Blog vol 2. 36. Just another day at Burlington Eyecare.
I am really glad to have that snow behind us. Now we just have to deal with freezing cold temperatures. My sister from Timmins reported a chilly -48 degrees today, and when it is that cold you do not have to state whether it is Centigrade or Fahrenheit.
One of our doctors this week had the disheartening experience of seeing a patient in their early 60’s who had not had eye care for a long time and in that time had developed serious cataracts.
Through a series of unfortunate events, they failed to get eye care until this week, and actually had their driver’s license revoked because of poor vision about two years ago. During this time, the patient has suffered several serious falls and broken both hips. The link between visual impairment and falling is well documented.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512213000285
Unfortunately this patient was a multiple casualty. How did this happen? We determined that they had very dense cataracts, and an intact retina and optic nerve. The problem is, when a cataract gets this dense it is a lot more difficult to remove. A cataract caught early can be removed with excellent results in most cases.
Please, if you are having any vision problems, see an optometrist. In this case, early intervention could have kept the patient driving, could have got them to a surgeon in time for surgery to be successful. The really sad part is that all of this was entirely preventable. Your local optometrist should be able to see you within a week. Our job is to see people as soon as possible and be gatekeepers to the healthcare system.
It is my hope that I do not have to write on this subject again, so I repeat, call your eye doctor right away when you have problems with your vision, any problem at all, and if you know anyone with eye concerns send them to an optometrist right away, NOW, really.
Til next week,
the good doctor, Dr. Mark Germain, Burlington optometrist
