Concerning my father's health issues.

[BlasterMaster]

So my father has a range of health issues but the biggest one by far is his blindness. The optic nerve of one of his eyes has been completely eaten up by his auto-immune disorder (aka behcet's disease) and the other eye is in similar danger (the nerve is damaged to the point where he's 75% blind in his other eye).

Now, with all the advances of modern day medicine I'm wondering is there any sort of treatment that could regrow his optic nerves and repair the damage to his eyes? He also suffers from absolutely terrible (and I mean terrible) migraines and the doctors have never been able to figure out what causes them. He's dealt with these health issues since he was ten and I'm hoping something in modern medicine can finally help treat it. Anyone have any ideas on this?

 

[Nuciferyne]

There are stem cell research studies ongoing that are leading to a potential to repair optic nerves and repair damage to the eyes, but last I knew it was still highly experimental. In your father's case, there may be little left to lose, so you may want to look into that and see if there's any way he can be considered a candidate for testing when available.

There are a lot of laser repairs and tests I've seen just in the most recent year or two that have restored sight to blind animals, and now humans. There's also the more technological approach of camera assistance. If I come across anything again I will be sure and share it with you.

For the migraines, has he ever had seizures? I was diagnosed with chronic migraines during my puberty stage... lots of nose bleeds, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, etc. Turned out for me that mine are triggered by food allergies and it was just amplified by the hormonal imbalances. There are a lot of various treatments for migraines now a days, ranging anywhere from pills to botox injections. However if he sees a doctor for it, please, PLEASE take precaution if they try to prescribe Topamax. In my own experience I went from seeming physically incapable of being angry or impatient to having black outs of pure rage. o_o That stopped immediately when I stopped taking the medication. It affected a few friends of mine similarly, and it drove my aunt absolutely insane. So I would really try for anything else if given the option.

In the meantime until something can be done to prevent or treat them, perhaps try out binaural tones or isochronic tones to help alleviate the pain during a migraine. You can find several good ones on Youtube (if interested I can share links to ones that help me sleep it off or help "massage" it out). They're basically frequencies that you listen to at lower volumes that stimulate the brain to relax and/or relieve pain. Some have music to help soothe and relax, and some are straight up tone pulses. Whichever he finds more comfort in. Some may make his head feel pressured at first, of if he suffers from anxiety it could make that start surfacing again -- so if that happens, it's best to just try a different one immediately and not just wait it out.

Best of luck to your family with this. I hope that perhaps something I said can be of some kind of assistance in finding the path to improvement. 🙁

 

[BlasterMaster]

Thank you very much my dear, it truly does help. Unfortunately my father is deathly afraid of hospitals (as he had to spend 3 years in one as a boy before he found out what was wrong with his sight) so unless it's certain to lead to a cure I don't think he'll submit to medical experimentation (even if it could possibly give him his sight back). If anyone hears anything about possible stem cell treatment for regrowing an optic nerve and / or treating an auto-immune disorder then by all means please let me know.