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He had already discovered in the first 24 hours of wearing his distance glasses all of the time that he felt better, livelier – even more optimistic. And he could swear that now he wasn’t bumping into stuff as much when walking around the house; now he was truly walking – not stumbling – around.
Nor was he minding as much as he thought he would the distance glasses’ slight strain for doing things fairly close-up, like eating, washing dishes – even brushing his teeth, as he had confirmed only this morning. He just had to remember to take the glasses off before dashing his face with cold water.
He even looked better in the mirror this morning – in sharper focus anyway. He remembered smiling at himself, which brought another smile to his face now – a happy, optimistic smile.
And why hadn’t he told that neuro-ophthalmologist about restricting his use of the distance glasses? She had advised him a year ago to limit his computer sessions to 20 minutes. If he had told her this other thing, she would probably have given him the same advice then that he was giving himself only now: Wear those glasses! Their prismatic adjustment for his diplopic eyeballs would have been saving him the additional brain strain he now realized he had been suffering on account of not wearing the glasses.
His eyes narrowed with the further realization that when not wearing the glasses, he tended to “look close,” draw his eyes in like an autistic person – an unconscious effort to reduce the diplopic strain on his brain? Might that explain his bumping into things?
Ah! He thought he had just identified what prompted him to wear the glasses all the time: He had been corresponding with one of his numerous witty friends about his low energy. He had told this particular witty friend about his primary care physician’s ordering an additional blood test to check a couple of things that might indicate a therapeutic intervention. The witty friend then suggested that maybe Goines should get more sleep or eat fewer persimmons!
Goines had good-naturedly replied that he might start taking siestas, and, as for the persimmons, they would soon be gone anyway, at the rate he and Mrs. Goines were eating them and giving them to neighbors.
The morning after that reply to the witty friend, Goines had “put 2 and 2 together” and realized that he had already, from time to time, suspected that his low energy was somehow related to the constant “brain buzz” he experienced because of his Parinaud’s Syndrome – a sensation of his energy draining away as his brain struggled to fuse left and right images. Goines had, in fact, often complained of feeling drained....
Anyway, a light bulb came on announcing that he needed the prisms, needed them to help his brain “single” his vision, needed to wear them all the time….
Mrs. Goines interrupted her husband’s reverie to tell him they should also list their arrangements with the Cremation Society and UNC’s Memorial Grove on the questionnaire of the attorney who would soon be advising them on their estate planning. Goines surprised himself by immediately livened at the idea of just enjoying the activity of preparing those final arrangements.
And a moment later he experienced a tonic jolt: Didn’t Mother Nature’s implied constitution include the duty that all her creatures (great and small) concentrate on living to the fullest, competing (in Darwin’s term), getting on with it, not wasting time thinking of dying?
Think of living! Act like a citizen! …
Wear your glasses!
Mrs. Goines interrupted her husband’s reverie to tell him they should also list their arrangements with the Cremation Society and UNC’s Memorial Grove on the questionnaire of the attorney who would soon be advising them on their estate planning. Goines surprised himself by immediately livened at the idea of just enjoying the activity of preparing those final arrangements.
And a moment later he experienced a tonic jolt: Didn’t Mother Nature’s implied constitution include the duty that all her creatures (great and small) concentrate on living to the fullest, competing (in Darwin’s term), getting on with it, not wasting time thinking of dying?
Think of living! Act like a citizen! …
Wear your glasses!
...What were those lyrics somebody sang?
You’ve got to accentuate the positiveWere the prisms in his glasses the roses that could tint his view of things?
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
| Copyright © 2021 by Moristotle |
Dear Goines,
ReplyDeleteA great and encouraging story indeed. I too suffer from vision challenges, brain fog and low energy. Glaucoma, mild cataracts, nerve damage which keeps me from blinking my left eye to keep it clear. Often discomfort. But this afternoon, inexplicably, it it is pain free and relatively in good focus on the golf channel. Wish I knew why?
Neil
I'll pass that along to Goines, and may that "2 + 2" and that illuminating light bulb of his be yours too!
DeleteCindy had diplopia from a mini-stroke in her left eye. Had the stick-on prisms for about a year, then surgury to correct. Don't imagine there is eye-muscle surgery for Parinaud's, AKA "doral midbrain syndrome" as it is caused in the brain itself due to compression of the quadrigeminal plate or "tectum". You probably know more about this than you ever wanted to. I say if we live long enough, we will ALL learn more about the medical field than we cared to. Hard to believe you do all you do while battling this vision problem, my hat is off to you, sir! Cindy couldn't drive, even had trouble watching TV. On the way home from her surgery she was crying because "everything was back in its place" and she didn't see the oncoming cars as if they were headed right at us.
ReplyDeleteGoines "solved" his double-vision problem in the early years after his brain surgery by putting a piece of occluding tape over one of his spectacle lenses....He operated with one eye, that is.
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