The Hazards of Growing Old

• by donr
• 2019-01-19 11:23:42
• General Posting
• 1019 views
• 5 comments

Well, PM Friends, it finally caughht up with me.  I'm 82- 1/3 yrs old & my vision has been deteriorating for abot 10 yrs from Macular Degeneration.  For you youngsters in the clan, the Macula is the spot on the retina of the eyeball that defines The greatest detail.  W/o the macula, you cannot read very well because therre is a blank spot in your vision. If you want to examine what I can see now, close your right eye; look at the "G" key on your keyboard.  DO NOT let your eye wander a bit.  Stare right at it.  I cannot see at all the H,. V & half of the F keys.  There is a totally blank spot for me.  The Right eye is not quite as bad,  but I cannot read an eye chart at all .  At 200 meters, I cannot even see the back end of a Semi Trailer (I think the teerm in Europe is "Artic". ) So how do I see to type?  At screen range for my monitor that vacant space for the image on my retina is so small that I can see around it - IF I jack the image size up to about 30 point typeface.

Today I learned that my vision is so bad that I am legally blind.  No, I do not need a white cane w/ a red tip yet & probably never will - I'll just work off whatever peripheral vision I have left. 

How common is Macular Degeneration?  My guess is that it is more common than electrical heart problems.  The retina clinic I use in Jackson, Mississippi , has three Dr's that travel the state giving shots in the eyeball for it.  My Dr. is on the road at least three days per week doing approximately 100 people each day.    The clinic I went to in Atlanta, Georgia, did the same number for each of 5 Dr';s.  

My cell phone is my savior in reading meds bottles - I take pictures of them & enlarge them so I can see what I have.  It's embarrassing to be in our local Home Depot  and have to ask strangers to read lables to me. I cannot see the threads on screws nor read anything on a container - typeface is too small.  I walk around wearing my old jeweler's/watchmaker's magnifying headpiece t help read lables - anyone under 30 asks me if I'm wearing virtual vision glasses.  If over thirtty, they ask me if I'm a jeweler!  Actually, it is a throwback to 20 yrs of etching stone & glass with very fine details (300 DPI resolution).

I you wonder why I make so many typing errors - it's because I am of the generation  when boys did not take typing in school - I cannot touch=type.  Guess I'm going to learn.  The hard way.  I've sent a few Pvt Msgs to members w/o correcting my mistakes & expained all this to them.  My error rate was at least one error every second word.

Now for the good news - for any of you suffering advanced Macular Degeneration, there is hope for reading & typing.  I found an outfit in California that makes Hi-Def TV devices that cnnect to a Hi-Def 27-29 inch monitor that can blow up a book page so you can see it all at once and read as you normally would.  The TV camera is about the size of your fist & hangs off an articulating arm that lets you aim it anyhere you want it.  That means you can aim it at your big toe so you can cut your toenails again!  For better than two years I've had to shave by feel - cannot see my own face well enough to shaVe.   The outfit's name is "Enhanced Vision."  For the Yanks in the crowd, they have a sales Rep in every state.  My rep drove 100 miles (one waY)one afternoon to give me a demo of the equuipment.  It's pricey - but gives me  the ability to read again. well worth it to me. 

Growing old is not for the faint of heart!

Donr