Aug 06, 2008 - 04:06:07 CDT
Linda Everett started tripping in parking lots.She didn't see the parking blocks. Even walking with her head down, she missed things.
"Why didn't I see it, like the curbs in parking lots?" she said. "I used to see them."
Glaucoma started to affect her vision.
In Bismarck, there is a group for senior citizens who are vision impaired. They meet once a month at the Bismarck Senior Center.
Everett, who is in her 50s, started attending so that the other people in the group could use her knowledge as a vocational rehabilitation counselor. She has glaucoma because of side effects from a medication she takes for a lung condition. She is now on disability.
The members talk about their experiences, help each other out with ideas and sometimes have guest speakers on ways to make life a little easier. They'd like to form a group for people who work, that would meet later in the day.
Everett spent her career helping people adjust to a diagnosis like hers. She worked for vocational rehabilitation for the blind and visually impaired in Las Vegas. The people who came through her office had a variety of low vision impairments. Many times the people she would help needed the support of others who had low vision.
Part of her work was to help make adaptations for work. She also gave them skills to live as independently as possible.
"If you can cook or clean, you can take care of medications," she said. "You just have to learn how."
She recalls a homemaker who lost her vision suddenly. She was called to help the woman, who was taking several medications. Everett organized the bottles on trays with three-times-a-day medications in one place and twice-a-day medications in another. Then she took the woman's hands to show her where she placed them.
The support group helps participants do some of the same things, and Everett started attending so her knowledge could be of use.
At the last meeting, a lighting specialist showed different types of light bulbs and fixtures that could make it easier for people suffering from macular degeneration, one of the more common vision impairments among senior citizens.
The meetings are at 1 p.m. the first Thursday of the month at the Bismarck Senior Center, 315 N. 20th St.
(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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