Hi again 🙂
Beginning in September last year(2021) , Mick noticed he was having trouble with his eyes. I spat the dummy at one point and said if he didn’t make an appointment for the optometrist I was going to make one and drag him there 🙂
Well, this was the beginning of a LOOOOONG road. The optometrist immediately referred Mick to the Caloundra Eye Clinic to see an ophthalmologist. We were told this would happen quickly and sure enough we had an appointment within a week!! Being the public system, I was a little worried 🙂
The Dr at the hospital was worried as the optic nerves in BOTH Mick’s eyes were failing 🙂 He is also very light sensitive. (This has been a thing for years and Mick has always needed to wear sunnies outdoors as the glare gets to him.) Initially, the treatment was massive doses of vitamin B12 which helps to strengthen nerves, so it was a case of be at our GP every 2nd day for a B12 shot for 3 months, tapering down to once a week, then once a month and now once every 3 months.
In the meantime, Poor Mick has been prodded, probed, scanned and had soooooo much blood taken it is surprising he has any left. MRI – 2 CT Scans, ECG, Chest Xray, and even a Spinal Tap
At this point, we did not actually have a diagnosis or a prognosis. It is probably a good thing that Mick was having trouble reading his iPad, as Dr Google is not a pleasant place to be. 🙁
FINALLY one of the major blood tests that checked for DNA issues found the problem and Mick has been diagnosed with Leber’s Hereditary Optical Neuropathy (LHON).
https://www.cera.org.au/shedding-light-on-leber-hereditary-optic-neuropathy/
The specialists are cautiously optimistic that his sight will not get any worse, and so far he is doing really well. He cannot drive anymore, but can still work 95%. He can’t see the tape measure markings well enough to measure to the mm, so Lochie sets the saw for him and he is able to do all the cutting. There is not too much he can’t do.
We went for a visit to Vision Australia to see what “stuff” they had and saw a number of options. Of course, they are ridiculously priced as, for most blind people the NDIS pays for them.
Searching around on eBay and Facebook Market place and he now has these two gadgets…
This handheld magnifier that was over $1000 I managed to get off eBay for $150 🙂
and this awesome table top viewer we picked up for $100 ( current versions of this retail for over $6000!!!)
The newer versions of these are, in our opinion, not as good as these older versions. The new ones have flat push buttons to make everything work – the larger manual knobs are much better for visually impaired people. The new ones also have an integrated screen. These older units will hook up to any size monitor or TV screen. We could hook it up to our 42” TV if we wanted to. When we bought it the screen with it was a small portable TV, but I had a larger PC monitor at work that I had been using occasional as a second screen for my laptop.
Mick decided it need to have a curtain around the base to stop the light leaking and upsetting his eyes, and a bit of fabric and double sided Velcro tape and it is great 🙂 The piece of white tape on the monitor is the on/off button which hard even for me to see 🙂
He can now put A4 job sheets under it and read them as clear as day (ish) 🙂
All in all, he is doing really well. He is mentally fine and at least with all these tests, we know he is perfectly healthy 🙂
