Light at tunnel's end
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- Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 10:17:53 -0400
Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia, Canada
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Light at tunnel's end
By LORNA INNESS
Low Vision Clinic can make world of difference to people who think they will
never see again
Caption: Margaret MacCullock, left, reservations clerk, and Laura Irons,
orthoptist, in the Low Vision Clinic at the Victoria General site, QEII Health
Sciences Centre, Halifax, hold some items that help patients with failing
eyesight. (Eric Wynne/Staff)
THEY COME IN with no hope and we give them hope," says Margaret MacCulloch,
reservations clerk, about the patients referred to the Low Vision Clinic at the
Victoria General site, QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.
"We help patients maximize their remaining vision," says Laura Irons, an
orthoptist. "They can resume or keep on with hobbies, use computers or read."
Browsing through books and magazines, checking prices, signing cheques, reading
menus and recipes, reading instructions on bottles of pills and other
medications, all these activities may seem everyday and mundane to those who
have never had their vision impaired. For others, the aids available at the
centre make an unbelievable difference.
The clinic was started some 20 years ago in the old Infirmary by
ophthalmologists Dr. David Keating and the late Dr. J. Wayne Beaton. At the VG,
it provides patients with an array of aids ranging from simple magnifiers to
the latest in magnifying glasses and other equipment.
"I work with patients with eye muscle problems, with double vision or with
problems with co-ordinating vision," says Irons. "The bulk of the problems are
macular degeneration, glaucoma, corneal disease, retinitis, diabetic
retinopathy. Probably 75 to 80 per cent of the patients have macular
degeneration.
"They can still do a lot, just not the same way they used to do things. They
have to learn to use the vision that they still have."
Orthoptists, she explains, are "auxiliary personnel in ophthalmology. A large
part of what I do in a general sense is work with patients who have double
vision, problems with co-ordinating their eyes. I also am trained as an
ophthalmic technologist working with all the different technical aspects of
ophthalmology, all the different testing machines."
MacCulloch presides over a storehouse of ingenuity: glasses with adjustable
magnifying lenses, hand-held magnifiers in a number of strengths, UV Shield
sunglasses in a wide range of tints as well as lamps and other items.
Many of the aids are from the German firm of Escherbach, while others are
obtained through the U.S. distributor Lighthouse International.
"Some patients are referred to the CNIB and they have things we don't have,
larger things," adds MacCulloch. "We see people with age-related conditions.
Often they have had to give up work, hobbies, various interests.
"Sometimes we have something that can help them to read a newspaper again or
use a computer or do fine work. We can accommodate a lot of the requirements of
patients."
Used by many of the patients are glasses with lenses that can be adjusted by a
small wheel at one side. "We let them try the glasses for a few weeks or so.
Then we check to see how they're doing and if they wish to keep the aids, then
we send a bill."
Motivation is important. "We can give someone a magnifier," says Irons, "but we
cannot make them hold it and use it. It's very difficult for someone who has
been a normally sighted person for, say, 70 years of their life to all of a
sudden have a visual impairment, to have to learn how to see again.
"We try to give something to that process, if we can, and help them understand
that there is still sight left. We say, 'If you can manage and function by
doing your tasks by holding something two inches from your nose and you can
still see to read it, go ahead and do that.'
"We try to encourage people: 'You've got it, use it. But if you feel tired, if
your eyes start to bother you, then take a break.' "
An information sheet at the clinic advises patients: "Do not get discouraged.
You are learning to read in a new way. This needs practice."
Brenda Anderson and Alice Guy are two of the patients who say the help they
have received at the clinic has changed their lives.
In Pugwash, retired schoolteacher Guy uses various magnifiers, lamps and a
reading machine as visual aids. She has glaucoma, had cataracts, since removed,
and now has macular degeneration. Many of her activities were curtailed until
she was referred to the clinic by her Halifax ophthalmologist.
"I missed reading the most," she says. She uses glasses with magnifiers in the
lenses. "I look like I needed a flying saucer to go with them," she says,
laughing, but she can "crochet with thick yarn, do some close work and read."
Of the clinic, she says. "It's wonderful that they are there to help. They
don't rush you through. They take time to explain things."
Other aids include an Ott standing lamp "which is as close to daylight as you
can get," as well as a smaller folding lamp. She uses a lighted magnifier for
general reading, along with a smaller, purse-size one "for reading menus,
labels, etc."
The clinic also provided information about an Opteclec reading machine
available through a dealer in Halifax. "It's like a computer, only with a flat
surface where the keys would be. You place the book on the surface and the
letters come up on the screen," she says.
"It will show them in black on white (which I like best), white on black or in
colour. Now I can read my own mail and cards. By using the colour feature of
the reading machine, I can see the colours on the cards."
Enthusiastic about the difference the aids have made in her life, she says, "If
you have something that helps, it's nice to pass the information on to others."
Determination could be a synonym for Anderson. Although she lost 95 per cent of
her vision when she was eight years old, she went through the public school
system with technical aids from the Sir Frederick Fraser School for the Blind
and later received her BA from St. Mary's University.
Leaving work to raise her children, she recalls, "When I had to return to the
workforce, I had no computer knowledge, so I did two years at community college
and completed the diploma program." This led to working for the provincial
government.
As if the visual problems were not enough to daunt anyone, she has had to cope
with a brain tumour requiring at least 12 surgeries, the latest earlier this
year. "I have had so many near-death experiences," she says, "that I live every
minute."
Aids from the Low Vision Clinic are helping with some of the day-to-day tasks.
With "a small percentage of vision in one eye," she relies on glasses with
built-in magnification lenses. "With a set of Beecher's, I can do a small
amount of reading and watch a little TV," she says. "The Low Vision Clinic is
the only place I can get them."
"Because of my vision loss," she adds, "I push twice as hard. I utilize every
minute of my day. I wanted to see my children when they were in sports -
swimming, hockey, soccer, rugby. Moms sit with me at games and give me
play-by-play accounts."
She lives in Eastern Passage with her spouse and "two very active teenagers."
She has volunteered with the safe arrival program for two local schools. She is
active with the Eastern Passage and Cow Bay Lions Club and, accompanied by her
invaluable guide dog, presented Lions Club awards to students at the Cole
Harbour District High School graduation ceremony this spring.
"I tell my kids, 'You can't have anything in life unless you want it, and if
you want something, go get it.' Because of my vision loss, I push twice as hard
to push ahead."
For Guy, Anderson and countless other patients, the ophthalmologists,
orthoptists, ophthalmic nurses and other staff are showing that, rather than
"the end of the world," low vision is a challenge which can be met.
'They can still do a lot, just not the same way they used to do things. They
have to learn to use the vision that they still have.'
Lorna Inness, a freelance writer, is a former senior editor for this newspaper.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Living/944828.html
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