My 93 year old mother has vascular dementia and wears glasses with prisms as she sees double. Took her to opthamologist because she was complaining of headaches and words jumping on page when she reads. She had been given drops, which of course she never remembered to use, but now with AL administering them 4 times a day, she said white lines remain.
I asked doctor if it could be damage from a stroke and he thought not.
Anyone have experience like this?
Also, words hopping on page is sometimes corrected in children by using colored overlays as the black white contrast is the problem. Anyone find this helps an elderly person, too?
Mom loves to read, but right now, she can't.
https://medium.com/@foulkes.p1s/those-wavy-lines-you-see-are-a-sign-of-eye-disease-7759c0bf6379
I haven't had that exact experience but I have had rolling "blobs" (for lack of a better term) rolling down the outside of each of my eyes, only at certain times of the day and in certain positions.
I gave up on my ophthalmologist, who is primarily focused on surgery. I had an exam with an optometrist, and found her much, much more interested in addressing the issue. Unfortunately, she didn't know specifically what causes these rolling blobs. She also noticed a black spot which no one in the surgical practice addressed.
She asked about headaches, which I've had, but very strange ones lasting perhaps only a minute or so, and angling down toward my eyes. I call them devil headaches, since they're located where horns would be. She was concerned when I said I had had a (political) stroke in 2017. I'll be following up with a neurologist, as she explained something which I've already forgotten, something about a stroke and temporal lobes and visual distortion.
We discussed the difference between the focus of optometrists and ophthalmologists, and I decided to seek treatment instead with an optometrist.
That would be the best advice I could offer: see an optometrist, in a practice, so that if necessary he/she can consult with others who are more experienced. And take her to a neurologist if she didn't see one after her stroke.
Judy, if you live near a University or have access to a specialty eye clinic, you can also look there to pursue your mom's issue. As GardenArtist suggested too, you might just need to find a doc that acts like they want to solve the problem.
I wonder if there's so much divergence in specialties that some doctors just don't want to focus on anything but their own specialties. At least with physical body medicine there could be some overlaps, but with eyes, that could be a different story.
NewandTrying, I'm assuming the cardiac doctor felt that the carotid blockages were causing the shapes and blocked vision? Sounds like that doctor had good insights. That could explain why I was asked before I had cataract surgery if I had any cardiac issues. I hadn't even thought of it as I was initially too nervous about cataract surgery.
Good information to share; thanks for that.
I do not get straight white lines, for me, it looks like trying to see through a windshield that has water streaming down it. A word will be in focus for a moment or two, then obscured again.
if you treat Mum’s headache do the lines go away?
I turn to audiobooks when it is a bad day. Perhaps that is an option for Mum? I read when I can, then switch to the audiobook copy when I cannot read.
I am wondering if the problem is with her prism glasses.
She is going to see the opthamologist soon to see if her glasses need adjustment for reading even though they are adequate for distance.
As mom is on hospice for her heart, we cannot do too much outside of maki g her comfortable, including eye drops 4 times a day for dry eyes.