Nystagmus is one of Sol's eye conditions - for those who know me I thought this might be insight into what is happening with Summer.
Info reproduced with permission from Nystagmus Network, UK. www.nystagmusnet.org
Nystagmus is characterised by an involuntary movement of the eyes, which often seriously reduces vision. Many people with this condition are partially sighted; some are registered blind; few can drive a car; most encounter some difficulties in every day life - both practical and social - and some lose out on education and employment opportunities.
Depth of field vision is reduced by nystagmus with a result that sufferers may be prone to tripping or clumsiness. Co-ordination is usually adequate for most tasks, but nystagmus sufferers are unlikely to excel at sports needing good hand to eye co-ordination.
Incidence. Experts agree that nystagmus affects about one in a thousand people. One survey in Oxfordshire identified one in every 670 children by the age of two as having nystagmus. The flautist James Galway, our patron, is probably the best known person in Britain with nystagmus.
Causes. Nystagmus may be inherited or result from a sensory problem. In some cases it occurs for no known reason. It can also develop in later life, sometimes as a result of an accident or a range of illnesses, especially those affecting the motor system. You should always consult a doctor if you or a member of your family has nystagmus.
Effects. Nystagmus affects different people in different ways. While there are general patterns, good advice for one person may be inappropriate or even bad for another, especially where other eye problems are present.
Glasses or contact lenses do not correct nystagmus , although they should be worn to correct other vision problems. Nystagmus often affects the nerves behind the eye rather than the eye itself.
Nystagmus suffers are not simply 'short-sighted' . Many can and do register as partially sighted or blind. In Britain, few people with nystagmus can see well enough to drive a car.
Vision often varies during the day and is likely to be affected by emotional and physical factors such as stress, tiredness, nervousness or unfamiliar surroundings.
The angle of vision is important . Most suffers have a null point (by looking to one side or the other) where the eye movement is reduced and vision improved. Those of us with a null point will often adopt a head posture to make best use of our vision. Sitting to one side of a screen, blackboard, etc. often helps.
Small print . Many of us can read very small print if we get close enough or use a visual aid. However, the option of large print material should be available and all written matter should be clear. It is very hard to share a book with someone because it will probably be too far away or at the wrong angle.
Good Lighting is important. If in doubt get specialist advice, particularly as some sufferers are also light sensitive.
Computers are used by many people with nystagmus, who benefit from them as they can position screens to suit their own needs and adjust brightness, character size etc. However, some find it difficult to read computer screens.
Reading speed may be reduced by nystagmus because of the extra time needed to scan, but it should not be taken as a sign of poor reading.
Balance can be a problem, possibly because of poor depth perception, which can make it difficult to go up and down stairs.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Two Birthdays
Summer had two birthdays!
Sol's Birthday was on the 4th but its only taken till now to get her photos looked at! In light of at least two of our friends being on hliday we decided not to have a party as such for Sol. Instead I am going to have a bouncing castle for my birthday next week for Summer and the others to enjoy!
Her first cake - we had a little private birthday on the 3rd which was Sunday.
What is it?
OOOOOOOOH!
Sol got a toddler size climbing frame,
a little pink dollhouse,
and a Fairy outfit!
Sol was afraid of her second cake! The photo was taken just before she vanished!
This is what happened when we sang 'Happy Birthday' - oh and that is not me speaking!
Sol's Birthday was on the 4th but its only taken till now to get her photos looked at! In light of at least two of our friends being on hliday we decided not to have a party as such for Sol. Instead I am going to have a bouncing castle for my birthday next week for Summer and the others to enjoy!
Her first cake - we had a little private birthday on the 3rd which was Sunday.
What is it?
OOOOOOOOH!
Sol got a toddler size climbing frame,
a little pink dollhouse,
and a Fairy outfit!
Sol was afraid of her second cake! The photo was taken just before she vanished!
This is what happened when we sang 'Happy Birthday' - oh and that is not me speaking!
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Our holiday
We got out other holiday booked ... we have settled on the Algarve and are going late May 09. Here is where we are staying http://www.thomson.co.uk/holiday-reviews/show-reviews.html?txtparentid=4&txtparentidvalue=010946&pagenumber=1
WOOHOO
WOOHOO
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
The good news today
Its not all bad ...
Still upset by Sol's appointment, but as usual my baby is oblivious and as charming as ever.
We have been looking for holidays next year. Too early you say? Well not considering there are six of us and we need a pretty big apartment when we travel, larger aprtments are like hens teeth so we need to book early to get the pick.
The funny thing is we haven't even been on this years holiday yet - and IT IS LOOMING, excitedly I have the cases out and stuff in the wash etc. Passports checked and the children are bouncing, LOL me too. We are off to Lanzarote for two weeks soon.
We are going away in September 09 for two weeks too and finally settled on Salou.. here is the place we will be staying next year - the deposit is paid ... http://www.thomascook.co.uk/destinations/spain/catalonia/costa-dorada/cap-salou/h10-mediterranean-village-aparthotel-sc/
Salou is where the theme parks are, so I know the children will have a great time.
We are also hoping to book a fortnight in May and are looking at Turkey, we have somewhere in mind but have not got it booked yet. We need to check the dates as Mag is still set on sitting an exam so we have to make sure he can still sit the exam and have time to revise.
Still upset by Sol's appointment, but as usual my baby is oblivious and as charming as ever.
We have been looking for holidays next year. Too early you say? Well not considering there are six of us and we need a pretty big apartment when we travel, larger aprtments are like hens teeth so we need to book early to get the pick.
The funny thing is we haven't even been on this years holiday yet - and IT IS LOOMING, excitedly I have the cases out and stuff in the wash etc. Passports checked and the children are bouncing, LOL me too. We are off to Lanzarote for two weeks soon.
We are going away in September 09 for two weeks too and finally settled on Salou.. here is the place we will be staying next year - the deposit is paid ... http://www.thomascook.co.uk/destinations/spain/catalonia/costa-dorada/cap-salou/h10-mediterranean-village-aparthotel-sc/
Salou is where the theme parks are, so I know the children will have a great time.
We are also hoping to book a fortnight in May and are looking at Turkey, we have somewhere in mind but have not got it booked yet. We need to check the dates as Mag is still set on sitting an exam so we have to make sure he can still sit the exam and have time to revise.
eye updates
Today was Sol and Seb's appointment at the eye clinic. Seb is very long sighted and has astigmatism, he gets eye checks every three months. His is much the same for now so that is good news as we don't have to put any nasty atropine in his eyes this time around.
Sol is a different story - from birth we always noticed her eyes were 'different' to the others. She was cross eyed and she never saw us approaching her especially on the left. Sol would often get a fright if you came up to talk to her. She has nystagmus which is a shake of the eye ball, Sol's would rotate and shake and at 6 months was very noticeable. She was found to have no peripheral vision and that she too was severely long sighted, also with astigmatism. She also has strabismus which is predominantly in her left eye but it appears to switch over. With this in mind at 6 months they were worried about optic nerve damage and the neuro doctor did some tests. The results of these tests showed that she may have to have surgery and they prescribed her glasses and patches.
Her patches were fun (not), the first ones she had, the first day made her face swell up like a ball. Sol's skin blistered and burned and it took weeks for it to heal.
The second brand of patches did not react quite so quickly on her beautiful soft skin, ten minutes this time instead of an immediate reaction - again distress and damaged skin as the result.
Third brand of patches she has 'tolerated' until recently and now her skin is sore with them, though not at the minute dangerously allergic if you know what I mean.
The patches were for her good eye to try to strengthen her bad eye, bearing in mind her good eye is still not great. Cosmetically her eyes have straightened out and the last couple of years I have heard the words 'developmental', 'patience' being used by the doctor.
However the last appointment and now this one have brought not such good news. I was aware that Sol's nystagmus has returned, though not always obvious to the lay person but I can see it. Her vision with her glasses on is fairly good, but it seems the right eye has over worked and the left eye is now suppressed. Suppression with these conditions means the brain shuts down the signals tot he bad eye and once those signals stop there is not a lot can be done. Sol's test today involved testing her left eye, she could not identify any of the pictures held up in front of her even with her glasses on. With her right eye she was and quite happy pointing out the plain black line drawings on the test books. She was made to walk across the room with obstacles in it ... now you and I would look ahead and take the best clear route. Sol would walk until she came to an obstacle then weave round it.
So the upshot is they are worried again, she already has an appointment for the 24th of September to see the neurosurgeon and he will do more optic nerve tests and what ever the neuro guys do. I was also told that surgery will not correct her vision, and for cosmetic reasons only will she be offered an operation. That said she is beautiful and with her glasses on looks normal so I suspect the surgery wont be needed to improve her looks.
Sol is a different story - from birth we always noticed her eyes were 'different' to the others. She was cross eyed and she never saw us approaching her especially on the left. Sol would often get a fright if you came up to talk to her. She has nystagmus which is a shake of the eye ball, Sol's would rotate and shake and at 6 months was very noticeable. She was found to have no peripheral vision and that she too was severely long sighted, also with astigmatism. She also has strabismus which is predominantly in her left eye but it appears to switch over. With this in mind at 6 months they were worried about optic nerve damage and the neuro doctor did some tests. The results of these tests showed that she may have to have surgery and they prescribed her glasses and patches.
Her patches were fun (not), the first ones she had, the first day made her face swell up like a ball. Sol's skin blistered and burned and it took weeks for it to heal.
The second brand of patches did not react quite so quickly on her beautiful soft skin, ten minutes this time instead of an immediate reaction - again distress and damaged skin as the result.
Third brand of patches she has 'tolerated' until recently and now her skin is sore with them, though not at the minute dangerously allergic if you know what I mean.
The patches were for her good eye to try to strengthen her bad eye, bearing in mind her good eye is still not great. Cosmetically her eyes have straightened out and the last couple of years I have heard the words 'developmental', 'patience' being used by the doctor.
However the last appointment and now this one have brought not such good news. I was aware that Sol's nystagmus has returned, though not always obvious to the lay person but I can see it. Her vision with her glasses on is fairly good, but it seems the right eye has over worked and the left eye is now suppressed. Suppression with these conditions means the brain shuts down the signals tot he bad eye and once those signals stop there is not a lot can be done. Sol's test today involved testing her left eye, she could not identify any of the pictures held up in front of her even with her glasses on. With her right eye she was and quite happy pointing out the plain black line drawings on the test books. She was made to walk across the room with obstacles in it ... now you and I would look ahead and take the best clear route. Sol would walk until she came to an obstacle then weave round it.
So the upshot is they are worried again, she already has an appointment for the 24th of September to see the neurosurgeon and he will do more optic nerve tests and what ever the neuro guys do. I was also told that surgery will not correct her vision, and for cosmetic reasons only will she be offered an operation. That said she is beautiful and with her glasses on looks normal so I suspect the surgery wont be needed to improve her looks.
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Its not all bad + a little cat update
You read in the previous blog post about our wedding anniversary being a disaster ... well trying to salvage what was left of the weekend we decided to attempt to do something with the children on Sunday. Hollie had a birthday party to go to in the afternoon so we thought it might be nice to take advantage of the trip out the house and go somewhere for those two hours. But men being slow and 11 year old boys being obtuse we didn't all get ready in time. I dropped Toni off and picked her up myself - BAH. I felt it was all a bit to easy for other half and Mag, there was no way they were getting off that lightly. So I decided for them and TOLD them they were going up the coast for a drive. The intention was to go see a particular cruise ship which was docked in Belfast, but we never did get that far. We spotted the ship sailing down the loch so saw no point in going any further. We stopped at Crawfordsburn Country Park instead, its lovely there with woods, walks, and beach! We weren't prepared for the beach but it did not stop the children from having fun. We returned five hours later, very dirty and very tired.
The CAT situation! Tigger the cat got run over by ME!
Well since Friday poor Tigger has been through a lot including rebuilding surgery on her hips - I saw those x-rays and they were astonishing. The vet called this morning and asked when I wanted Tigger back! I was quite taken aback as I wasn't expecting her so quick and said "erm tomorrow as my husband is away till then". After giving it some thought I decided to get her today and called to make the necessary arrangements. They explained how she will have to be caged for the next 5 - 8 weeks etc. The vet has told me that anytime I feel I cant cope with the physio or cleaning her to call him and he will take her back into the clinic for a few days. I am hoping we can manage this at home, its going to be tough her hind end is paralysed for now.
The old cage we had behind the garage was overgrown with nettles, it's actually a rabbit run but we used it when we nursed one of our other cats from being run over too. It took Mag and I almost an hour in the rain to clear the nettles, empty it then get it scrubbed and hosed down. After all the effort I wasn't really happy with it so decided not to use it. Its old, and despite drying it out with the dehumidifier, and it did very well in a short space of time, it was just not so nice a cage anymore. It was going to have to be lifted up each time to tend to Tigger so I made the decision to buy a proper cage.
Anyways - off to the vet once the kids had come out of summer scheme at 4 o'clock... went through the phsyio we have to do on Tigger three times a day, the meds, the check up visit next week, stitches out the following etc than the bill - only £770. And to top it all Tigger might still lose her leg, though I hope not for both her sake and the bank balance. I picked up the cage on the way home, with the food too it came to £73.
Not to go on about the money too much, I just wanted to share something funny that happened when I told Roy how much it all cost. Other half is away just now, and he always leaves me a couple of signed 'emergency' cheques, and until now I have never used them. Other half called this evening to chat and I was telling him about getting a cage for the cat and how I used the cheques, he was panicking worrying about how much the cage was ... I said "its not the CAAAGE you need to worry about", "why? why?" ... he was flabbergasted. Its a lot of money, and I am saying this in a light hearted yet serious way - I just thought it was funny to hear him worrying about the cost of the cage at that stage unaware what the vet's fee was.
Its hard to put a price on a pet's life, but I wonder if the vet had told us up front how much it was all going to cost how we would have reacted. We love our animals, don't get me wrong but we would have had to think and talk through what treatment the cat was going to have or not have. I reckon we still would have gone ahead with the treatment but maybe would have pushed for the op first, and none of this waiting and x-rays and things ... it took 2 1/2 days for the decision to operate and those 2 1/2 days were filled with general anaesthesia, x-rays, medication, out of ours nursing etc.
One thing is for sure our new bionic cat will never stray onto the drive way again.
This is Tigger in her new cage
And her 'after' photo ... the operation looks like she has had her tail cut off the stitched back on. URGHH not for the faint hearted.
The CAT situation! Tigger the cat got run over by ME!
Well since Friday poor Tigger has been through a lot including rebuilding surgery on her hips - I saw those x-rays and they were astonishing. The vet called this morning and asked when I wanted Tigger back! I was quite taken aback as I wasn't expecting her so quick and said "erm tomorrow as my husband is away till then". After giving it some thought I decided to get her today and called to make the necessary arrangements. They explained how she will have to be caged for the next 5 - 8 weeks etc. The vet has told me that anytime I feel I cant cope with the physio or cleaning her to call him and he will take her back into the clinic for a few days. I am hoping we can manage this at home, its going to be tough her hind end is paralysed for now.
The old cage we had behind the garage was overgrown with nettles, it's actually a rabbit run but we used it when we nursed one of our other cats from being run over too. It took Mag and I almost an hour in the rain to clear the nettles, empty it then get it scrubbed and hosed down. After all the effort I wasn't really happy with it so decided not to use it. Its old, and despite drying it out with the dehumidifier, and it did very well in a short space of time, it was just not so nice a cage anymore. It was going to have to be lifted up each time to tend to Tigger so I made the decision to buy a proper cage.
Anyways - off to the vet once the kids had come out of summer scheme at 4 o'clock... went through the phsyio we have to do on Tigger three times a day, the meds, the check up visit next week, stitches out the following etc than the bill - only £770. And to top it all Tigger might still lose her leg, though I hope not for both her sake and the bank balance. I picked up the cage on the way home, with the food too it came to £73.
Not to go on about the money too much, I just wanted to share something funny that happened when I told Roy how much it all cost. Other half is away just now, and he always leaves me a couple of signed 'emergency' cheques, and until now I have never used them. Other half called this evening to chat and I was telling him about getting a cage for the cat and how I used the cheques, he was panicking worrying about how much the cage was ... I said "its not the CAAAGE you need to worry about", "why? why?" ... he was flabbergasted. Its a lot of money, and I am saying this in a light hearted yet serious way - I just thought it was funny to hear him worrying about the cost of the cage at that stage unaware what the vet's fee was.
Its hard to put a price on a pet's life, but I wonder if the vet had told us up front how much it was all going to cost how we would have reacted. We love our animals, don't get me wrong but we would have had to think and talk through what treatment the cat was going to have or not have. I reckon we still would have gone ahead with the treatment but maybe would have pushed for the op first, and none of this waiting and x-rays and things ... it took 2 1/2 days for the decision to operate and those 2 1/2 days were filled with general anaesthesia, x-rays, medication, out of ours nursing etc.
One thing is for sure our new bionic cat will never stray onto the drive way again.
This is Tigger in her new cage
And her 'after' photo ... the operation looks like she has had her tail cut off the stitched back on. URGHH not for the faint hearted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)