request for advice: computer settings for impaired vision?

[rhubarbodendron]

[Note to Admins: should this rather go into the chronic disease thread? If so, please let me know]

My eye doc detected the beginnings of cataract in my right eye. He says that it'll take 2-3 years till it gets so bad that it has an influence on my work. Yet, I already have trouble focussing on writing on a bright screen and I get dazzled easily when driving in the dark.

With such a lot of members, TrekBBS is sure to have a few who have or had cataract. Can you give me a few expert hints what I could improve on my computer and cell phone and in everyday life to balance out the handicap as much as possible?
Also, is there a way to slow the progress of the illness down a bit?

 

[Australis]

I need to have a cataract removed, but can't afford it.

I set as much of my browser to dark/night mode as possible, that's a big help.

I use MSWord 2003 (can't stand the Ribbon) and use the themes Deep Blue or Slate, they have white text on dark backgrounds.

I use the Old Grey theme here rather than the blue one.

That's a starting point.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I did that, too. It takes a bit to get used to and unfortunately the dark scheme is only used on Win's own programmes, not automatically on other software.

Win also offers a few nice and very handy features called "barrier-free mode" hidden in the system settings. (The name might vary depending on your native language. I translated literally from mine).

My eye doc recommends sun glasses as UV radiation makes the problem worse plus you can focus better - you basically give the world a darker template

Some claim that nourishment has an influence on cataract. It make sense that a change in lens density would be connected to the tissue's supply with vital materials. Alas, the damage is not reversible but maybe its progress could be slowed down. Do you have any experience in this direction?

If it is not too personal a question: which country do you hail from and does that country not have a basic health insurance that would at least cover part of the costs of a cataract surgery?
In Germany, health insurance is mandatory and this way the community shares out the costs for basic treatments. Only extras (for example special lenses) must be payed for by the patient. It is pretty much what had been intended with "Obamacare" that sadly has been blocked in the US.

Spoiler: off-topic personal opinion

Frankly, I still am horrified that there are actually people stupid enough to deny millions a chance to get affordable treatment at literally no cost for the nation's budget and very little cost for the tax payer. A health system where treatment is based on wealth is something you'd expect in a Third World country.

 

[Elder Knight]

I'm supposed to have an eye exam twice annually, and my insurance grants me new glasses ever year. I take advantage of this to accumulate spare glasses for every occasion.

They're watching minor cataracts that may need attention in the future. I do use the dark modes for display whenever possible, and avoid sunlight.

 

[Australis]

If it is not too personal a question: which country do you hail from and does that country not have a basic health insurance that would at least cover part of the costs of a cataract surgery?

Australia. When I had my first cataract done, there was coverage from the UHC scheme, I think I only paid $300. But since them we have had a conservative govt that removed a lot of health care stuff, and I think it's about double that, meanwhile I'm not working and pitching in to help my kids with their house purchase, so I'm financially buggered for now, But they'll be on their feet soon, and with a new govt better health care is coming back.

I meant to say, Firefox has a dark mode, huge eye saver. Not all websites use it but it's a huge help.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I'm supposed to have an eye exam twice annually, and my insurance grants me new glasses every year.

Impressive! For me it's twice that time span, respectively.

I mostly use my phone to go online. There I use dark mode as far as is possible. The biggest problem is at my office: there, user privileges are very closely restricted. For example, I would like to use word and excel in a dark mode /reverse colours but the settings don't permit it. I can't focus properly on dark characters on a light background. White on black is much less distorted. I want my first PC back! That one was pre-DOS (BASIC) and had green characters on a black screen. Very easy on the eyes!

For work I use very dark eyeglasses with a special polarisation filter. I work mostly in the water and the reflections can be stronger than direct sunlight. The polarised lenses are a blessing!
With the compound microscope I switched from bright field to dark field. With the stereo microscope I don't have that option but can at least use a dark background (except for when I dissect black riffle beetles). Still, after 8 hours of desparately trying to focus I feel utterly exhausted. Atm I go to bed by 8 pm the latest because my eyes feel tired.

 

[Elder Knight]

I'd think that there might be some direct settings within modern LCD monitors that could reverse or swap colors without regard to the operating system and the application. Anyone out there know?

 

[Mrs. Silvercrest]

I have cataracts in both eyes. Not yet time for surgery. Which I don't even want to think about . I have been light sensitive for a while now. And find using a dimmer setting on things helps not just on the computer. And I have chosen to use some colors for like when I do facebook private chat and that seems to help. I had to get some new D&D dice that I could see so I got black dice with white numbers. And that helps. Though, don't know if that would work on here. Also I have to use eye drops, not fun to do, I hate having things in my eyes. But that helps to not have too dry eyes when trying to read anything. I don't know if any of this will help you. But this is my input I could think of.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

thank you! I have been experimenting with different colour schemes on my computer and cell phone. My current ones aren't perfect (yet) but a lot better than the standard ones. Eye drops is a good idea! My eyes are far too dry, too. I'll ask my GP for a prescription the instant she is back from her vacation. That's a very good and helpful idea.

 

[Michael Two Wolves]

You may like to check out f.lux, too. It's a very lightweight app that is well-established and safe. It's only function is to shift the color of your screen dynamically with your location for setting the seasonal range as well as daily change. You program in the location; it doesn't set itself. At night, it reduces the blue levels so that the screen appears warmer, and during the day increases them for better contrast. I love the program for my PC. MacOS has it's own version built-in, I believe, under Display.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

that'll be a good solution for my private PC - on my cell phone it's a standard setting. Alas, I am not permitted to install anything on my office machine and that is where I spend most of my computer time

 

[Michael Two Wolves]

Alas, I am not permitted to install anything on my office machine and that is where I spend most of my computer time

Per the American Disability Act, your employer has to make reasonable accommodations for your disability. Installing f.lux is such a minor and easy fix that unless your job revolves around color correct palettes, there’s no reason to not permit you to use it.

I’d just ask about it in an email (so you have a paper trail). It’s a lightweight program (less than 20mb, I seem to recall) and doesn’t affect anything else. There’s zero security risk with it and it’s a tested app proven to be clean of any malware.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Per the American Disability Act, your employer has to make reasonable accommodations for your disability. Installing f.lux is such a minor and easy fix that unless your job revolves around color correct palettes, there’s no reason to not permit you to use it.

Not saying there’s not equivalent legislation (I don’t know either way), but since @rhubarbodendron is not American, that specific Act wouldn’t apply.

 

[Michael Two Wolves]

Not saying there’s not equivalent legislation (I don’t know either way), but since @rhubarbodendron is not American, that specific Act wouldn’t apply.

*facepalm*

Frell. I didn’t even realize! Lol Sorry!

Meanwhile, the subversive in me says, “Just run it off a thumb drive and leave no trace…”

 

[Timewalker]

I had cataract surgery in 2019, both eyes. It was covered under the disability program I'm in, and good thing. I'd be blind now if it wasn't covered.

However... the surgeon did say that sometimes they come back and the surgery has to be done again. I think I'm in that situation. My annual exam is next month, so I'll bring it up.

In January 2019 I got a double whammy - diagnosed with cataracts on Wednesday and diabetes on Thursday. Spent 2 frustrating weeks in the hospital with nurses who were hyper-focused on the diabetes and brought me a small mountain of printouts to read and got frustrated when I told them I couldn't read them.

"We'll turn the lights up," they chirped, and didn't understand that it wouldn't have helped. I needed everything larger, not brighter. I had my computer with me and told them to give me websites because I could magnify the pages as necessary.

The optometrist had guessed I wouldn't get my first surgery for at least 6 months, but when I told the surgeon about this, I said I couldn't wait 6 months - I needed to be able to read labels and do glucose testing and inject myself with insulin. So I got shortlisted, having my first surgery in March (day after my dad died, and the <censored> people at the nursing home did not give a damn that I had to go to the hospital for surgery the next day - they actually asked if they could call me at the hospital! - Well, no, given that the surgeon would have been very annoyed if someone had called me in the middle of eye surgery). The second surgery was in May.

There was quite a regimen of eye drops both pre-op and post-op. I wasn't supposed to bend down or lift anything heavy, so I had to devise a new routine for feeding the cat and get help to do her litter box.

The surgery itself? They put lots of drops in the eye so it's basically numb and paralyzed, and give you something to relax you. It's not anesthesia to put you completely out; you're still awake, but feel a bit distant. You can hear what's going on in the room.

The surgery is done with lasers, and they told me it was painless. I didn't find it painless, but YKMV. Afterward I saw haloes around the lights - so many shades of purple I'd never known existed!

Fortunately I was already receiving home care, so they added the 4 x/day eye drops to the routine.

The eye drops were not covered, and cost a huge chunk of money that came out of my food budget (just at the time when I was adjusting to a diabetic diet and everyone was telling me to drink Glucerna every day, which is NOT cheap.

All that said, though, I'd rather go through the surgeries again than be blind. I have two plastic cards I keep with me whenever I go out, that tell people (doctors, if they need to know, or border agents if I ever leave the country) that I have artificial lenses in my eyes.

Some people react a bit weirdly when they hear that I have artificial lenses. They ask what it's like, and I tell them, "I have bionic eyes now. I can see your underwear."

Only one person ever thought I was serious. ("REALLY??? )

I told her no, it was just a joke, reference an old TV show from the '70s, The Six Million Dollar Man.

It's a bit frustrating. Vision doesn't get perfect. I need glasses to read, but at least I can navigate around again, not having to go by shapes and colors and voices (my eyes were that bad before the surgery).

There are still times when I have to ask people to read stuff to me if the writing is really small. Most people are happy to help when I explain about the cataract surgery.

What I do about the computer is to keep the background as dark as possible, with font of a contrasting color that's not too bright or garish.

I spend a lot of time on a gaming forum, and when it upgraded to a newer version of XenForo, the old dark theme didn't come along. I had a talk with the tech admin and explained about my vision problems and how incredibly useful the black theme was.

He created a new one - black background, greyish-white font, and titles and headings in a cheerful green that contrasts without being too bright. I'm not the only visually-impaired person there, and others find it very useful as well.

I've got FB set to the dark theme, fanfiction sites set to grey backgrounds with white font, and my word processing program has black pages with cyan font (sounds odd, but my eyes are comfortable with it).

My vision issues are a large part of why I don't do animated avatar contest entries, and when I host, I ask for non-animated entries. It's really hard on my eyes now, and why I don't watch a lot of TV with quick, frenetic action scenes. It's hard to look at and hard to process.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

thank you for this firsthand report! Geez, bad things do tend to pile up, don't they? Murphy's law can be very annoying. (4 weeks ago I broke my glasses, broke a front tooth and got a 10% rise of the rent for my apartment, all within 24 hours.)

I hope I can delay the surgery as long as possible. In 7 years I get pensioned off but until then I need good vision.

Did you have to inject Insulin from the start? Usually, you get pills for a few years first. It's unusual that the pancreas stops working so suddenly. Seems that like me you are caught in a Murphyonic Field...

I tinkered a bit with the settings at work and made myself a nice black template with green font. Much like computer screens used to be in the 70s. Sometimes the older things are the better ones.
Unfortunately, working for the government, our security is extremely tight and many settings are locked. But the Admins are on my side: they log on with their passwords, I take over, alter the settings and they log off again

 

[Timewalker]

The way the diabetes happened... it had been sneaking up on me gradually until it suddenly wasn't gradual anymore. I finally went to the doctor, who ordered lab tests, and I got a phone call late at night from one of my doctor's colleagues (there's always someone on-call at the clinic) and he wanted to know if I was okay. Then he rattled off a bunch of numbers that meant nothing to me, and said, "Go to emergency TONIGHT."

So I grabbed a few things, made sure the cat had food and water, went off to the hospital... and stayed for 2 weeks. Fortunately there was someone who agreed to look after the cat, and bring me extra stuff I needed, plus my computer (wifi was available there).

My glucose numbers were high to the point that the doctors couldn't figure out how I was still alive. They kept demanding to know what my normal scores were and I had no idea what they were talking about. They they wanted to know why I hadn't brought my "kit" with me.

My what? I didn't know what they meant. "Your KIT," they said, as though that was supposed to make everything clear. I told them I had NO idea what they were talking about.

Finally it occurred to one of them to ask when I'd been diagnosed with diabetes. "About 3 hours ago, over the phone, by a doctor at the clinic I go to," I told them. I really have no idea what any of you are talking about, throwing numbers at me that I don't know what they mean.

So that was the beginning of a nightmare in which on the one hand they assumed I knew more than I did and was somehow lying about it, and then they talk to me like I had the comprehension of a 5-year-old.

Then came the issue of explaining to them that I could not read the small mountain of articles they brought me to read because the cataracts just made the print look like a grey blur on white paper. No, turning up the lights would not help.

They weren't happy about me needing a pass to keep an appointment with the surgeon who was going to do my cataract surgery - that was a referral made by the optician's office and I was told I could not miss that one. The hospital was adamant that I couldn't leave until my glucose scores were down to an average of less than 8.

Finally I told them, "Look. You want me to read your information. You want me to read labels. Right now I can't read ANYTHING like that, and unless I get this cataract surgery, I will go blind. I need to do this NOW, because appointments are really hard to get with this doctor."

Some of them get so laser-focused on their own areas that they can't wrap their minds around the idea that another problem would need a higher priority.

So they let me keep the doctor's appointment. And they booked me an appointment with a diabetic nutrition center... and the person who spoke with me there asked when I'd been discharged from the hospital and I said I hadn't been - I had to go back there.

The nutritionist was upset and said they only saw people after discharge, and I told them, "Don't blame me. They told me to come here today, so here I am."

The upshot of all this is that the diabetes did me a favor of getting me on the short list for the cataract surgery. The eye surgeon understands, as the nurses at the hospital did not seem to understand, that if a diabetic is supposed to be able to do everything like testing and injections, etc., they need to be able to see.

Pills... if you meant metformin, I can't tolerate it. I either can't keep it down, or if I do manage, it gives me pain that's excruciating. It's pain on the level of what a gall bladder attack feels like. And I don't have a gall bladder anymore.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Ah, I see what you mean. Metformin is pretty hellish during the first weeks as it upsets the microorganisms that live in the intestines. There is a herbal extract named "Iberogast". That was what rescued me I had these belly pains - it's pretty similar to giving birth - for weeks and was on the verge of capitulation. Then my apothecary recommended these drops and within hours the pain was gone to never return. I am successfully on Metformin for 7 years now.
The drops are available at Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Iberogast-3-4-fl-oz-100-ml-by-Medical-Futures/138160331

In my case, too, we discovered the diabetes too late. I felt unwell for years and kept urging my GP to make a few tests. When he didn't, I finally went to an endocrinologist and she found out that I have a marked insuline resistance but fortunately a still well functioning pancreas. I got nervous damage in both feet and my right hand, and my eyeballs have shrunk due to dehydration and malnourishment of the tissue. They have lots of tiny crisscross folds that throw shadows on my retina. Imagine standing in font of a window with a net curtain. You rise the curtain with both hands and try to look through those folds. This is similar to how I see things. No fun if you have to work on a microscope and need perfect vision.
Now, the cataract makes everything a little worse.

Your doctors were right insofar as high blood sugar levels can seriousely impair or even completely block the healing process. It frequently happens that wounds don't close properly or even not at all because the sugar clogs up the tiny blood vessls. That's why they insisted that you get your sugar levels under control first. They didn't think of explaining it, but I think they were genuinely worried that the wounds in your eyes wouldn't heal. You said yourself that it took exceptionally long for them to close. You were lucky, that they healed at all.