Good morning, can anyone share insight reg... - PSP Association
Good morning, can anyone share insight regarding their vision? My moms eyesight is so bad - she cannot identify food on her dinner plate.
I'm sorry not to be able to offer anything other than sympathy, Marykay. The loss of vision is proceeding for my guy, too. Magnifying reading glasses help him a little. Does your mother use glasses at all? Does she have the vertical gaze palsy? Is it a general loss of sight or is there any chance that the dinner plate is at a bad distance for focussing?
Little chance
Hi easterncedar, yes she has glasses but they are no longer helping. She has vertical haze palsy as well.
My husband has prism lenses but when it comes to eating he uses his reading glasses to focus on the food.With him there is also a problem that he wants to get the difficult business of eating over with quickly,previously we would linger over nice food and savor each mouthful but now eating is a chore he wants over Perhaps your Mum feels the same.
Loopy, yes, I agree. I started feeding my wife her meals because it took her long time on her own. She still gets tired during the process and I have to press to get a good amount in. You may want to take over and at least assist. I understand getting tired in the process is common in PSP.
Jimbo
Thank you. What do you mean by pris. Lenses?
HI Mary, The vision is not bad, its the extremely slow eye movement that restricts them from being able to lower their eyes to see whats on the plate. Prism glasses could help . But to make it easier, I used to put different things in different bowls and raise it up for my dad to see . That way at least he know what each bowl had.
What is prism lenses?
Hi there. I'm sorry to hear about your mom's eyesight issues. I found a section on the web site which may add a bit more information - If you go to pspassociation.org.uk/getti... and click on section 1 of the Personal Guide, you will see that there is a section on vision. I hope it helps a little. Very best wishes to you, EB 
Hi Marykay from the UK its winter here. Where are you and what season is it. My wife had real problems starting in October, we realised after a month that it coincided with the central heating being switched on. She had problems looking at anything. Got a humidity meter found the house down in the 30% range. We have overcome some of the problems with eye ointment and raising humidity in the house to 55 to 60%. Damp towels on radiators ect.
Hope you get lots of suggestions.
jwg
Hi snapper, we are in Michigan and it's very cold now. She does have a steamer but hasn't used it yet this year. I will set it up tomorrow when I visit her. I have not heard of this issue before so thank you for the note.
Thank you
My husband never initiates looking down. If I "badger" him to look down he will try with little success. His vision is good - at least he went to an opthamologist 2 yrs. ago and that was the result. He can see TV fine. But he can't focus on anything close because of the need for eye movement which is really hard for him. He will move his entire head to see his caregiver or me.
Does any of this help?
Caroline
Heels, yes. This is how my mother is. She can see the tv, but she can't see up close.
A couple of things that helped for a brief period were to change the colour of the plate to increase the contrast and the other was to increase the light level. I chose a black plate as there are no black foods, even with my cooking! Prisms initially helped my wife locate the food with greater accuracy but due to the progressive nature of the disease nothing worked for very long and like Jim eventually I helped with feeding to minimise the frustration
and to ensure the food was eaten before it cooled and became less palatable.
What do you mean by prisms?
They are glasses that function like a periscope on a ship. The patient can look straight ahead and the mirrors reflect down at a 90 degree angle. They were created for patients who were too claustrophobic for a CAT scan so they could see out past their feet. Soon they were used for the bedridden to see across the room. And now they are often recommended for PSP. My mom used them to be able to feed herself for a very long time. By the end, they seemed too heavy and cumbersome and she needed much more help so she only wore them briefly during meals.
here is a link to one brand
These were glasses that comprised a series of wedged prisms that attempt to correct for muscle weakness by moving the apparent position of the item looked at to its actual position. Thin plastic prisms (cut from a sheet) were placed over the lenses of Margaret's ordinary glasses. I believe it's possible to get the correction ground into the lens, unfortunately Margaret's sight didn't stabilise for long enough to get prescription lenses but due to the variable nature of PSP this might not apply in your mother's case. I hope you are able to get some help, kind regards, Jerry.
Thank you. Will try
