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She has a light on her magnifier. The table top magnifier is too large for her space now, she uses the portable one. She sits in her chair all day and waits for me to come. I spend 2-2.5 hours a day with her. I show her pictures, we video chat with people but she loses interest quickly because she can’t see or hear them well. She says she is tired of living and doesn’t want me to leave when I go each day. I don’t know how she sits there all day. I would like her to be able to do something to occupy her mind but it seems impossible when she can’t even leave her room. She is not a terribly creative or motivated thinker. I’ve tried some simple electronics but she won’t even change the channel on the tv because she won’t be able to get back to the channel she likes. I dread for her the day they lock down completely (as so many other homes have done) and they don’t let me in to see her. I need to get some work done but I can’t leave her sitting there staring at nothing day after day.
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nature73 Jan 2021
I can relate so well. I see my 94-year-old dad twice a week at his MC & he acts like I came down from heaven. He has very poor vision (macular degeneration), is very hard of hearing, & "not a terribly creative or motivated thinker". Never has been. When I got his mobile phone, he was not as cognitively impaired, but he asked the most detailed & complicated questions such as: how does it work, what happens if I push this, how come my weather hasn't updated, how do I get to the time, how does the signal transmit, should I charge it every day etc, etc. It was exhausting, since he asked me the same thing EVERY week! I suppose most people would think that it is great that he is so curious. And if I told him "I don't know, just use it & don't worry about it" he looked at me as if I was the dumbest person he had ever seen! Now that he is more impaired, getting him an Alexa is out of the question for the previous reasons. Plus, I think he'd lose interest quickly &/or forget how to use it. He enjoys my visits, but I can only handle going to his MC twice a week. The VA supplied visual assistive devices but he says they don't work or he forgets where he puts them. The staff are not particularly creative or helpful, in this regard. The only activity/distraction he has is me or my husband. He's isn't interested in "childish games". I even tried working together on a crossword puzzle where I would read the clue & # of letters & see if he could come up with answers. This worked for about 3 out of 10 words, so I gave that up.
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Better light might help her more than magnification. You can get some really excellent reading lights whose users swear by them. Haven't tried them myself but I plan to.

When you say you provide your mother's sole entertainment, how do you do that? What sort of entertainment? And what sort of thing in addition to sermons, bible reading and so on used your mother to enjoy?
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If her magnification needs are minimal then look into stand magnifiers, they are lighted and rest on the page so you don't have to support them - be forewarned though, they are expensive and ideally should be selected by eye care professionals based on the degree of vision loss. Digital magnifiers have come a long way and may be the better option but not if she can no longer operate simple tech.
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