My husband, 75 years old, had a stroke over a year ago, as well as a subarachnoid bleed and then two further bleeds. His recovery has been very hard and I am his full time carer. He certainly isn’t able to come onto a forum like this to discuss his journey which I wish was the case. His mobility is limited, he walks with a stick and I hold his other hand but his balance isn’t good. His memory isn’t great and he finds it hard to process information. His speech is good but he often repeats the same thing several times in a sentence and will suddenly disengage/withdraw.
However, this isn’t the main thing. He has a lot of trouble with his eyes, complaining he can’t see or can only see certain things or is like looking through a net curtain, he has seen several eye doctors who say his eyes are good and has been to the optician but says he can’t wear his prescribed glasses because his eyes feel worse. Have done exercises where he covers one eye then exercises the other, and he has now been referred to see a specialist who may think prism glasses would work but he was referred in December and have heard nothing since.
This is seriously depressing him because he feels he is going blind and I can see him contorting his face screwing one eye shut etc.
Has anyone else had this problem?? Am desperate to alleviate his suffering.
I could be wrong, but it seems your local SpecSavers or other opticians may be able to test for and prescribe prism glasses.
Although they do home visits, you’d have to check with them to see if they will visit you. Also, it seems you’d have to take your husband to the store for the fitting.
I am sure if you explain the problems your husband is experiencing and let them know you have been referred to a specialist with a view to assessing for use of prism glasses, they should then carry out the necessary tests.
According to their website, they can do this. You have nothing to lose and I expect there is no waiting time or minimal waiting time.
I had strokes in my cerebellum and it affected me visually, my eyes are in good shape apart from nystagmus, but it is the brain that is the problem. I saw an optician about prism glasses and he informed me that wearing prism glasses are a bit like encouraging learned non-use. They may assist with visual issues in the immediate but in the long term will encourage the brain to eye communication to become lazy. There was another issue he mentioned with them but I have forgotten that now. So, it depends on your husband’s outlook on his condition and I guess at his age, at seventy-five he may be wanting to just nip it in the bud and prisms might be a good way to go.
I’m still on the fence with prisms and am supposed to have an appointment with an ophthalmologist (try saying that with a mouth full of cake). This referral hasn’t come through yet, nothing occurs overnight when you’re an outpatient. You could go private, I know private is bucks, but for one specific thing that may aid him, it might be worth the expense.
Do you know in what brain of the brain your husband had the damage?
Thanks, my DH had clots on the left frontal lobe and the brain stem, but the stroke consultant thinks that the subarachnoid bleed and two subdural haematomas could have caused the problem. He really squints and pulls his face trying to see. We might have to see someone privately in order to help. Obviously he can’t drive but I think the cognitive impairment also plays a part there but would like him to be able to see the grandchildren better and enjoy his surroundings more.
I have prisms in my glasses & they have helped with my double vision. I had to see ophthalmology though & they wrote a letter for my optician who then did the prescription. I suspect this may be the case for your husband aswell.
The other thing I have is glasses for middle distance and that helps my blurry vision loads. For example I can’t read a computer screen very well with my varifocals but with my “computer/middle distance” glasses everything is much clearer.
Brain stem stroke can cause visual issues because the brain stem communicates directly with the eye muscles. Worth chasing up with a neuro-ophthalmologist if able to. In the meantime it may be worth doing some gentle gaze stabilisation exercises &c. I don’t know how much these may help as I spent years doing them but we are all different and respond differently to rehabilitation.
He does the eye exercises. With a patch over his left eye and following my finger or pen with the other repeatedly. Am not sure how effective it is either but he carries on with it anyway.
Aye, I’ve done them all, gaze stabilisation, near and far focussing, pencil push ups and clock rotations. They say that one should not just do hundreds of repetitions but thousands. To be fair, these exercises are beneficial to do even if improvement is not measurable at the time. We are impatient creatures at times and will trial things for a short period and if not seemingly effective, then give up, saying ‘well that didn’t work’ but I feel the word work here is problematic because stroke rehabilitation is not like fixing a clock and suddenly we can hear the tick again, it’s a much more prolonged and complicated process.
Thanks and yes my husbands recovery is work in progress and I imagine will be for a long time to come. Will persevere with the eye excercises, sometimes he gets cross and doesn’t want to do it but I manage to persuade him eventually.
