Description
Peggy R. Wolfe,
who has lived since 1999 with
macular degeneration, offers reassurance, hope, and invaluable insight
on living well with macular disease and declining vision. With strong
endorsements from the medical community, this handy reference is
filled with personal stories illustrating the author’s own challenges
and adaptive strategies. It also includes hundreds of constructive,
easy-to-follow techniques on everything from performing everyday
tasks to selecting assistive tools and technology to maintaining
an optimistic, fighting spirit.
Printed on glare-resistant
paper in large-print format, Macular
Disease: Practical Strategies for Living with Vision Loss is
an authoritative, empathetic, personable guide. It will help readers
to meet each day’s challenges and sustaining a positive, realistic,
“can do” attitude in the face of vision loss as new ways of living
well are developed and mastered. Do you
Topics Include—
• Finding hard-to-spot items
• Learning new ways to perform everyday tasks
• Strengthening other senses
• Deciding when—and when not—to seek or accept help
• Sharing feelings with friends, family members, and others
• Selecting helpful products
• Preparing for the future
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Endorsements
Robert C. Ramsay,
MD
“Ophthalmologists struggle with
trying to assist patients and families as they adapt to untreatable
and permanent visual impairment, and the ophthalmic community is
always looking for new and better ways to assist our patients.
There is no question that this book represents a large step forward
in providing appropriate information. The text is well organized,
sharp and the photographs superb, all of which are necessary for
the visual impaired population. This is a superb book that should
help thousands of patients.”
Dorothy
J. Horns, MD
“The book is informative, well-written, and practical. A lot of research,
thought, and effort has gone into this book, and the result is excellent.”
Dodie Frisbie, Outreach Librarian, Niles
Public Library District (IL)
“All of
us who deal with low vision patrons were absolutely delighted to
see your book come along. I think your book is a fantastic resource.
The local support group is planning to use your book for guidance
and resource information. There don’t seem to be many books available
on this specific topic and yours is most welcome! It’s an increasing
need that libraries are struggling to meet.”
Reader Marquita O’Connor, St. Paul, Minnesota
A brilliant book not to be missed by anyone
with low vision and their caregivers
From the moment I opened this book, I knew
I was in good hands. To my delight, I could read it! The size and
blackness of the print, the paper quality, the careful spacing of
words, lines, and margins—all contribute to its readability for me,
a person with low vision. The chapter on improving reading ability
intrigued me first, in that it is personally my biggest challenge
at present. It was so helpful that I decided to read the book from
cover to cover.
Helpful hints for daily living about everything
from cooking to personal grooming to aid in writing a check abound
on each page. While the chapter entitled “Making Driving Decisions”
would have been even more helpful while I was still able to drive,
the suggestions for what to do after “giving up the keys” stimulated
me. In each chapter the paragraph called “My Story” gives a personal
sense. Particularly touching is the story about situations surrounding
the death of the author’s husband, entitled “One Day Too Late.”
Even though my vision deterioration results
from a rare condition affecting the macula, pathological myopia,
rather than the more common macular degeneration, the strategies
for dealing with vision challenges definitely apply to me. Now the
book has become a reference manual for me, aided by the excellent
index and appendix. Finally, the book encourages me to become a creative
problem solver as I meet new challenges.
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From the Author
“This book was written in real time as
I continued to adjust to the progressive decline of my vision from
macular degeneration. When I was diagnosed at the age of 69 I wasn’t
too surprised, as my mother and my uncle lived with macular disease
for many years. They provided me gutsy examples of how to live with
vision loss. This longtime exposure to their stalwart optimism left
me with an accepting spirit—one not filled with fear, but with the
will to do battle. I've fought back by developing many strategies
to make my life easier now and to prepare for the day when I may
need to rely solely on my peripheral vision.
When my retinologist wrongly guessed I might be able to read for
only one to two years, rather then being discouraged I was energized
to increase my pace of preparation and to share what I’ve learned
with others who are in the same situation.
As a lay person, I do not attempt to include coverage of the medical
aspects of macular disease. Rather, the book is a personal guide
to dealing with the very real situations and challenges that you
may encounter. My goal is to offer you real hope, confidence, and
optimism about your life with vision loss.
This large print book was
specifically designed for the reader with limited vision. Many
tests were conducted with low vision readers to select the type
size, font, and layout. To see the actual results, click on “Sample
pages.”
I hope you will find the book both useful and
easy to read.”
— Peggy R. Wolfe
