The Eyes Have It
September 26, 2008
My father was in the Air Force, and as a result as a child I moved around quite a bit, coming to rest in one place only when my dad retired and decided to buy a house in Minnesota. (And as an aside, I hated it. Not Minnesota, per se, but the fact that we weren’t moving every two years…something I’d grown accustomed to and liked!)
However, growing up in Minnesota, and as a sports enthusiast, I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins baseball team, and I can still remember the game way back on May 8, 1984, when Kirby Puckett was brought up from the Minor Leagues to start in center field, and went 4 for 5 in his first major league game, a feat that only nine players in history have ever done.
So I grew up watching the Twins and Kirby Puckett, and saw him lead the team to two world championships.
And then, o n July 12, 1996, it was all over. Puckett, aged only 35 years old, had to retire from the game because he had lost sight in one eye, thanks to glaucoma. It was such a shock… how could someone only 35 years old, an athlete…get glaucoma, and how could that take his eyesight so quickly?
Glaucoma is the number two cause of acquired blindness in America, and indeed, around the world.
Glaucoma. Otherwise known as “sneaky thief of sight.” Loss of vision occurs so gradually over such a long time period of time that it quite often goes unrecognized…until it is too late to do anything about it. Once vision is lost due to glaucoma, it cannot be recovered.
Which brings me to your vision.
When is the last time you had your vision checked for glaucoma? Or for cataracts?
Technology has advanced so far these days that cataract surgery is a relatively simple procedure, and can restore your vision quite quickly. Glaucoma surgery is the same – except that any vision you lost before stopping the glaucoma will not return.
Here’s the statistics: Glaucoma affects one in two hundred people aged fifty and younger, and one in ten over the age of eighty.
For more information about glaucoma and its treatment, check out the Glaucoma Research Foundation website at http://www.glaucoma.org/index.php.
There is also the National Eye Institute: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/glaucoma/glaucoma_facts.asp
The National Eye Institute also has information about cataracts.
http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/cataract/cataract_facts.asp
Both of these conditions can be cured …but they are the type of conditions that cannot be cured by “positive” thinking or by waiting until the absolute last minute before you can take action. When your eyesight is concerned, you must take action immediately.
Champion Homecare Solutions has years of experience helping people with vision problems. From poor eyesight to blindness, we have helped many individuals and families deal with these type of in home care problems in the Houston area.
