“Look at the lovely red berries all over that lilac bush!”
My mom was siting on the couch and we could tell by her grin that she knew the lilac bush didn’t have red berries, but that was what she was seeing. Luckily she already had an appointment with her ophthalmologist, as we were very concerned. She’d been seeing some interesting things and knew that what she was seeing wasn’t really there.
The appointment turned into an emergency when the doctor found she was hemorrhaging into her eye and needed an emergency appointment with a retina specialist – a three hour drive away. It was Macular Degeneration. The strange things she was seeing are not that uncommon. There’s a name for it actually, Charles Bonnet syndrome. While the diagnosis certainly is not good news, it is always a bit of a relief to know and to begin treatment.
She has access to some magnifiers from a relative who died a few years ago and these are helpful. We’ve also arranged for a device demonstration from MATP. Several sites around the site have low vision assistive technology. Sometimes the adaptations can be simple, like they were for Kathleen, who received a demonstration recently from MATP. You can read her story on our web page “The Simple Things“.
As we begin this journey with mom, dealing with loss and adapting to new ways of doing things, it’s good to have access to information and tools which can help.
What vision-related AT have you found helpful for yourself/people you know?
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