My mother inlaw is around 78 years old. She lives 4150 north of the the greater Kansas City area, and is losing her eye sight, and she is very independent. Part of the family live 5 minutes from their home compared to us, (my husband's mother) 150miles.
Are products available to assist with reading or making print larger?
Be very careful of those extra strength vitamins; they do have other issues including too much Vitamin A. My doctor said the Centrum Silver I was already taking was just fine. Good luck!
3 years ago, the other eye went wet and now she is legally blind.
She is now 93 years old, kept her driver's license until she lost her 2nd eye, and now is forced to rely on others to get her around.
She had always been so active, rarely missing a day without going somewhere.
I think she felt lost and although she put on a brave face, I believe she probably would have given up on life if she had to go on just sitting around with little to do.
Thank God for the internet! I quickly searched for low vision products, mostly something that could assist her with reading, as that was a pastime that she had always enjoyed and could no longer do. Even the daily paper was read to her and it just isn't the same.
I found a site: https://www.enhancedvision.com/
These folks were wonderful. They will come to your home and demonstrate the products that you are interested in.
I was there when they came, and I didn't feel it was a high-pressure sell at all. The products sell themselves.
I don't know if insurance covers these products - but I imagine there is some way to get help with them. They can be costly (what isn't?), but have made a world of difference for my Mom.
She can now read anything she wants, when she wants to. She can use the same product to watch the birds outside on the lawn, actually giving her a better, closer view than I can see with binoculars!
She remains upbeat and well-informed. Still stays in contact with relatives through letter-writing, and keeps on plugging.
The above mentioned site is just a suggestion as I know there are many other sites that offer the same services. It is just the one that we decided to go with.
I hope this helps.
The new kindle has very good background lighting. Also the type can be enlarged and my mom could purchase things of great interest to her typically about $9 per book but some times she found things of interest that were Free!
Also, when she couldn't sleep at night, mom would turn on the Kindle with a simple swipe of her finger. When she felt sleepy again, she would simply turn the Kindle over and it would turn off by itself and the room would be dark again.
I tried to borrow one from the Library for free, but the waiting list was too long, so we broke down and bought one. It was well worth it... but in some other areas, you may be able to try a Kindle for free through your library.
I hope this is helpful. Best wishes to you and your mom in-law.
navh.org
Good Luck.