My dad is losing his eyesight, and found out this week that since he cannot be on blood thinners long enough (max 2 days) to have cataract surgery (5 days), that option is closed for the time being. He is 91 and loves science fiction.
He has rejected the idea of audio books, and does not own any tablet, although my mother does. My sibs and I are talking with mom about e readers, but we have concerns that they still are pretty small and he may need basic tech skills that he, quite frankly, is just resistant to since about 1975…He’s an engineer, for heaven’s sake, but even his laptop stumps him at times.
There are magnifiers? Do those help at all?
Large print books are expensive and heavy. But at least they are an easy entry point. If anyone has advice or experience, I’d love to hear it.
Get a subscription to Bookshare www.bookshare.org which is a website that gives access to all the books in the Library of Congress to people who have eyesight issues. My son, who has Tourette Syndrome and blinks a lot, has used it all throughout his K-12 education and it has been a lifesaver. Besides increasing the size of the text, he can change the background colors. For example, my son prefers the background to be black and the words be white vs. in real life book text is black and the background is white. Definitely check it out. It is amazing.
I understand the resistance to reading on a tablet. My dad has an iPad, but he just does not like reading books on it, he likes physical books. I read almost 100% on an iPad, but can’t get him to do it, although it would save him money.
You could try a trial run on an e reader to see if he could navigate it. E Readers allow the user to adjust the font size, so he could make it quite large.
But I would be concerned about the technology issue using an e reader. My parents lost what little “new” skills they had as they aged. My MIL (who is a decade younger) has made the transition to an e reader. But my parents, who are now deceased, were not able to figure out how to download books to an e reader on their own. Toward the end of his life my father told me his email wasn’t working. Turns out he couldn’t remember how to turn on his computer.
Try a kindle. You can change font, size, background light to your heart content. As the day progresses, my eyes get tired and I will change to larger fonts to ease eye stress.
You may need to help him download books and navigate the kindle if he’s technically challenged. My library system has an amazing selection of ebooks so I rarely buy one.
My mother was good at sketching out the step-by-step instructions for all devices, from remote to phone to iPad. She drew the little icons in her notebook as her recognition skill declined. It’s easier than reading instructions in words.
The font size on an e reader can get pretty big. Can you download a Kindle app on your mom’s tablet and try it that way? You should be able to see how large the font can go and if you dad will use it.
The iPad has some simple controls within the Books app that you can change brightness, font size, background colors, etc. Then beyond that there are lots of options for additional help within the Accessibility Settings if needed. Maybe he could test on her iPad before you spend money on another device.
I’m inclined to get him his own iPad, install Kindle and see if we can load it with enough to read that he wouldn’t have to do very much. The Library of Congress site looks promising as well, since he could use his laptop for that and he has better luck with keyboard navigation than a touch screen (because he can’t see well enough to see the navigation icons) .
It shouldn’t matter as modern cataract surgery is now (in most cases) a bloodless surgery. The wound is in the avascular clear cornea and injections aren’t used for anesthesia, only drops.
I’d talk to his surgeon and his PCP to see if he can move forward with surgery. It would be a shame to relegate him to low vision options when he has something that is so easily fixed.
If you do a reader, I’d get something that uses e Ink. It doesn’t have glare and is easier to see. Plus, you can flip so the background is black and the words are white. Some people find that easier to see.
His PCP doesn’t want him off blood thinners for more than 2 days, because he has had three TIAs in the past three months. The eye guy doesn’t want him on thinners for 5 days prior. Dad had been flagged pre-op because his oxygen is in the 80’s. He had corrective retinal surgery on one eye last fall.
I agree that another doctor might have a different opinion, but the TIAs have scared my parents, and the doctoring ferris wheel is at the moment more than they are willing to tackle. They live in rural America, where doctors are always far away.
I really wish you could get him to try audio books again. My parents were both 100% stubborn on this subject and finally came around. They missed physical reading, but seemed to like to “tune out” with big headphones and listen to books plus nap
The e-reader we bought my MIL is in a drawer somewhere collecting dust. She is not tech-savvy and is very nervous about using her credit card to purchase digital books. We even bought her gift cards to use for book purchases but she refuses. She does zero online shopping as she simply doesn’t trust the technology. She prefers large print books.
It would be reasonable to explain the situation to the ophthalmologist and see if they’d do it without discontinuing the anticoagulant. Most will now days. Retinal surgery is much more involved and does deal with bleeding. Bet of luck to him!
My great aunt had very little vision towards the end of her life. She had a HUGE computer screen so she could have gigantic text. It worked well for her. She loved to read.
If he’s already comfortable with his laptop, you can put a Kindle app right on that. Trying it out and learning to use it on his laptop might give him the interest in moving to a tablet.
What blood thinner is he on? A quick google search on cataract surgery
Plavix® and Warfarin/Coumadin® should be stopped 5 days before . Those on NOACs (Pradaxa®, Xarelto®, Eliquis®, Savayasa®, etc.) need to stop them at least 2 days before surgery. Do I need to stop my blood thinners before cataract surgery?
But maybe doc isn’t up on newer info?
Blood thinners do not have to be stopped before cataract surgery. Because we are not working on tissues that contain blood vessels, bleeding is usually not a major concern. Patients taking Coumadin, Warfarin, Plavix, Eliquis, Pradaxa, Ibuprofen or Aspirin do NOT generally have to stop these medications.
I’m aware it’s two different papers and they obviously contradict one another–that’s the point. I’m not an eye surgeon–just saying that research keeps updating old info.
I’d go back to the eye doc and ask for reasoning. It could just be a general blanket precaution on the surgeon’s part (better safe than sorry) without his knowledge that for this particular patient it can’t be done .
