Trying to help my mom deal with vision loss. Any advice?

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Trying to help my mom deal with vision loss. Any advice?

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She has almost perfect vision in one eye and 20/400 in other. Trying to help her regain ability to read, write, etc. She finds it very difficult to function with eyes so different. Better to cover up eye? Or is there another device that may help her?

Vision & Eye Disease

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Is the 20/400 vision eye correctable with a lens? If so, that would be what to do. If not she can temporarily cover the "bad" eye when reading, etc. But she would probably completely lose the vision in that eye if she covered it all -- or even nearly all -- the time.

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We live in Iowa, the state has a Department for the Blind, they work with people who have low vision also. My mom has lost her central vision to Macular Degeneration. They provide books on tape to her, they sent out a vision/hearing specialist to demonstrate adaptive equipment when she complained that she couldn't hear well. These wonderful services were done at not charge to my mother or us. Please check with your retinal specialists and ask if your state has this resource.

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I've sort of been where your mother is, but thankfully, I got better. Cataract surgery in one eye left me with two working eves that saw things totally different. I'd say the first thing to do is to agree with her that it sucks!

For me, covering the bad eye, especially while reading, would be the way to go. The bad eye still contributes vision for things like balance, but it interferes with close work. Not everyone can do that, but it's worth a try. Have her try it every day for a week or two, and she might be able to function better after a while.

If she wouldn't get insulted, joke about it. "Well, now you don't need to dust because you can't see the cobwebs!"

You may not be able to do much to fix things, but you can give her sympathy and love.

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Maybe pinhole glasses would help her. They have black opaque plastic lenses, and small holes are punched through these lenses. They are not very expensive. You can Google them to see how they work. I found that Amazon sells them at the cheapest price. In my experience, they make the vision sharper while you're wearing them. You want good (strong) lighting when wearing them. I don't recommend the "sunglasses" style, which has a clear reflective plastic over the lenses. That's because my old "sunglasses" had bigger holes, and that made them less effective. I remember reading about Eskimos that would use wooden goggles with slits to help them see across blinding white snow. Maybe the pinhole glasses work in much the same way.

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Mom kept seeing an eye doctor, but the neurologist read her CT and said vision would not improve due to damage in the brain. So if she's had any TIA's or a stroke, consult with a neuro man.

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My mom has macular degeneration/ glaucoma . It's the glaucoma that has created the vision loss. Her opthomolo gist referred her to a low vision opthomologidts. She prescribed her prism glasses. Since then her vision hasn't changed. Eye drops helps with stabalizing glaucoma. Her perineal vision is very off. Her eyes are strabism. She's getting new glasses because she lost them.
Low vision dr specializes in the people with very low vision. I guess you have to ask many questions and figure out what works best.
Take care
Equinox

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Thought I would clarify what Equinox was trying to say - ophthalmologist is a doctor who treats the eye and refers to specialists, glaucoma's peripheral vision is affected, and strabismus is a condition where one (or both) eyes is/are pointing either right or left slightly. Keeping our eyes well lubricated every day with drops (without thimerisol), drinking plenty of water plus diets high in beta carotene will go a long way toward healthy eyes.

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Depending on how old your mom is, and her willingness to pursue ways for her eyes to function, check and see if there's a low vision store in your area or you can order low vision products from a catalog. There are many useful items for low vision. Hope this is helpful.
Equinox

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If one eye is 20/20, the other 20/400, have her seen by a retinal specialist. She could have a detached retina (like I did) and have no other symptoms except being blurry and thinking I needed to change my prescription. Surgery was performed in 2010, and that eye is now almost 20/15.

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I personally find pinhole glasses help to relax my eyes when I'm reading on the computer. Eye strain only makes vision worse, so using techniques to relax the eyes could be helpful.

I also recommend your mother try "palming". To do palming, she would first rub the palms of her hands together, to generate a little warmth. Then she would lightly place the palms of her hands (fingers together) over her eyes. It's all right if she uses a surface, like a table, or pillows to prop up her elbows while palming. If she can build up to two minutes of palming, she will probably find it to be relaxing to her eyes. And it's okay to build up to even longer times!

And of course there are eye exercises: moving the eyes in clockwise circles, counterclockwise circles, up and down, side to side.

Trying to help my mom deal with vision loss. Any advice?

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