26th April 2004
My most recent attempt to improve my appearance has required more courage than I expected. There are advertisements every now and then on television where the boy or girl who cannot get a girl or boy changes their specs and hey presto! half the neighbourhood is chasing after them.
Now, the old fellow at home is still all right with me but seeing that I couldn't read the telephone directory with accuracy and was fed up of getting wrong numbers I decided to try what are called "varifocals" seeing that I need glasses for reading and for long distance.
Once, years ago, I tried bifocals but I would have killed myself falling down the stone stairs of the Rotunda if it hadn't been for a midwife coming up who was obviously used to emergency deliveries. I gave them up after that experience. This meant I had to have two types of glasses everywhere. I didn't want to tie them around my neck on separate strings because people would think I was stupid and always loosing them so I had twin sets strategically placed but frequently I did not have the right ones in the right place.
So, varifocals being all the go, they said in the opticians, I thought I would try them and go rimless into the bargain.
Everyone I meet (of my own age) appears to have tried them already. Comments range from "I threw them in the bin" to "Perseverance, after six weeks you'll be fine". Certainly, I went to the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition and what a joy to be able to look at a painting and then at the price in the catalogue without the on/off of the two pairs of specs. I feel I'm in the forefront of modern ophthalmology and once I can keep out from under the wheels of the number ten bus will soon replace those young ones in the television ads. The rimlessness has proved to be a bit of a responsibility. My old favourite ones, still used for driving, have frames made from some material which is used to make body armour, but I'm sure I'm up to taking care of my new ones.
My concern to keep my sight as good as possible was not unrelated to the fact that many of my friends appear to have so much more trouble with their eyes than I do. One, who is a diabetic, has been told that nasty arterial changes are taking place in her retina. It seems unfair that complications can happen to even the most conscientious of diabetics. Diabetes now being the common cause of blindness in people of working age in Ireland.
I attended an E.U. meeting of politicians and specialists in diabetes recently and the issue of scanning for diabetes was one issue addressed. Certainly, seeing that it is so easy to do rudimentary blood sugar levels opportunities to do them should not be missed. It is depressing to see that the DISC pilot scheme encouraging the monitoring of diabetic patients by their family doctors appear to have fallen for the sake of a very small amount of finance from the Northern Area health Board, the G.P.'s having got fed up with funding it themselves.
Another friend has developed glaucoma. What really annoyed her was that for years she had had eye tests at an optician's but the pressure in her eyes was never measured. Now, I'm sure the Opticians' Board would not approve of this. When my friend went back to the optician and told him that she had developed glaucoma he said he didn't measure the pressure because patients found it unpleasant!
On every occasion my eyes were examined the pressure was measured nowadays with the new puff of air method. But the optician I saw recently said some people complain about that even though it is so much less uncomfortable than touching the cornea.
Cataracts are no longer left to develop until one is almost sightless. Another friend had her's done recently and was delighted with the result. I hadn't noticed any clouding in her eyes at all but hey presto! she had lens slipped in with no fuss.
My last eye story is serious. Macular degeneration is no joke but all those people I've known with it seemed to keep some sight. However, some weeks in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Adelaide Road, Dublin, was all the opthamology in which I was involved and that was long ago. The difference between "wet" and "dry" macular degeneration have now been made plain to me, not to mind the genetic implications as well. The outlook for those with "wet" variety is not good. Research is being carried out on the value of increased intake of various vitamins but this will be too late for my friend.
How often do we read of people complaining about how long it takes to get appointments to see eye specialists? Hardly ever. A few years ago the Dublin Lions Club brought all those with cataracts in the Midland Health Board region who had been waiting for treatment for more than two years up to Dublin to stay in the Mount Herbert Hotel and these patients were operated on as day cases in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear. I don't remember hearing anyone say it was a disgrace that people could be left sightless if it wasn't for the Lions Club.
Loss of sight is often preventable. Many conditions can be dealt with if diagnosed in time. Let's make a bit more fuss about eyes so that we can all see where we are going.
Senator Mary Henry, MD
