Re: PD and Facelifts

[Andrew John Conovaloff <80965@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

About 6 years ago my aunt had her droopy eye-lids surgically lifted.
-- a minor cosmetic facelift.  I'm her primary CG. She has PSP (a PD+).
I found a descriptive medical journal article about PSP
showing a photo of these same typical droopy eye-lids.

Now, after her disease has progressed, her eye-lids are frozen
(paralysed) so wide open that we need to tape them shut for
sleep. Many people (surprisingly including medical pros) interpret
her "flat affect", blank stare, expressionless face, as "fear";
and proceeded to create and act on reasons as to why she is afraid.
Last year, this misinterpretation caused a nurse to question
everyone around us, but me or her neurologist, regarding elder abuse
-- since she was always "afraid".  The social effect of interpreting fear
on a paralysed, bug-eyed, face caused a few people to question my taping
her eyes as some sort of abuse, even after my explaining that I was
following her opthamologist's instructions.

Eye care had become another CG task and expense. Without a normal
blink, she needs lubricating eye drops hourly -- at $15+/month.
Interestingly, immediately upon recieving an eye drop, she shuts her
eyes for a while. This caused one social worker to accuse me of
always poking her in the eyes with the applicator, since she
appeared to always wince, and look afraid.

We are ethnically Russian, with a more marked Mogolian fold over
our eyes than other Europeans. PSP exagerated this trait.
For a woman, it seemed cosmetically appropriate to regain her
face not knowing she would need that extra skin to help close
her eyes as the disease progressed.

By tending to an early symptom, she created a worse condition later.
Her early vanity is now a CG burden.

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