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About 6 years ago my aunt had her droopy eye-lids surgically lifted. -- a minor cosmetic facelift. I'm her primary CG. She has PSP (a PD+). I found a descriptive medical journal article about PSP showing a photo of these same typical droopy eye-lids. Now, after her disease has progressed, her eye-lids are frozen (paralysed) so wide open that we need to tape them shut for sleep. Many people (surprisingly including medical pros) interpret her "flat affect", blank stare, expressionless face, as "fear"; and proceeded to create and act on reasons as to why she is afraid. Last year, this misinterpretation caused a nurse to question everyone around us, but me or her neurologist, regarding elder abuse -- since she was always "afraid". The social effect of interpreting fear on a paralysed, bug-eyed, face caused a few people to question my taping her eyes as some sort of abuse, even after my explaining that I was following her opthamologist's instructions. Eye care had become another CG task and expense. Without a normal blink, she needs lubricating eye drops hourly -- at $15+/month. Interestingly, immediately upon recieving an eye drop, she shuts her eyes for a while. This caused one social worker to accuse me of always poking her in the eyes with the applicator, since she appeared to always wince, and look afraid. We are ethnically Russian, with a more marked Mogolian fold over our eyes than other Europeans. PSP exagerated this trait. For a woman, it seemed cosmetically appropriate to regain her face not knowing she would need that extra skin to help close her eyes as the disease progressed. By tending to an early symptom, she created a worse condition later. Her early vanity is now a CG burden. 0===================================================================0 | @..@ A.J. CONOVALOFF | | (----) "The Molokan Cyber-Cowboy" __o | | ( >__< ) PSP Support Groups of Arizona `\<, | | ^^ ~~ ^^ [log in to unmask] . . ..(*)/`(*) | 0===================================================================0