My husband reads a lot, from his morning newspaper to the mysteries that fill his afternoons. He uses an e-reader and his only complaint so far is that his eyes get dry and irritated. Taking a break brings relief and he always knows when he has had enough and needs to stop for the day. After speaking recently with fellow PD Carepartners whose people have more serious vision concerns, I decided to take a deep dive to see just what might happen in my husband’s future so we can be prepared.

The good news is that some common vision problems impacting clarity and color are related to the depletion of dopamine and the PD medications my husband already takes can help. The bad news is that there are other challenges related to visual processing and depth perception that may need additional interventions. The musculature that allows eyes to track and focus can be impacted because of this illness which can lead to visual convergence problems, the inability to track objects and double vision. My husband would no longer be able to read and that could be devastating.

As I said earlier, the only issue my husband currently faces is dry eye. He has spoken about this with his PCP, his neurologist and sees his ophthalmologist annually. One of his coaches leads him through eye exercises to help strengthen the neural and physical connections. Should his condition change, we know to ask for a referred to a neuro-opthalmologist for a complete exam. In the meantime, I am thankful for our PD network that alerted us to the possibility of vision issues in our future so we can be ready if, and when, they happen.

For more information, check out Eye & Vision Issues | American Parkinson Disease Assoc. (apdaparkinson.org) or the Davis Phinney Foundation’s Every Victory Counts Manual.