Mr. Stimson sat quietly in the exam chair in the optometrist’s office, staring at the machinery to his left. His daughter Regina Wallen sat in the visitor’s chair watching him. The doctor’s assistant sat at her desk, preparing the papers for the examination.
Robert “Bob” Stimson, 85, wasn’t used to seeing all these instruments. He lived in the Maine woods almost 60 miles from Bangor and 18 rugged miles from Milo to the far end of Lake Sebec. His daughter, who lived in Portland, had driven up to check on her father when friends in Milo had called her to report that her father wasn’t “seein’ as good as he useta’ could.”
Reggie had been raised in Milo when her father and mother had a home there. She attended the university in Bangor on scholarship and received her MBA at the University of Maine in Portland. When her mother died, her father returned to his deep woods ancestorial cabin on the lake. So far, he had managed by himself quite well. But the friends from Milo noticed he was not moving very confidently around the village store.
When they arrived at the optometrist’s office in Bangor, the medical assistants whisked Bob off to a back room where they had put him through several tests, including a picture of his retina in both eyes and a measurement of the thickness of his retinal layers.
Reggie was careful to choose a Mainer man to be her father’s optometrist. She was very pleased when Dr. Robins walked quietly into the room and said, “Whacha’ up to, cap?”
Without turning his head, her father said, “My daughtah heah, said I should come seeya’ as I’m not seein’ as I useta.”
“Whacha’ noticin’?” Dr. Robins asked.
“Well, the centah of my seein’ is wicked cloudy. Nothin’s cleah. The edgers, they’re mighty fine, but the centah is the problem arear.”
There followed minimal conversation as Dr. Robins put Bob through the standard visual eye charts and eye movements. Then Dr. Robins used the slit lamp to visualize the cornea and the inner eye, including the retina. When Dr. Robins called out reference numbers and objects he identified to his assistant, Reggie noticed that the Mainer accent was much toned down. But when he spoke to her father, the accent thickened and the word usage changed.
Finally, Dr. Robins set down his instruments and addressed her father. “Mistah Stimson, you have a mighty wondahful good vision fo-ah a man youah age. But . . . you gotta mighty bunch a yellah clumps in the back o’ youah eye. They are blockin’ and starvin’ out the tiny cells o’ youah retin-ar causin’ youah vision to be cloudy right in the middle o’ youah seein’. The disease is called maculah degeneration. But we can kinda slow it down a might. But it will requiah you to be extra special caheful foah what you eat, weah sun glasses whenevah youah outside most all the time, and take a special vitamin pill twice each day. Do you think you can mustah up the courage to do that?”
Her father replied with a gentle nod of his head, “Ayuh. I’ve not evah been afraid o’anythin’ much a’tall in my life.”
When the assistant ushered Mr. Stimson out of the office, Reggie stayed behind to question the doctor more directly. “I very much appreciate your speakin’ with my father the way you did.”
Dr. Robins smiled and nodded his head only slightly. “I get a lot o’ older men from back up in the woods who need someone to speak theah way. My Mainer accent got tamped down during my trainin’ in Philadelphia, but I can call it up when I need to.”
“Thank you,” Reggie said. “But about the disease, macular degeneration. What are we lookin’ at in the near future?”
“Youah father has AMD – age-related macular degeneration of the intermediate stage. He has drusen, those small yellow clumps, scatteahed around the most light sensitive arear of his retina, the macula – through which we see most cleahly.” Dr. Robins watched to see that Reggie understood. “These drusen lift up the membrane of the retina wheah the visual cells get theah nutrition. This causes fading of the pinkness of tissue which I can see. This atrophy of the tissue thins the retina causing loss of vision. Because he still has excellent eye sight, he’s noticin’ that loss.”
“The change of diet?”
“Stayin’ away from fried and high fat foods, high glycemic and added sugah foods which I’m suspectin’ he doesn’t see much o’ those foods where he’s livin’.” Dr. Robins smiled. “Hauhdest thing he’ll struggle with is wearin’ sun glasses constantly. And takin’ the Areds2.”
Reggie held out her hand. “I’ll get the vitamins to him. And thank you.”
Dr. Robins shook her hand, smiled, and with a twinkle in his eye said, “Ayuh.”
