#Glaucoma prevention

[tatumeyecare]

Glaucoma: Understanding Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, and More

Unveiling the World of Glaucoma

Glaucoma, a complex eye condition, often referred to as the "silent thief of sight," can gradually diminish vision without noticeable symptoms. This article delves into the intricacies of glaucoma, offering insights into its various aspects, from its overview to treatment options and prevention strategies.

Glaucoma Overview: What You Need to Know

Glaucoma is a group of eye disorders characterized by damage to the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain. This damage is usually caused by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), a result of inadequate drainage of aqueous humor, the fluid that maintains eye pressure. If left untreated, glaucoma can lead to irreversible vision loss and blindness. The condition often develops slowly and painlessly, making regular eye examinations crucial for early detection.

Glaucoma Causes: Uncovering the Triggers

The primary cause of most glaucoma cases is elevated IOP. However, the exact mechanisms leading to increased pressure and optic nerve damage remain complex and multifaceted. While elevated IOP is a common factor, other contributors include genetics, age, ethnicity, and underlying medical conditions like diabetes. Understanding these causes can aid in the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies.

Glaucoma Symptoms: Recognizing the Signs

In its early stages, glaucoma typically presents no noticeable symptoms. As the condition progresses, peripheral vision loss may occur, often unnoticed until advanced stages. This highlights the importance of regular eye check-ups, especially for individuals at higher risk. Acute angle-closure glaucoma, a rarer form, can cause sudden and severe symptoms, including eye pain, headaches, blurred vision, and nausea.

Glaucoma Treatment Options: Preserving Vision

Managing glaucoma involves reducing IOP to prevent further optic nerve damage. Treatment options range from medications that lower eye pressure to surgical interventions like laser therapy and traditional surgery. Medications, such as eye drops, beta-blockers, and prostaglandin analogs, aim to decrease fluid production or enhance drainage. Laser therapy, including selective laser trabeculoplasty, helps improve drainage efficiency.

Glaucoma Prevention: Safeguarding Your Vision

While some risk factors for glaucoma, such as genetics and age, are beyond control, adopting a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the risk of developing the condition. Regular exercise, maintaining a balanced diet, managing diabetes and blood pressure, and avoiding smoking are all beneficial steps in preserving eye health.

Types of Glaucoma: Exploring Varieties

Open-Angle Glaucoma: The most common form, open-angle glaucoma, develops gradually and is often asymptomatic until advanced stages.

Closed-Angle Glaucoma: Also known as angle-closure glaucoma, this form is characterized by sudden and severe symptoms due to blocked drainage angles.

Normal-Tension Glaucoma: IOP remains within the normal range, yet optic nerve damage occurs, suggesting other contributing factors.

Congenital Glaucoma: Present at birth, this rare condition occurs due to improper development of the eye's drainage system.

Primary and Secondary Glaucoma: Primary glaucoma has no identifiable cause, while secondary glaucoma is a result of other eye conditions or diseases.

Chronic and Acute Glaucoma: Chronic glaucoma develops gradually, while acute glaucoma presents sudden and severe symptoms.

Pediatric Glaucoma: Affecting children, this condition requires specialized care and early intervention.

Glaucoma Risk Factors: Understanding Vulnerabilities

Several factors increase the likelihood of developing glaucoma. Age is a significant risk factor, as the condition becomes more prevalent with advancing years. Genetics also play a role; if someone in your family has glaucoma, you may be at a higher risk. Ethnicity, particularly African, Hispanic, and Asian descent, is associated with a higher risk. Other factors include high IOP, thin corneas, and underlying medical conditions like diabetes.

Glaucoma Diagnosis: Navigating the Process

Diagnosing glaucoma involves a comprehensive eye examination that includes measuring IOP, assessing the optic nerve, and evaluating peripheral vision. Newer technologies, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), provide detailed images of the optic nerve and help with early detection. Regular eye exams are vital, especially if you're at a higher risk of developing the condition.

Glaucoma Statistics: Grasping the Numbers

Glaucoma's impact is significant, affecting millions worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness globally. In the United States alone, over three million people have glaucoma, but around half are unaware of their condition due to its gradual onset and lack of symptoms.

Glaucoma Research: Advancing Understanding

Ongoing research aims to unravel the complexities of glaucoma and improve its diagnosis and treatment. Researchers are investigating genetic factors, new medications, innovative surgical techniques, and advanced imaging technologies to enhance early detection and management.

Glaucoma Surgery: Exploring Interventions

When medications and laser therapy fail to manage IOP effectively, surgery may be necessary. Trabeculectomy and tube-shunt surgery are common procedures that create new drainage channels to lower IOP. Minimally invasive options, such as microinvasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), offer less invasive alternatives with quicker recovery times.

Medications for Glaucoma: Lowering Eye Pressure

Medications are a cornerstone of glaucoma management. These include:

Prostaglandin Analogues: Increase drainage and reduce fluid production.

Beta-Blockers: Decrease fluid production.

Alpha Agonists: Enhance drainage and reduce fluid production.

Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors: Reduce fluid production.

Rho Kinase Inhibitors: Enhance drainage.

Laser Therapy for Glaucoma: Innovative Approaches

Laser therapy is a non-invasive option for lowering IOP. Types of laser therapy include:

Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT): Targets the drainage angles to improve fluid outflow.

Laser Peripheral Iridotomy (LPI): Creates a small hole in the iris to relieve pressure in angle-closure glaucoma.

Laser Cyclophotocoagulation: Reduces fluid production by treating the ciliary body.

FAQs About Glaucoma

Q: Can glaucoma be cured? A: While there's no cure, early detection and treatment can effectively manage the condition and slow its progression.

Q: Is glaucoma hereditary? A: Genetics play a role, so a family history of glaucoma increases your risk.

Q: Are there lifestyle changes that can help prevent glaucoma? A: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, managing underlying conditions, and avoiding smoking can reduce your risk.

Q: Can children have glaucoma? A: Yes, pediatric glaucoma is a rare but serious condition that requires specialized care.

Q: Can laser therapy completely replace medications? A: In some cases, laser therapy can effectively manage glaucoma without the need for medications.

Q: Is vision loss from glaucoma reversible? A: Unfortunately, vision loss due to glaucoma is irreversible, making early detection and treatment crucial.

Nurturing Eye Health

Understanding glaucoma's intricacies, from its various types to its potential complications, empowers individuals to take proactive steps in preserving their vision. By staying informed, undergoing regular eye exams, and following recommended treatments, you can significantly mitigate the impact of this condition on your eyesight.

When you choose Tatum EyeCare for you vision health and fashion needs, you are choosing optometrists in North Phoenix who are invested in our clients and community. We’ve proudly served the Valley of the Sun for over 20 years. We are here to answer any questions about our services you might have. Come see for yourself how Tatum EyeCare reframes customer service and optical expertise for everyone!

[monteewellnez]

How To Prevent Common Eye Problems

The Eye: A Vital Organ for Vision

The eye is a complex sensory organ that allows us to perceive the world around us. It functions like a camera, capturing light and converting it into electrical signals that the brain processes into images. This seamless coordination makes vision possible, enabling us to navigate and enjoy life’s beauty.

Why Is the Eye Important for Vision?

The eye is essential for recognizing objects, perceiving colors, and sensing depth. Vision plays a crucial role in learning, communication, and maintaining balance and safety. Without proper eye function, daily tasks become more challenging, emphasizing the importance of eye health.

Parts of the Eye and Their Roles

      1. Cornea: The clear, outer layer that focuses light onto the retina.

      2. Iris and Pupil: Regulate the amount of light entering the eye.

      3. Lens: Adjusts to focus on objects at varying distances.

     4. Retina: Contains photoreceptors that convert light into signals.

      5. Optic Nerve: Transmits signals from the retina to the brain.

Common Eye Problems

Glaucoma: Increased eye pressure that can damage the optic nerve.Light Sensitivity: Discomfort caused by bright light.Cataracts: Clouding of the lens that affects vision clarity.Blurry EyesEye Infection (Conjunctivitis)

Tips for Maintaining Healthy Eyes

Eat a diet rich in vitamin A, omega-3s, and antioxidants.Protect your eyes with sunglasses and reduce screen time.Schedule regular eye checkups.

Solutions and Benefits of NeoLife Wheat Germ Oil

NeoLife Wheat Germ Oil Wheat germ oil is extracted from wheat germ and is rich in naturally occurring vitamin E as well as the essential unsaturated fatty acids linoleic and linolenic. Vitamin E is essential for maintaining good eye health. It is an antioxidant that protects cells from damage caused by free radicals and other environmental factors. It can also help reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts.Vitamins A B C and E are essential for maintaining good eye health.

By prioritizing eye care, you can enjoy clearer vision and a healthier life. 

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We require your feedback and suggestions, to serve you better in the days ahead. Please comment and share this post.

Visuals Courtesy: Pixabay

[vedicmedglobal]

Ayurvedic Treatments for Common Disease

The Ayurvedic system of medicine was born in India. Well, Ayurveda is believed to have existed since about 3000 years ago. In fact, Ayurvedic medicines were available for many ailments as early as 3000 BC, before modern medicine and medical technology were so advanced. As hard as it may be to believe, it is true. Many of those treatments are still in use today. That is, Ayurveda is a solution to many health problems, even today. They will be explained in detail in this blog.

According to Ayurveda, when the three doshas of the body, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, are in balance, a person is healthy. Thus, Ayurveda focuses on balancing these three. Ayurveda includes herbal medicines, changes in diet and lifestyle, other natural treatments, therapy, yoga, and exercises. So, let’s know one by one what kind of remedies are there for all diseases, especially in Ayurveda at Vedicmed, which offers the best disease treatment options available.

Eye (Opthalmology): Vedicmed is an excellent Ayurvedic center where 100% Ayurvedic solutions are available for various health problems. At Vedicmed, the eye department treats problems like diabetic retinopathy, glucoma, Retinitis Pigmentosa, Macular Degeneration etc. The doctors here prescribe you various therapies, Ayurvedic herbal medicine, and some lifestyle changes.

Respiratory Diseases: Respiratory Diseases this section provides Ayurvedic treatments for respiratory problems like asthma, Lung Infection,Tuberculosis (TB), Chronic Cough, and the common cold.

Skin Diseases: Skin conditions like Vitiligo, psoriasis, and fungal infections can be managed through Ayurvedic treatments.

Joint and muscle pain: Vedicmed also relieves joint and muscle pain. Special therapies are available for arthritis, muscle pain, and other joint related problems.

Stress and Mental Health: Stress and mental health related health problems like depression and insomnia also have a solution in Ayurveda. Visit Vedicmed for the best solution.

[health-issues]

The Role of Genetics in Glaucoma: Unraveling the Connection

Genetics plays a pivotal role in glaucoma, an eye genetic disorder. Inheriting certain genetic variations can increase susceptibility. Understanding these genetic factors helps tailor preventive measures and treatment strategies.

[zombiemollusk]

oh yeah, i had an eye doctor appointment today, and i asked them just what it is my eye's got

official diagnosis: glaucoma and degenerative myopia

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Color Blindness

Color blindness, also called color vision deficiency (CVD), is a group of conditions that affect the perception of color, characterized by the inability to clearly distinguish different colors of the spectrum.

The difficulties range from mild to severe.

Color blindness is a misleading term because people with color blindness are not blind. Rather, they tend to see colors in a limited range of hues; a rare few may not see colors at all.

There is no treatment or cure, and cannot be prevented.

Most color vision deficient persons compensate well for their abnormality and usually rely on color cues and details that are not consciously evident to persons with typical color vision.

Risk Factors

A family history of color blindness increases the risk since most color vision problems are inherited.

Another risk factor for color vision deficiency is aging:

The eye’s lens can darken and yellow over time, which can impair the ability of older adults to see dark colors.

Certain medications can also increase risk:

For example, the drug hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, can cause color blindness.

Causes

Mutations in the CNGA3, CNGB3, GNAT2, OPN1LW, OPN1MW, and OPN1SW genes are known to cause color vision deficiency.

Color blindness is sometimes acquired.

Chronic illnesses that can lead to color blindness include Alzheimer disease, diabetes mellitus, glaucoma, leukemia, liver disease, chronic alcoholism etc.

Some medications such as antibiotics, barbiturates, anti– tuberculosis drugs, high blood pressure medications, and several medications used to treat nervous disorders and psychological problems may cause color blindness.

Industrial or environmental chemicals such as carbon monoxide, carbon disulfide, fertilizers, styrene, and some containing lead can cause loss of color vision.

Occasionally, changes can occur in the affected person’s capacity to see colors after age 60.

Symptoms

The inability to correctly identify colors is the only sign of color blindness.

It is important to note that people with red/green or blue varieties of color blindness use other cues such as color saturation and object shape or location to distinguish colors. They can often distinguish red or green if they can visually compare the colors. However, most have difficulty accurately identifying colors without any other references.

Most people with any impairment in color vision learn colors, as do other young children. These individuals often reach adolescence before their visual deficiency is identified.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

[cripplecharacters]

Alright, Google was unhelpful so I'm asking here: what can you guys tell me about what happens to an eye after it's burned, as in, directly exposed to fire?

There's a character in a major fandom I'm in who wears an eyepatch following a fight with his (pyrokinetic) brother, and I'd like to depict him with the kind of facial difference that would actually cause: burn scars, and... whatever would happen to the eye.

It seems like a reasonably straightforward thing to look up, but everything I got was related to either chemical burns (and much more about emergency care than the aftermath) or a burning sensation in the eyes, which is... not what I was hoping to find, haha.

So anyway, my question is, what would happen to an eye that was severely burned? Blindness seems obvious, but it feels like the kind of situation where they might lose the eye completely, is that a possibility? If not, what would the eye end up looking like? Sorry if this is an annoying question, I just had a really hard time finding anything online.

Hi!

To put it simply, there's a lot of variation here - and to answer your question, losing the eye is very much a possibility if the damage is that extensive, or if there's a severe infection happening.

An important part of any eye burn injury is that there are eyelids in the way of the fire, so they're going to be damaged. Skin grafts are extremely common for that; without them, the eyelids will contract and not really serve their function. Having the eyelids removed and replaced with grafts will also help with preventing secondary infection and corneal complications. If the whole burn is on the milder side, and he keeps his eyelids he could have ptosis; i.e. an eyelid that doesn't fully open all the way.

When we get to the eye itself, you're essentially looking at a hundred different kinds of infections that could occur. Corneal damage will be the most obvious due to where it is, but it could go deeper if the burn is severe. E.g., keratitis and/or corneal ulcers can very much happen due to a burn injury, and if untreated they can cause corneal scarring (can look like white spots and/or lines on the eye), cataracts (can cause the pupils to appear lighter), glaucoma, and any further issues if that spreads - including the possibility of blindness in the other eye, as sympathetic ophthalmia exists.

After that, there's retinal detachment (which isn't visible) and actual globe injuries, which often tend to end up in the eye being removed (very much visible). We have a post about options following that!

Sometimes an injured eye can also be slightly discolored on the sclera part. Redness is the most common, but mine were mostly yellow-brownish on the sides after I had surgery (and still are, but not as much). So if he still has the eye, it could look like that as well, either due to the actual burn or the procedures that he could have.

I hope this helps!

mod Sasza

[brightlotusmoon]

Once the drop is on the eye, do not blink your eye or move it around to spread the drop. Instead, gently close your eyes just once, place the pad of your most sensitive finger at the inside corner of the eyelid by the nose and press gently.

Leave the eyelids closed and the finger pressing gently for 2 full minutes. Studies have shown that it takes 2 full minutes for the drop to completely penetrate the surface of the eye to get inside. Put the cap back on the bottle, with eyes still closed. The closed eyelids and pressure on the tear drainage duct avoids unwanted systemic side effects from the potent eyedrop drugs by preventing the drop from getting inside the nose where it could enter the bloodstream rapidly.

After two minutes, the drop is fully absorbed into the eye. You can now put a different drop in, if you use more than one drop.

_

I use allergy drops and lubricating drops, and I definitely learned something from this article.

[cportmerch]

Cannabigerol (CBG) Kief

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What is CBG Kief?

CBG, often referred to as the "mother of all cannabinoids," is derived from cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), the precursor to other well-known cannabinoids like THC and CBD.

Black Tie's CBG Kief is solventlessly extracted from their premium CBG-rich Lemon Cream Diesel hemp flower, ensuring a pure and potent product.

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Why Choose CBG Kief?

CBG has been the focus of promising studies and anecdotal reports, highlighting its potential to support various health conditions:

Eye Health: CBG’s vasodilatory and neuroprotective properties may help reduce intraocular pressure, making it a potential aid for glaucoma.

Inflammation: Research on mice indicates that CBG may decrease inflammation associated with inflammatory bowel disease.

Neuroprotection: A 2015 study found CBG may protect neurons in cases of Huntington's disease.

Antibacterial Properties: European studies suggest CBG may combat drug-resistant staph infections (MRSA).

Appetite Stimulation: A 2017 study shows purified CBG may stimulate appetite, a potential benefit for those undergoing treatments like chemotherapy.

Bladder Health: Studies indicate CBG may help prevent bladder dysfunction by reducing muscle contractions.

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[liyazaki]

my body: board meeting edition

immune system: we’re already killing it (ha!) with this lupus thing, but we have even more exciting news: we've teamed up with the eyes to give this bitch- drum roll, please- glaucoma! 🎉

eyes: in honor of our partnership with lupus, we're thrilled to announce that we've decided to make her allergic to the eye drops meant to prevent her from going blind!!

*applause erupts*

[goindiacharityfoundation]

Donate for the Blind: Empower Lives with Your Contribution

Blindness and vision impairment affect millions of people worldwide, severely limiting their access to education, employment, and a better quality of life. In India alone, approximately 12 million people are visually impaired, representing the largest blind population globally. These individuals face significant challenges, including social isolation, limited access to healthcare, and financial instability. Your contribution can make a world of difference to help empower the blind community and enhance their lives.

At Go India Charity, we are committed to making a meaningful impact on the lives of the visually impaired. Through our initiatives, we strive to provide essential resources such as education, medical support, assistive devices, and livelihood opportunities. By choosing to donate for the blind, you are helping to bridge the gap and offer hope to those who need it most.

Why Support the Blind?

Supporting the visually impaired isn't just about offering immediate relief but about creating long-term sustainable changes that can significantly improve their quality of life. Here are some key reasons why your donation can make a substantial difference:

1. Access to Education

Many visually impaired individuals in India lack access to proper education due to the scarcity of specialized schools, learning materials in braille, and assistive technology. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and dependence. By donating, you help provide access to quality education, enabling blind students to develop essential skills that open up new career opportunities.

2. Employment Opportunities

Employment plays a vital role in empowering the blind and helping them lead independent lives. Many blind individuals are capable of working and contributing to society, but they face discrimination and limited job opportunities. With your support, organizations like Go India Charity can offer vocational training programs, job placement services, and skill development initiatives, giving the blind a chance to be financially independent and empowered.

3. Healthcare and Eye Surgeries

In many cases, blindness can be prevented or treated if proper medical care is provided at the right time. Cataracts, glaucoma, and other preventable eye conditions are common causes of blindness in India. Donations can fund eye surgeries, eye care camps, and access to specialized medical care for those who cannot afford it. By supporting healthcare initiatives, you are giving someone the chance to regain their vision or prevent further deterioration.

4. Assistive Devices and Technology

Technology has revolutionized the way visually impaired individuals can interact with the world. Screen readers, braille devices, audio books, and mobility aids like white canes and guide dogs are all crucial tools that can help the blind lead independent lives. However, these devices are often expensive and out of reach for many. By donating, you can help provide the blind with these life-changing tools, enabling them to navigate their surroundings and access information more easily.

5. Social Inclusion and Advocacy

One of the most significant challenges faced by the blind is social exclusion. Many blind individuals suffer from isolation, stigmatization, and marginalization, preventing them from participating fully in society. Your donation supports advocacy programs that aim to change societal attitudes towards the blind, promote their rights, and ensure they are included in all aspects of life. With greater awareness and support, we can create a more inclusive society for everyone.

How Go India Charity Makes a Difference

At Go India Charity, we work diligently to uplift the blind community through various programs and services. Some of the ways we make a difference include:

Educational Support: We sponsor blind students' education, provide braille books, and offer scholarships for higher education.

Medical Aid: We organize free eye care camps, fund eye surgeries, and offer routine eye check-ups to prevent blindness.

Skill Development Programs: We offer vocational training programs tailored to the visually impaired, helping them acquire valuable skills and find meaningful employment.

Distribution of Assistive Devices: We provide mobility aids, screen readers, and other essential devices to help the blind live more independent lives.

Awareness Campaigns: We run campaigns to raise awareness about the challenges faced by the blind and promote greater inclusion in society.

How You Can Help

Every donation, no matter how big or small, can make a tangible impact in the life of a blind person. Here’s how you can contribute:

One-Time Donation: A single donation can go a long way in supporting educational programs, medical camps, or assistive devices for the blind.

Monthly Contributions: A recurring monthly donation provides ongoing support to various programs, ensuring that visually impaired individuals receive continuous assistance.

Sponsor a Child’s Education: You can choose to sponsor the education of a blind child, helping them access quality education and opportunities for a brighter future.

Support Eye Surgeries: Donate towards funding eye surgeries, giving someone the gift of sight and hope for a better tomorrow.

Conclusion

Your decision to donate for the blind can transform lives by providing access to education, healthcare, employment, and social inclusion. By supporting Go India Charity, you are helping to create a more just and equitable society where visually impaired individuals can thrive and achieve their full potential. Your kindness and generosity can light up the lives of those living in darkness.

Help us make a difference. Donate today and be a part of the journey towards empowerment and change for the blind community in India. VisitGo India Charity to learn more and make your contribution.

[myglaucomadilemma]

⚪️ What I Have?

Narrow Angle Glaucoma:

A rare type of glaucoma that occurs when the drainage angle of the eye becomes blocked.

⚪️ If completely blocked, this can cause a rapid increase in eye pressure (IOP, intraocular pressure) .......which can lead to sudden & permanent vision loss !

⚪️ There are ways to prevent the buildup of liquid/ fluid inside the eye and one way in particular ..... is through a procedure known as a laser iridotomy. (I had this procedure done on both eyes in 2022). Although it helped and is still helping, my glaucoma specialist feels it just isn't enough & we need to do more . 

⚪️ On Tuesday 9/24/24, I will be having cataract surgery since my cataracts are just now beginning to grow/form and push on my narrowing angles we are desperately trying to keep open for proper drainage !

(I know, it sounds scary🙏🏼).

⚪️ But ...... everything is going to be fine and my specialist has done this procedure hundreds of times and I feel I am in great hands.

Once the procedure is completed on both eyes, approximately two weeks apart, (not on the same day)....... and if my pressure falls into the normal range ...... I may possiblybe able to stop using daily drops 🏆🎉🙏🏼.

⚪️ 

⚪️ As of this moment ..... I don't feel I have experienced much/ if any vision loss ....... that's why I'm going through with the surgery ...... to make sure I never have any real vision loss, other than what would typically be considered age-related vision loss.

⚪️ thoughts & prayers please. ❤️

▫️ ▫️ ▫️ ▫️ ▫️ ▫️ ▫️

⚪️ UPDATE : today- 9/24/24

made it home from my procedure and just relaxing and staying hydrated.......... ❤️ Thank you everyone for reaching out and checking up on me, that means more to me than you'll ever know . 

▫️

I will update tomorrow after my follow-up visit----------

✅ (update, all went well on my follow up office visit today, my eye pressures were 17 & 19....... and expecting those to go down ultimately ). 

⚪️The right eye cataract surgery & new lens is...... Oct. 8th.

Not looking forward to it but....... it'll be over soon enough!!

[loquaciousquark]

Medical/optometry-related discussion under the cut.

I can't sleep tonight thinking about a patient. They came to see me recently for poor vision in one eye, thinking they just needed glasses, and it turned out they have severe glaucoma that's made one eye effectively blind and has put the other eye very, very close. They hadn't had an eye exam since at least 2015 and likely earlier than that, because they'd seen well all their life except for needing reading glasses and didn't have any ocular discomfort, and they assumed that meant their eyes were healthy.

Now, all of a sudden, we're facing a real possibility of irreversible total blindness. The eyedrop I put this person on didn't have nearly the effectiveness I'd hoped, and when we got the results of the visual field test at this week's follow-up it was much worse than I'd expected. Instead of having a few months to play with medications and treatment options and taking our time finding the right regimen best-suited for this patient's schedule and insurance and preferences, we're looking down the barrel of needing major surgery ASAP to get the pressure back into a safe range, and even still, given how long they've likely been sitting on this high pressure, they may still lose some of their little remaining vision. It's a horrible situation for this relatively young person (less than 70 years old) and I can't stop thinking about how completely avoidable this whole situation was.

I hate these apps that keep popping up advertising how they can give you a prescription at home. I hate them. Good vision has nothing to do with healthy eyes (in fact, people with good natural vision are often some of my worst patients because they don't need to get glasses and they forget about me), and this is a perfect case of a person who saw great right up until the moment they went blind from a condition we could have stopped in its tracks two, three, five, eight years ago. I don't know this person's life story; I don't know what major life events or struggles they were going through over the last decade that kept them from coming in. I'm sure there were reasons that seemed good at the time. I just know that by the time they came to me for help it was too late for me to do anything meaningful at all, and I get a knot in the pit of my stomach every time I think about the test results. It's crushing for the patient and for me, absolutely crushing.

Glaucoma is so treatable these days, and so easy to catch with the right testing, but it requires people to get that testing in an office with the equipment to test it. It has basically no symptoms until the very end stages of the disease--no pain, no sense of pressure, no visual changes, no redness, no blurry vision, no anything until the last possible moment. The only way to pick it up is to take an external measurement of the pressure inside the eye. But it's slow! It's a slow disease that takes years--sometimes decades!--to do real damage, and if patients are getting regular eye care during this time we can catch it and stop it! Apps will never be able to do this. Never, and this casual acceptance of at-home vision checks replacing actual health care, this uninformed conflation of thinking good vision means good eye health, of letting the desire for convenient online glasses shopping overrule the importance of getting dilated, terrifies me.

This patient didn't use apps, didn't get glasses online. But they made the same mistake that people who do use these apps make, which is that they assume seeing well means that nothing is wrong with their eyes. It breaks my heart that I'm going to be having these conversations more and more with patients who get these slow, preventable diseases because an app got them seeing well out of their glasses, and they used that instead of a dilated eye exam to decide they were in good shape.

I don't really know where I'm going with all this. I've just been thinking about it constantly since the patient's most recent visit, and I'm worrying about kids growing up with everything so accessible online that they forget some things--important things--still require in-person human touch. It's just--stuff like this doesn't have to happen. So many diseases like glaucoma take so long to show up, and there are so many ways to intervene and stop progression before the patient loses an iota of vision, and I just--I want to be having those conversations instead, where I'm telling people that it's great we caught something early and now with treatment they should be in good shape for the rest of their lives. I want to do that instead of what I had to do this week, which was tell this patient that this vision was never coming back, and then have nothing, nothing, nothing I could do to help besides sit with them in their pain and watch them go through all the horrible stages of new grief and say I'm so sorry, hopefully the surgery will preserve everything you have left, hopefully, I'm so sorry.

I don't know how to make that happen, though, that shift. Advocation and education, I guess, which is what they're always harping on at continuing education courses, but those are big things, sweeping things, and I work best in the one-on-one, in the personal. I don't know. It's just a hard thing. A hard day, I guess.

[loverandservantoftheahlulbayt]

🍃🕊🍃 Fasting 🍃🕊🍃

A Body/Mind/Spirit Healing.

Allah the Almighty says in the Quran:

“And seek (Allah’s) assistance with Patience and Prayer; and truly it is extremely heavy and hard except for those with full submission. Who are certain that they are going to meet their Lord and that unto Him they are going to return.”

🍃🕊🍃 Holy Quran 🍃🕊🍃

(2:45-46)

Numerous Prophetic traditions interpreted the ‘Patience’ in the Ayah as ‘fasting,’ which means fasting is the very first element of the spiritual journey to God. All the prophets in their spiritual journey have been seeking assistance with fasting.

1. Prophet Moses

“I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant which He had made with you; and I remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights without eating bread or drinking water. Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets..”1

2. Prophet Jesus

In his spiritual journey was aided by fasting against the devil: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry…”2

It also appears from chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke that the disciples would frequently fast and pray.

3. Prophet of Islam

The entire Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet of Islam in the holiest night of the holiest month of Ramadhan; the month of fasting.

“The month of Ramadhan in which the Qur’an is revealed.” 2:185

“Indeed, We revealed it (the entire Qur’an) in the night of Measure.” 97:1

According to many Hadiths, the Torah was revealed to Moses on the 6th of Ramadhan, Injil was revealed to Jesus on the 12th of Ramadhan, Psalms of David revealed to him on the 18th of Ramadhan and the Holy Qur’an in the Night of Qadr (most probably 23rd of Ramadhan).3

In other words, all revelations occurred during the fasting month of Ramadhan. Could it be any reason more important than the spirituality of fasting?

🍃 Benefits of Fasting

1) Physical Healing

It is quoted from the Prophet of Islam to have said: “Fast, you’ll be healthy”. An Egyptian pyramid inscription in 3800B.C also reads: “Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the three-quarters live their doctor!”

The three fathers of Western Medicine; (Hippocrates, Galen & Paracelsus) prescribed fasting as the greatest remedy and the physician within. Life Magazine in its September 1996 issue considered fasting: the healing revolution.There are more than 500 medical journal articles available on therapeutic fasting on the internet.

The outstanding physicians named fasting as being; the medicine for the 21st century. They believe the human body is designed to heal itself, if only given the opportunity. Dr. Otto Buchinger; Germany’s great fasting therapist after more than 100,000 fasting cures says: “Fasting is, without doubt, the most effective biological method of treatment.. it is the operation without surgery… it is a cure involving exudation, redirection, loosening up and purified relaxation.”

He furthers therapeutically; fasting cures many of our modern illnesses, including the following: allergies, cardiovascular disease, chronic diseases of the digestive system, degenerative and painfully inflammatory illnesses of the joints, myriad disturbances in one’s eating behavior, glaucoma, initial malfunction of the kidneys, tension and migraine headaches, as well as skin diseases. Preventively, it’s designed to cleanse, and to regenerate, rejuvenate and restore a person’s sense of well-being, in body, mind and soul. As Doctor Buchinger would conclude: "When the body fasts, the soul is hungry; when the body becomes lighter, the soul also craves relief."

Dr. Joel Fuhrman in Fasting and Eating for Health notes: “Fasting has been repeatedly observed to alleviate neuroses, anxiety and depression.”4

Fasting marvelously decomposes and burns all the cells and tissue that are aged, damaged, diseased, weakened or dead, a process called in medicine autolyze or self-digest or detoxification.

Michael Rosenbaum, M.D., Director of the California-based Orthomolecular Health Medicine Medical Society, notes on the significance of fasting as a detoxification program: "The hidden cause of many chronic pains, diseases and illnesses may be invisible toxins, chemicals, heavy metals and parasites that invade our bodies . . .Chances are slim that your doctor will tell you that toxins may be the root cause of your health problems. He or she may not even know about how these toxins are affecting your body . . . As your cells go, so goes your health. If your cells have been invaded by toxins and dangerous chemicals, your resistance to disease is diminished. Clean and nourish your cells, and you’re on the road to better health."

When by fasting you stop the input of nutrition for a while, then a flurry of cleansing starts up, the rugs are lifted and the dirty dishes are brought out of the cabinet where they were stashed. Cleansing begins in earnest. U.S Congress approved $20 million in 1998 for funding of the National Institutes of Health’s fledging office of Alternative Medicine. This went up to $50 million in 1999 and to $68.7 million in 2000 which shows the growing interest of the Congress.

🍃 Healing Crises

Those fasting sometimes experience side effects during the first days. The side effects may vary from fatigue, malaise, headaches, vomiting to the symptoms of cold and flu. These reactions are sometimes called in medicine healing crises, which are temporary and caused due to elimination and cleansing of toxins. A fasting person should be patient and let this period pass.

I should however stress that there are circumstances, which exempt people from fasting as mentioned in detail in the books of Islamic Jurisprudence, e.g. a diabetic who not only needs to take regular medication but their diet is very strict through out the day, hence should not fast, or else not only his/her fasting is void, it is even considered sinful. Similarly, a pregnant woman is exempt from fasting if it is going to either harm her or the baby. In general, the rule is that fasting is forbidden, if the person is confident that fasting will be physically harmful to them.

2) Social Healing

“Truly! Allah wrongs not mankind in aught; but mankind wrong themselves.”10:44

A man wrote a letter to Imam Askari (a.s) asking him: “For what reason did Allah make fasting compulsory?”

The Imam (a.s) wrote in reply: “God has made fasting compulsory so that the rich shall find the pain of hunger so they have a mercy upon the poor.”5

Starvation and its related diseases causes one person per second to die on this planet, 75% of them being infants and children under the age of 5.

Typically, stories involving deaths in Africa receive lesser coverage than those, which occur elsewhere. Nonetheless, let us read the following news.

Exodus newsmagazine in its July 22, 2001 issue reported: Starvation In Ethiopia, Help Slowly Arriving, Death Toll Cannot Be Determined By Howard A. Gutman

“A massive tragedy is unfolding in Ethiopia as thousands of starving people are expected to die. Without help, many expect the death toll to be in the millions. Yet little is being done in the U.S.”

According to the same newsmagazine in the last famine, there were approximately one million deaths.

Now compare the above news with the following:

‘More than half of U.S adults (20+) are overweight. Nearly one-quarter of U.S adults are obese.’ And the figures are drastically increasing. This is despite all weight-loss programs in these countries.

According to Wolf & Colditz in ‘Current estimates of the Economic Cost of Obesity in the US 1998’: “Economic cost in the U.S related to the overweight in 1995 was the total of $99.2 billion. And according to the same source Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight-loss products and services. This includes low calorie foods, artificially sweetened products; such as sodas and memberships to commercial weight-loss centres.

And if you want to know whether you are among those over-weight people in a time when starvation causes one person per second to die, here is your scale.

The biggest problem facing the world today is not people dying in the streets of Mumbai, Zimbabwe or Ethiopia; it is rather the lack of a sense of caring for those disadvantaged people whose rights have been usurped by others. Fasting provides the opportunity for the faster to feel and find for himself or herself the pain and agony that a poor person is going through. A fasting person can also keep his or her money, usually spent on lunch, away to feed a group of poor people with. Thus, Zakatul-fitreh is compulsory and is regarded as the compilation of fasting.

Nonetheless, some fasters sleep during the day as much as they can to avoid the so-called pains of fasting, and upon sunset enjoy a feast greedily and hence lose the entire medical, social and spiritual benefits of it.

Reduction of crimes during the month of Ramadhan is another social benefit of fasting.

3) Spiritual Healing

“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you that you may gain self-restraint.” 2:183

Despite all the abovementioned benefits of fasting, we believe the main benefits of religious fasting are its spiritual rejuvenation and healing.

Fasting is prevention from certain things most of which are not only normally permissible but also even quite essential in our lives. By fasting we avoid food and drink which are the main nutritional sources for our body. This challenge against permissible and normally useful inputs is to give us the strength to avoid taking things that are harmful, including toxins, for our body and soul. In other words, I am able to fast against Halal food and soft drink over a month, should I not be able, by far, to fast against intoxicants and Haram foods over a year?

This is in spite of the fact that the first are my essential needs and the latter are not. A religious fasting is not just a physical diet program. When we fast from food we are expected to also fast from all harmful and forbidden actions and intentions. I may call this process a spiritual detoxification.

Fasting, if made with the intention of closeness to God, ascends one from the kingdom of animals to the realm of angels. You therefore, close your physical mouth to open your spiritual mouth. You fast your body to let your spirit feast with mysterious morsels. When you fast, you empty your stomach from the bread to fill it up with Unique Glorious Pearls.

🍃 Fasting is the Heart of Servitude

Fasting is prevention and prevention is separation and detachment and detachment is the heart and the reality of servitude to God.

🍃 Other benefits of Fasting

Fasting has many other benefits such as punctuality, patience, contentment and many others that unless one fasts cannot really realize them.

🍃 Degrees of Fasting

A Natural Diet

people at this level fast solely for medical purposes. This is certainly not a religious fasting.

Religious Fasting

Religious fasting may be observed in three different levels:

1. Fasting of Al-Shari’ah (Jurisprudential Fasting)

Fasting for many Muslims is mainly to refrain from what they must jurisprudentially refrain from such as eating, drinking, sexual intercourse etc. Although this is the lowest and the least level of religious fasting, once it is offered for the sake of God, the faster is religiously considered fasting. To give you an idea of how low the level of this stage is, let me share some examples with you. A Muslim girl may fast without practicing her Islamic dress code at school and her fasting is valid on this level. A Muslim may observe fasting and yet listens to rock and roll and his/her fasting is jurisprudentially valid.

No doubt, the purpose of fasting is not just to avoid food and drink and hence this is the very lowest level of fasting for the very beginners to start their journey towards perfection and promotion. Thus, it is quoted from the Prophet of Islam (S) that: “Many people gain nothing from their fasting save hunger and thirst.”6

The Shari’ah fasting is prescribed for beginners as a form of training to help them become acquainted to waking up at dawn with the excuse of eating and drinking lest they feel hungry and thirsty during the day, in order for them to experience the pleasant breeze at dawn, to be awake at a time when the divine cups of spirituality are served.

The least he is expected, therefore, to gain by the end of Ramadhan is to have gotten used to offering his/her morning prayers on time.

A faster at this level is expected to think why he or she is told to refrain from eating and drinking which are essential nutrition for his or her body? Could it be that by refraining from consuming the essentials I learn to more easily refrain from unnecessary and even harmful inputs to my body and soul? Once he or she successfully finishes a month of Shari’ah fasting by refraining from soft drinks and Halal food and even finds him/herself healthier than before, the faster should find it easier by far to avoid intoxicants or Haram foods which are even harmful for his or her body and does not really require.

Once the faster is aware of such facts, they will be ready to enter the higher level of fasting, which I have called the fasting of Al-Tariqat.

2. Fasting of Al-Tariqat (Ethical Fasting)

This is the fasting of noble people. People in this degree not only fast from what is jurisprudentially mentioned, but they also observe an ethical fasting too. Such noble fasters let their eyes, ears and all other body parts fast against whatever which is regarded in religion as Haram. Gossiping is always Haram, but for them it is more Haram during the fasting period. Non-Islamic dress is always Haram but for them is an essence during Ramadhan. This is called the fasting of Tariqat. Imam As-Sadiq (a.s) is quoted from his ancestors from the Prophet of Islam (S):

“When you fast, let your ears, your eyes, your hair, your skin and all your body fast too. Do not let your fasting day be the same as non-fasting ones.”7

It is quoted from Prophet Jesus to have said: “Renew yourselves and fast, for I tell you truly, except you fast, you shall never be freed from the power of Satan, and from all disease that come from Satan.”8

A lady whilst fasting was swearing at her maid in the presence of the Prophet of Islam (S). The Prophet (S) offered her some food to eat. She said: “I’m fasting O Messenger of God!” the Prophet replied: “How are you fasting and you swear at your maid. Fasting is not only from food and drink. Indeed God made it that way so that food and drink are used as a veil against other sins, verbal or action. How few are fasting and how many are just hungry.”9

3. Fasting of Al-Haqiqat (Mystical Fasting)

This is the highest level of fasting, which belongs solely to the special nobles. Fasters- who are not many- at this degree believe you are what you think and hence they fast from all other than God including, Paradise. They make sure that during the month of Ramadhan they detach themselves from whatever which is other than God. This state of absolute detachment (Al-Enqeta’) is the reality of servitude to God. This is why I named this stage the fasting of Al-Haqiqat (Reality).

They believe as physical fasting burns the fat and removes the toxins, such mental fasting also does the same to the mind. The reward of fasting in this degree is none other than God Himself, the Almighty. This is the meaning of the Holy Hadith that Allah the Almighty says: “I will reward all rituals of mankind from ten times to seven hundred times save Patience, for it is for Me and I am its reward, and Patience is fasting.”10

A faster at this stage, since he or she is fasting from other than God, deserves to be His guest in His month. This status is called in Islamic mysticism Assimilation in God, (Al-Fana’ Fil-Lah) which is the ultimate purpose of servitude to God. To this end, Muslim mystics consider fasting even greater than prayers, in that, the devotee during his prayers needs to engage his organs, which in a sense means engagement within the self, whereas fasting is equal to refraining and detachment and requires no engagement. This is the stage where one can gain the Visit of God as described in the Ayah, in the beginning of this article, as the ultimate purpose of servitude to God.

🍃🕊🍃 al-Islam.org 🍃🕊🍃

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[deada55]

His Life Will Find A Purpose (When the River Meets the Sea) - Chapter 8

crossposting: ao3

work summary: A nine-year old in Tomahawk, WI gets glaucoma surgery over Christmas break.

chapter summary:

T'was the eve before surgery, and one special case reminded dear Pickles to remember his place.

tws: child abuse, fighting and injury, alcohol and stuff

my thoughts on this update:

“Seth.” 

By the time he’d finished sobbing into the side of his bed, open-mouthed against the covers, his voice was junky with mucus, and the wet cuffs of his waffle-weave undershirt wouldn’t stay pushed-up. His face itched from salt but he kept his mouth pinched in a flat line and his fists tight even though the force it took to keep composed locked both his elbows down to his sides as he stool in the doorway to Seth’s room.

Seth looked up from his bedroom floor, where he shot a half dry-rotted basketball into the air laying down, his most recent pastime since he’d gotten bored of trying to carve soap. Beside his head was his travel AM radio, a birthday present from a couple years ago when he complained so much about what Dad put on the TV that he got his own form of entertainment. Seth kept the volume as low as it could go, so he had to listen to it with his ear close by, just in case something came on the radio that Mom would object to. He considered himself a little smarter than Pickles, who kept all his treasures and his joys out in the open, waiting to be destroyed. His little brother’s shining snot mustache glistened under the overhead light.

“What?”

Fury pinched his lips tight and made him tightly wound as a knotted rubber band getting pulled out and away by a dull scissorblade. 

“’m gonna kill you .”

“Really? Over your stupid dolls? Pickles, c’mon.”

He didn’t have much room for fast-talking before Pickles kicked him in the side of the head with his wet black socks. Somewhere between the heavy force it took Seth to flip over (and stop Pickles from jerking him up and down by his shirt) and Pickles’ rising cries from having his arm contorted backwards so far that his elbow grazed the back of his neck, the thumping from upstairs alerted their parents. When they heard their dad’s feet pound the first two steps of the staircase, their blood ran cold.

“You got a problem? Do I needta come up there?”

Seth choked down enough fear for the both of them, croaking “No, sir.”

Pickles slipped out of Seth’s grip quietly and sat nearby, his chest heaving, still wheezy from the frigid air outside. In the postbellum stillness, the brothers looked each other over, then their attention moved to the radio that prattled and honky-tonked to itself for entertainment,

“There's gonna be a heartache tonight!

A heartache tonight, I know–”

Seth cleared his throat and laid back down, pulling his basketball back up into his hands. Aching and defeated, Pickles crawled to the other side of the radio and laid down beside Seth, so he could hear the bright, jaunty guitar as something other than a playful-sounding buzz. No amount of fighting would win his toys back, or keep Seth from delivering the same wrath on whatever remained, now or in the future. If he were helpless to prevent it, there was hardly a point in staying angry. Through the hate and the ire and Luke Skywalker’s sawed-off legs, laying beside Seth was easier than trying to get him to change. His eyelids burned when he didn’t cover them with the soft part of his forearms.

“We can beat around the bushes

We can get down to the bone

We can leave it in the parkin' lot

But either way,”

They listened together for a couple more songs after that, until the station ID came through.

“Hey Pickles?”

“Yeah?”

“You should give me my Christmas present now, uh, because you won’t be here.”

“Oh, yeah.” He might as well, right? Pickles got up to get it from his room and returned with a shoebox wrapped with crumpled newspaper and topped with a red onion bag net bow.

Seth sat up to open it and found a sharp and rust-speckled fish boning knife, a jar of Slime™, and three small boxes of Cherryheads™.

“That it?”

“Yeah. I sharpened the knife, too. Uh, and mom said you liked Cherryheads.”

“... Pickles, you’re lucky you’re fuckin’ 9, man. This shit won’t fly next year.” An icicle dripped on the downspout of the gutter, wearing thin from the sunlight but still glittering. The frost that held it aloft was wide and strong, still clear despite the colorful sunset falling over the roofs of whole street.

“Sorry.”

Seth opened one of the boxes of Cherryheads and popped one in his mouth. Puckered, he was pensive for a moment before reaching under his bed for a crumpled paper grocery bag.

“Here. I guess you can still have it.”

Inside was an almost-full bottle of kirsch and a tube of plastic bubbles. Pickles’ eyes were wide and bright.

“Where’d you even get this?” Immediately, he took a sniff and a little taste of the kirsch, and it went down easy enough.

“I dunno.” If Pickles had to guess, it was something Seth swiped from a friends’ house. Whoever’s mother made the most black forest cake was now short of a bottle of kirsch. 

The plastic bubbles were their own kind of treat… even the packaging made Pickles’ nose run with chemically-induced secretions. Ooh… How’d he know the green ones were the best?

“Thanks, Seth.” 

“Don’t be a sissy about it, ok?” 

Seth went back to fiddling with the seams of the basketball and Pickles sat against the bedpost, holding the bottle still in his lap. When he stretched his legs out, Seth drew his own back to his chest.

That evening, the Christmas tree was put up by the front window, pushing the telephone table and Mom’s wingback chair over to the left. Clear acrylic ornaments, open on one side, sheltered tiny painted does surrounded by silvery cellophane foil. While Pickles and Seth ensured an even distribution of ornaments on their respective halves of the tree by occasionally “raiding” the other side, Molly cut “icicles” out of sheets of shiny, shredded mylar and draped them over the sticky branches. The pan from the chicken fricassé soaked in the sink and the thick scum on the water broke when Dad washed out his favorite whiskey glass, not that any of the tree decorating committee was distracted enough to see him.

While he finished the bottle of good scotch he’d bought special for Christmas, Mother pulled a dining chair into the living room so Seth could put the star on the tree, and Pickles scooted himself up against the back of Calvert’s good chair to watch like he did every year. The darning over the knees of Pickles’ thermal underpants pressed an imprint onto his cheek while Molly took pictures of Seth for a couple of minutes, but she took a shot at Pickles at the very end, just when he was looking up at the lens. 

“Really, Pickles? What are we pouting about now?”

“Nothin’.”

Seth had the technique down, for sure, and the star was straight and secure on the top of the tree on the first try.

When Seth got down, all three of them moved back to admire the tree. Although they didn’t use a fake tree and keep it up for a month, or have a burning itch to vacuum up pine needles all day in the name of maintaining a fresh tree past its prime, they’d have one as long as they could at Christmas. 

“Good job, boys. It looks real nice.” The shutter clicked, and Pickles got a hot shiver down his shoulder, like someone had rested their hand on him. It looks nice…

“Merry Christmas,” Pickles said over the sound of his teeth pinching away lead ornament-salted hangnails. 

“It’s not Christmas, dumbass.” Seth was rude, but even Mom looked annoyed. Calmly, she proceeded, checking the film on her camera. “It’s the twenty-third. Technically, I think it’s the start of winter today.”

Pickles let his head hang. When Molly went around the corner to go put the camera back on top of the fridge, Seth scooted over and flicked his ear.  On their knees, they escalated into a fussy, gentle brawl, more to irritate and dodge each other than to kill. Sometimes, it didn’t even hurt. Their father sat down in the chair behind them, with his right hand on the arm, right behind their necks.

When Seth wouldn’t stop trying to bend Pickles’ fingers the wrong way, Pickles picked up a dull pencil that hid right underneath the chair’s skirt, and jabbed the back of Seth’s arm with the hollow aluminum end full of dry-rotted eraser crumbs. In turn, Seth snatched it, and was about to jam it into Pickles’ forehead before Pickles got off balance and flopped onto the carpet on his back. The chair shifted an inch, Seth didn’t stop himself in time, and the metal eraser cap accidentally cut into the side of their father’s hand as it laid on the armrest.

Before Pickles could tell Dad was bleeding, his towering presence was backing Seth up to the wall. Seth’s pleading apologies gave way to wailing and squealing — In the movies, the thumping sounds of fistfall are louder than the sobs, but this wasn’t a movie, and it wasn’t a teardrop of ketchup slipping out of Seth’s split eye. As Seth melted down from the wall and curled his body inward, their father sunk down, too, until he was grabbing at Seth’s head and neck from a kneel. If that’s what they’ll do to him tonight, Pickles might not have to deal with tomorrow’s surgery at all, but he couldn’t celebrate over the pervasive shaking that wouldn’t let him onto his knees.

Their mom stood by the wall, agape and clutching the edges of her cardigan until Calvert rolled from kneeling to standing with the grace of a deer drunk on rotten apples. As she rushed around him to get to Seth, he turned around and locked eyes with his youngest.

“What’ve you got to be scared of, kid?”

Pickles was still crouched by the chair in the middle of Calvert’s ten-foot shadow. From there, the halo of light from the standing lamp by the door shrouded his father’s face, but Pickles didn’t dare squint or speak too quickly. There would have been silence if not for Seth’s cries, low and frightened, into Molly’s shoulder. Pickles mouth hung empty.

“What? You scared ‘a me out of nowhere?” The veins in Calvert’s neck had yet to deflate. With flared nostrils and darting eyes, he looked back to his wife and sons.

“You all think it’s my fault? Well have it yoou-r have it way,” he slurred, “and Merry Fuckin’ Christmas. I’m going to the Philly House.” He tore his coat off the hook and was gone to the bar before the coat rack could hit the floor.

When they heard the car door slam, Molly got Seth up to his feet and ushered him into the bathroom, his head and shoulders covered with her sweater like an old babushka. 

“Mom?”

“Go to bed, Pickles.”

…

He went through his nightstand for some stray candy and ended up with Sam, who made a perfect, quiet companion while he took his medicine and changed. Too tired and unsettled to play, too tired and worried to speak, he moved around his room like he thought an adult would, either pacing with Sam clutched to his chest or standing in front of his closet, which was a deep hole of a room half-filled with empty coat hangers and hand-me-down shoes he worried he might never fit. 

He got into bed early and pulled the covers over his head to give his eyes a break- Ha! Maybe it was practice for being blind. He sucked Sam down between the sheets with him and ran what little remained of his fingernails under the stitching on Sam’s face. Then, he lifted the blanket, only a sliver, just so he could remember the sandy color it was, before dropping it again and going back to feeling Sam’s snout. If he could tie together the feeling with the stark contrast between Sam’s embroidery and his tawny yellow coat, maybe he’d remember it, even if he’d never “see” it again.

The smell of Sam’s fur was so warm and natural, better than the Tide-washed sheets that’d been on his bed for a couple months, better than flowers, better than mom’s night cream… It was babyish, but Sam had to go with him when he slept anywhere different. They’d slept in the same room for years at a time. Sam went camping with him that one time, they hid in Pickles’ bag when he got invited to sleep over somewhere, and they were the only thing that belonged definitively to him. No one else held them like this. Luke Skywalker got him through the day, either from his pocket or from the shattered wings of the Millennium Falcon on the bedroom floor, but Sam was there for the nighttime. You couldn’t hug a tiny action figure, could you? Sam might not be that big, but a footlong lion was good enough. Like a memory, like a sip of cold beer or a shirt fresh out of the dryer, Sam could always be relied on for a little pick-me-up.

But superstition kept him on his toes, and it had since he could remember having an internal dialogue. Whenever he got in trouble at school, he had to wash his hands when he got home or else his mother would somehow know he was in trouble, then she’d start chewing him out and he wouldn’t get his after school snack. Well… even when she shouted, he’d get a snack after she was done, but by then he wouldn’t be hungry, and then she’d be upset when he didn’t make himself eat. Likewise, if he got in trouble and went upstairs to see Sam during the day, not only did he run the risk of Seth seeing him or his mother thinking he was pouting and running to dolls to look “babyish” and “like he doesn’t know better”, but his father might call him a pussy for retreating. Who do you think you are? Then the guilt would come on like a boiler or a hot water pump… and Sam wouldn’t be able to fix the embarrassment on top of whatever had hurt him in the first place. And then Sam’s eyes might just gleam with a little disappointment, too, and all the love would be gone. Love is a ghost who only haunts kids that didn’t fuck up; needing more help and comfort than he was worth would only make it harder to find. If he didn’t see Sam at the right place and time, he could risk losing sight of Sam’s kind animus and drown in shame alone. He had to come to Sam only when he hadn’t done anything wrong, when he deserved the thick plush of their fur between his fingers. 

Tonight, he ran headlong into the curse with arms outstretched and sharp sobs stuck sideways in his throat. After pissing Mom off in Merill, after plucking every last one of Mrs. Wallace’s nerves all year, after grabbing that pencil under the chair and almost killing Seth with the consequences, he was in more trouble than ever. No one might ever love him again, so he might as well get whatever he could before he lost Sam, too. He pulled the covers over his face and sobbed with a face-throbbing silence, mouth open, as he tried to listen for the sound of Seth or his parents turning in their sleep.

Sam’s acrylic fur never quite soaked up his tears and his freckles disappeared on his sticky cheeks.

With his back to the obnoxious light streaming into his room from the exterior halogen lamp mounted over his window, he fell asleep with Sam under him. He woke up a couple hours later, with the hour hand on the wrong side of the clock for a kid’s bedtime. When he tried to turn over, the wet sheet clung to his leg. He gave Sam a pat-down to be sure he was safe, gave him a kiss on the side of his face and left him sitting on the nightstand when he got up so he’d be comfortable while Pickles embarked on a trepidated and painstaking journey down the stairs.

The waterlogged plop of his pajamas on the floor of the downstairs bathroom (their only bathroom) made him freeze like a catatonic hamster. Thankfully, the jack-and-jill door to his parent’s bedroom was closed tonight. Still, the overhead light could leak under the doorway, so he kept it off. If he woke his mother up, there was no guarantee she’d help, but she’d definitely be angry. Even now, he could only pray his dad was asleep or gone for the night, and if he came back while Pickles was in here…

He was so tired that he felt lightheaded, but he meticulously adjusted the flow of the tap until there was one perfect, clear, quiet column flowing down the drain. It took longer to wet the washcloth that way, but he had to hide. After scrubbing himself off with the rag and a couple pumps of hand soap, he pulled on Seth’s neglected bathrobe as new pajamas. 

By the warm glow of a cheap nightlight, he stared into his own reflection and saw a teary, disheveled mess that any reasonable person would chuck like an empty bottle. With cowlicked hair and red, watery eyes, he looked downright disgusting, but when he came back from the hospital, it’d be worse. 

Shame on you!

He ducked over the sink to take himself out of his line of sight by force. Leaning against the cool tiled countertops, he caught an impulse and bit the meat of his forearm as hard as he could until the fibers of his muscle slipping between his teeth imparted the slightest crunch, like a banana peel, and it only hurt when he let go. In the yellow glow of a nightlight, he scrutinized his teeth marks as if he were watching ants traverse a log. While rubbing the wet spot, he lowered himself to his knees, got one of the spare towels from under the sink with the same calculated care as a bomb squad and headed back to the couch.

He’d left Sam upstairs in the safety of his room, but the creaking staircase was too risky to climb again this late at night. With a sorrowful longing in his chest made worse by constant shameful mental reminders that he didn’t think ahead and take Sam with him, he curled up on the sofa alone. The draft worked harder than the furnace and reminded him how open the room around him was with every sharp, cold needle of chill pricking his toes.

With a throw pillow and the green towel around his shoulders like a blanket, he turned onto his side, facing the backrest. The only comfortable way to place his arms was with his hands pressed against the scratchy upholstery, and he found a miserable smidgen of comfort in resting his brow bone against the first knuckle of his index fingers, gently trapping his nose and his eyelids between the meat of his thumbs. The feeling of his hands against his skin relieved some tension in his forehead even if the heat of his own breath kept his chest tight. In a strange posture of simultaneously guarding and hiding his face, he slept for a couple more hours.

[rabbitcruiser]

World Sight Day

World Sight Day is an international day of awareness that focuses attention on the global issue of eye health and aims to eliminate blindness and visual impairment. Individuals think about the importance of their own eye health, but particular focus is put on the eye health of those living in developing countries, where an overwhelming majority of those with blindness live. World Sight Day was created in 1998 by Lions Club International with the goals of eradicating reversible and preventable blindness and encouraging people to have eye exams regularly. It is also known as Lions World Sight Day, a name that was most frequently used early on.

From its start, World Sight Day has been a global initiative. Major media events were held on six continents during the first observance. To raise awareness, a giant eye chart was projected on the House of Parliament in London, as well as on sites in Hong Kong, Cape Town, São Paulo, New York City, and Sydney. The Lions Club International continues to organize activities for the day. They collect eyeglasses to be redistributed and accept the donation of assistive devices for the visually impaired; they conduct vision screenings and eye health education programs.

World Sight Day became an official event of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) in 2000 and is now coordinated by them. Until 2020, it was part of their VISION 2020 program. They put together materials for the day and usually set a different theme for it each year. They organize events and activities, such as the EVERYONE COUNTS Global Challenge, although many events are organized by others, such as those organized by the Lions.

With there being a billion people around the world with visual impairment who don't have access to eye care services, and because 80% of visual impairment can be treated or prevented, World Sight Day remains an essential holiday. People of all ages have issues with vision impairment, but most are over the age of 50. Its main causes are uncorrected refractive error and unoperated cataracts. Other causes include glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy, as well as eye trauma and disease. Eyes can be an indicator of overall health, and eye health can affect many aspects of life, like daily personal activities, interactions with others, school and work performance, and access to public services. For all these reasons, sights are set on global eye health today.

How to Observe World Sight Day

There are numerous ways you could take part:

Make a pledge to get an eye exam, and then schedule one. Use social media to encourage others to do the same.

Create and share a World Sight Day poster.

Browse the IAPB's World Sight Day webpage for information about their photo competition and this year's theme, and find additional resources on their toolkits and promotional material webpage.

Take part in the EVERYONE COUNTS Global Challenge.

Check if a Lions Club near you is collecting eyeglasses, conducting vision screenings, hosting an eye health education program, or taking part in another way.

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