I am always going to take cooking, painting, and wine seriously. But I am aware why they are important to me....because I love them. But there are truly serious things going on in this world, just read the newspaper everyday, watch the news. As fun as life can be sometimes, it can be frustrating and frightening for everyone, particularly as we grow older.

I spent yesterday morning at the eye doctor's office with my little 90 year old mother. First a little bit about Mom. She is a resident of a retirement facility here in the Johnson County area. My Dad died several years ago, but she is still living in the apartment they shared. Her days are quiet, she reads, watches television, a does the crossword puzzles in the newspaper. She goes to the dining room there at Lakeview every evening, and Sunday Dinner at noon. The only changes in her routine are doctor's appointments, going to get her hair cut, a resident's meeting, or visits from her children and grandchildren. I know her days are long.

Mom developed Macular Degeneration about 8 years ago, first in the right eye, now in the left. The following information is from the AMDF, the American Macular Degeneration Foundation,

" Few people are aware that macular degeneration is an incurable eye disease and that it is the leading cause of blindness for those aged 55 and older in the United States, affecting more than 10 million Americans.
Macular degeneration is caused by the deterioration of the central portion of the retina, the inside back layer of the eye that records the images we see and sends them via the optic nerve from the eye to the brain. The retina's central portion, known as the macula, is responsible for focusing central vision in the eye, and it controls our ability to read, drive a car, recognize faces or colors, and see objects in fine detail.
As people age, their chances for developing eye diseases increase dramatically. Unfortunately, the specific factors that cause macular degeneration are not conclusively known and research into this little-understood disease is limited by insufficient funding.
The former Director of the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, has stated that macular degeneration will soon take on aspects of an epidemic.
According to a recent poll, Americans dread blindness more than any other disability. Recent studies indicate that by the year 2025, the population of people over the age of 65 in the United States will be six times higher than in 1990. The reason - "baby boomers" are aging and overall life expectancy is increasing. Since many people diagnosed with macular degeneration are over age 55, the number of cases of macular degeneration in the U.S. will increase significantly as baby boomers age. In January 1997, Dr. Carl Kupfer, then the Director of the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, stated publicly that macular degeneration will soon take on aspects of an epidemic."

Does the word "Bleak" come to mind?

Mom's vision is totally gone in her right eye, and has been for sometime now, but her left eye is still struggling to fight the degeneration. She has what she describes as "little squares" of blindness as she tries to focus on something. With the help of a 4x magnifying glass, she has been slowly working her crossword puzzles and reading books from the library.

Dr Cooper, Mom's doctor at the Kansas City Eye Clinic in Overland Park, has been giving her a series of injections into her left eyeball to slow down the disease. Her eye has been hemorrhaging over the last year, each hemorrhage leaving her with less vision. Sunday morning Mom had what she thought was another hemorrhage. Dr Cooper worked her in to his busy schedule. Mom was really down, and I know she was dreading yet another injection directly into the eyeball.

Dr. Cooper gave us wonderful news, it was not another hemorrhage, but was the soft gel that covers the back side of the eye, breaking away. It seems this gel turns to liquid as we age, then eventually pulls away from the eye. The resulting "light show" that the patient sees during this pulling away is very similar to the "light show" the patient sees during a hemorrhage.

As I got Mom settled in the car and I started up the car, she said "Oh my, I can breathe again."

Growing older is tough, there is no doubt about it. It is an ongoing battle, if it isn't your eyes, it's your knees, or ears, and then there are the really BIG problems...heart, lungs, kidneys...." The list seems endless.

I think I will go to the pharmacy today and buy another bottle of vitamins for the eyes. Eyecaps are the brand I've been taking, but I'm afraid to say, not regularly.

That is about to change.