Saturday, April 18, 2009

a motley mosaic / Multiple Sclerosis vision

Part optic neuritis, part nystagmus, part MS demyelinated short-circuited communication between brain and eye, and part guesswork, … Patti basically ‘sees’ as if an image were a motley mosaic with some pieces missing and other pieces at varying depths, varying sharpness/blurriness, and varying intensity of color.

Or at least this is what I learned one fascinating visit with Patti to an ophthalmologist over a decade ago.

Rescheduling his other appointments and with Patti’s permission he invited several colleagues along with myself in to observe through his gadgets and machines what he called “MS Vision”!

Any artist representation is only as good as the artist, and yes, you Patrick are NO artist. At best it is an attempt to capture the motley mosaic of Multiple Sclerosis vision. (Click picture to enlarge)

He also had a ‘theory’ he shared that day that clues manifest years earlier and could be ‘seen’ in family photos with a progressing history of one eye closed. He bemoaned that such photos are usually thrown away as they are of course not flattering and therefore any such pattern would not be noticed.

Back in the pre-digital age you often got 2 sets for 1 when developed. For who knows why we had a tub of those old second sets, and sure enough there they were … candid pics of Patti from “pre-MS’ increasingly with one eye closed. Eerie!

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer

1 comment:

  1. this was fascinating to read, Patrick; amazing that they can detect what Patti sees and what she doesn't see, but sad that her vision is so distorted for what she can/cannot see

    happy walking tomorrow!

    betty

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