Grandma's Got Her Mojo Back

I spin it, my Mom knits it. She lives with us. Up until I started spinning, she always knit with acrylic yarn. But then she experienced the bliss of alpaca. Mind you, I did have to be reminded to wash the alpaca before handing it over to her (occasionally I got so excited with what I was doing that I forgot). And she didn't actually start knitting with the alpaca until I demonstrated an ability to make consistent yarn. But once I got there, she's been knitting handspun yarn exclusively. In fact, when we went to the Hemlock Fiber Festival in September, she didn't even bother buying yarn there. "Oh Dear, we've got enough at home."

Unfortunately, Mom's eyesight took a turn for the worse in February, and we've been fighting to get it back ever since. There is nothing so sad as when someone from the Association for the Blind informs you that you are legally blind. We were so disappointed with that news that we had to go to McDonalds for $1 hot fudge sundaes.

So, let me tell you a few of things that we learned about eyesight. I know, this has nothing to do with spinning, but if you can't see, you can't spin or knit. First, if you notice a dramatic change in your eyesight, that could mean your eyes are switching from dry macular degeneration to wet macular degeneration. Neither is good, but dry is slower acting than wet. There are no medicines for dry, but there is a treatment for wet.

The treatment - uggh - is shots in your eyes. Once a month. My Mom is the ultimate trooper, but I can tell this is not a pleasant thing because each time we go, she gets a little antsier in the waiting room. She offered to trade places with me the last time. The good news is, the shots appear to be helping - her vision is improving - and she's taken to knitting again. We are waiting for tools from the Association for the Blind that will help even more.

So that's a second thing I want to mention. I don't think that eye doctors necessarily think to mention the Association for the Blind, but they're out there, and they have a mission. They would really like it if you didn't go blind. And if you are going to lose your eyesight, they have lots of ideas for helping you while it's still around. So, if you find yourself losing your eyesight, contact the Association for the Blind and see if they can help you out. A lot of the tools that they will provide Mom with are free, though, I have to admit, we're waiting and waiting for them, so getting them isn't fast. They interview you to understand your financial situation, and then they submit you to different programs to see what they can do for you. How's that for nice?

Now I'll mention a third thing. Mom noticed the change in her eyesight right before an appointment. They looked her over and said, "Nope, your dry macular has not gone wet." And that was that. Now, my Mom is a petite little thing, not the least bit pushy, and I didn't realize that there were additional tests that could have been done. So we sat around for two months until we finally decided to go back and look into more powerful glasses. When we spoke to the eye glass department, a very nice man insisted that we make another appointment with the optometrist. Really, I thought he was just being pushy. But when we made the second appointment, they concluded Mom did have wet macular degeneration. And after that, they did another test, one where they filled her up with some interesting sort of toxin and then peered at her with a bright light, and then it became very clear what her problem was.

So, for my last piece of advice, and this one has definitely worked well for us over the years - if you think something is wrong, then there probably is, and you should not assume that you are being tested as thoroughly as you might be. You should push harder, defend your health, because you are the best advocate for it.

Mom's first projects - scarves!