk to
him for a while or play him a game of back gammon, and he starts coming
around.
For your mother, keep a cheery surrounding, lots of laughter and
all the love you can dish out. For yourself, keep up with your own
activities, and friends so your mother doesn't think you are doting on her,
and keep the faith.
June
At 10:49 PM 6/6/95, Perdue - Joyce wrote:
>My mother, who is 82 and formally diagnosed 7 years ago, is progressing
>rapidily. Of major concern to her is her inability to read. I
>accompanied her to the eye doctor several years ago and heard him
>theorize that her eyes were no longer focusing together because of
>Parkinson's affecting her eye muscles. Another eye doctor said not
>enough light was entering because of her cateracts, but he did not
>recommend removing them, they weren't severe enough. (??) Another
>doctor said that dry eyes might be the problem and recommended using eye
>drops to wet the eye surface. She is now unable to lift here eyelids
>far enough to allow clear vision from the pupil. Her sister also has
>drooping eyelids. So maybe the lid problem is not from PD? but from
>heredity? Does anyone else have vision problems?
