New Book: This Used To Be St. Louis, by NiNi Harris

I’ve known historian/author NiNi Harris for many years, so I’m always pleased when I see she had a new book out.

St. Louis’s history is layered. Each layer, whether the French pioneers establishing St. Louis as a river trading post, or Swiss immigrants starting dairy farms and dairies, or immigrants from Europe putting on the uniforms of the American doughboy, has left an imprint on the city. This Used to Be St. Louis is a fun trip through those layers of history following the story of: the glamorous, urban lofts that had been the factory for ball turrets for World War Two Air Force bombers; the dock of the pasta plant where the Civil War ironclads were built; the elegant townhouse that once served as an Albanian Orthodox Church. (Reedy Press)

The premise of This Used to Be St. Louis is simple — talk about lots of places we know in St. Louis — what they were and what they are now. For example, the Schlafly Tap Room, where my husband and I had our first date, was originally a printing company. Nearby is the 2020 Washington condos, but most everyone knows the handsome building as the Sporting News building. The publisher occupied the building for decades.  Originally, however, it was Emerson Electric’s Ball Turret Factory. Who knew? NiNi Harris — that’s who.

Warning — this book is very addictive. I’ll let you explore the book to read about the Civil War secessionist camp within our current city limits.  The book has many photos — mostly black & white — but it does have a nice color section in the center. It’s mostly the City of St. Louis, but also includes entries from St. Louis County.

— Steve Patterson

My Vision Is Better Than It Was On Sunday!

Sunday’s non-scientific poll was about vision. My poll answers are still the same, but my vision is better today than it was on Sunday. Monday morning I had outpatient surgery on my left eye to remove the cataract.

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and trouble seeing at night. This may result in trouble driving, reading, or recognizing faces. Poor vision caused by cataracts may also result in an increased risk of falling and depression. Cataracts cause half of all cases of blindness and 33% of visual impairment worldwide. (Wikipedia)

Over a decade ago, not long after my stroke, I was diagnosed with early cataracts — my lenses were just beginning to cloud over.

Like the myth about the frog in boiling water, the change is gradual.  Myth because the frog would notice and would jump out. Over the years I’d learned how to compensate — going into a building because I couldn’t see my phone’s screen outside, having apps set on the largest text option, not driving when glare would be an issue. This year I jumped out of the pot and asked my physician to refer me to a specialist. The first ophthalmologist that examined me agreed both lenses should be replaced, I just needed to come back to make sure the surgeon concurred.

She did, no prescription would help me see as well as I should. On Monday I got a new lens in my left eye — it also corrected my near vision. Colors are more vivid, everything is sharp now.

The right eye will hopefully happen soon. I’ll still wear glasses for distance. Cataracts runs in my family — my mom had it, as did her mom. My dad had it. My two older bothers both have it, though the oldest has had one lens replaced. For some, like me, it starts earlier and progresses faster. Lucky me…

Through all this I thought about a 60 Minutes story from April 2017 — two US doctors who travel to other countries to perform the surgery I just had:

U Myint Oo hadn’t seen for two years, until this moment. Others here had been blind for decades. They all had cataracts – a milky, white build-up of protein that clouds the lens of the eye.  In the U.S. they mainly afflict the elderly; removing them – a routine operation. But here in Burma, also known as Myanmar, cataracts go untreated and blindness is a way of life. (CBS News/60 Minutes)

Yes, left untreated cataracts gradually leads to blindness. This is why my maternal grandmother had her cataracts surgeries in the early 1960s — back then it was a major operation that required hospitalization — and it didn’t correct vision — just removed the clouded lens. She wore thick glasses, but wasn’t blind. A few years later Dr. Charles D. Kelman’s research changed the process:

In 1967, the phacoemulsification procedure was introduced. Instead of making a large incision in the eye and removing the lens, doctors could make a tiny one. Then they inserted an ultrasonic tip which, vibrating thousands of times a second, broke up the cataracts without damaging the surrounding tissue. The remains of the cataract were suctioned out.

The procedure, which Dr. Kelman taught to thousands of doctors around the world, is now performed more than a million times a year in the United States alone. Artificial lenses that he developed in the 1970’s are now routinely implanted in patients’ eyes, making unnecessary the ultrathick glasses that once were common after surgery. And his ultrasonic approach has been adopted in other fields of medicine, including neurosurgery. (New York Times)

Both of my parents, already in their 70s, had both eyes done in the 2000s. I recall my mom being so thrilled — something I can finally understand. Sadly, she died just a few years later. After my mom died my dad had both of his cataracts removed, but was hospitalized & died just after the 2nd — completely unrelated to the cataract surgery. Getting mine done at 51, I hope to have many more years of enjoying good vision again.

Cataracts is one of the big four causes of adult blindness/low vision:

Four eye diseases — age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataracts — account for most cases of adult blindness and low vision among people in developed countries. Unlike many other ailments associated with aging, they cause no pain and often no early symptoms and thus do not automatically prompt a person to seek medical care. But a thorough checkup by an ophthalmologist can detect them in their earliest stages, followed by treatment that can slow or halt their progression or, in the case of cataracts, restore normal vision.

Macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 and older, involves an irreversible loss of retinal cells that robs people of the central vision needed to read, watch a TV program or identify a face or object in front of them. There are two types, dry and wet. In the dry type, the light-sensitive cells in the macula, a structure near the center of the retina, gradually break down. In the wet type, abnormal blood vessels grow under the macula.

Steps you can take to lower your risk of macular degeneration or slow its progression include not smoking, eating lots of dark leafy green vegetables, wearing sunglasses to block ultraviolet light, and taking one or more supplements formulated to support macular health. There are also treatments specific for wet A.M.D., including laser surgery, photodynamic therapy and drugs that are injected into the eye to slow the growth of abnormal blood vessels.

Diabetic retinopathy, the cause of most blindness in American adults, also affects the light-sensitive retina, damaging the vision of more than half of people with diabetes age 18 or older. The most effective preventive is maintaining a normal level of glucose in the blood through medication and a proper balance of diet and exercise. Blood glucose should be routinely monitored, high blood pressure effectively treated and smoking avoided entirely.

Glaucoma, another leading cause of blindness, involves a rise in fluid pressure inside the eye that damages the optic nerve. It affects more than four million Americans, about half of whom don’t know they have it, and is especially common among African-Americans and Hispanics. It can be detected with a comprehensive eye exam, which should be done annually for African-Americans and those with a family history of the condition.

Although glaucoma is not curable, treatment to lower pressure in the eye with prescription eye drops and, in some cases, pills or surgery can control the condition.

Cataracts are the most common cause of vision loss among people over 40. They involve a gradual clouding of the lens, a normally transparent tissue directly behind the iris and pupil that helps to focus images on the retina. As cataracts progress, it becomes increasingly difficult to see clearly, impairing the ability to read, drive or recognize faces.

Preventing or slowing the development of cataracts involves protecting the eyes from sun damage, not smoking, consuming a diet rich in vegetables and fruits and, if you have diabetes, keeping blood sugar under control.

In years past, doctors often advised patients with cataracts to wait until they were far advanced before removing them surgically. This is no longer the case. Cataract surgery is now done when the condition begins to affect a person’s quality of life or interferes with the ability to perform normal activities.

The surgery is nearly always done under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis. If both eyes have cataracts, as is usually the case, the second eye is typically treated some weeks after the first to avoid the rare risk of a postoperative infection in both eyes. The operation involves removing the clouded lens and, in most cases, replacing it with a clear artificial lens that often gives patients better vision than they had even before developing cataracts. (New York Times)

Here are the results from the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll:

Q: How is your vision? Check all that apply.

• I wear prescription glasses: 14 [38.89%]
• I often wear sunglasses: 7 [19.44%]
• I don’t need glasses/contacts: 6 [16.67%]
• I wear prescription contacts: 4 [11.11%]
• I have reduced vision: 3 [8.33%]
• TIE: 1 [2.78%]
  • I have cataracts
  • I have glaucoma
• TIE: 0 [0%]
  • I’ve had laser or other surgery to correct my vision
  • I have no vision (blind)
  • I have age-related macular degeneration
  • I have diabetic retinopathy

If you haven’t had an eye exam in the last couple of years, please do so soon.

— Steve Patterson

Well-Used Bus Stop Is A Muddy Hole After It Rains

Usually when I go to my regular doctor I take either the #97 (Delmar) MetroBus or MetroLink to connect with the southbound #90 MetroBus at Goodfellow or Forest Park station, respectively. However, depending on the bus schedule and my appointment time I’ll take the #10 MetroBus from Olive @ 16th to the Gravois-Hampton MetroBus Transit Center, and then catch the #90 MetroBus heading northbound. The alternative takes about 15 minutes longer, but often will get me to my destination closer to my appointment time.

But I only take the Gravois-Hampton alternate if it hasn’t rained recently. You see, the bus stop I use to catch the Northbound #90 is a muddy hole if it has rained recently.

‘The Northbound #90 bus stays on Hampton rather than pulling into the transit center. Riders getting off/on must use the grassy tree lawn.

Even dry this stop is a problem when boarding. When the bus driver puts out the ramp/lift it leaves a huge gap my chair must get up — this is because all the use has worn this spot down so it’s lower than the curb and surrounding grass. Recently I was waiting in the grass just before the stop to avoid this problem. It’s adenegrated  experience for everyone dry or wet, impossible for us wheelchair users when wet.

Metro occasionally gets grants to improve accessibility of MetroBus stops — #3275 needs to be toward the top of the list for improvement.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: How Is Your Vision?

Most of us experience cities through all our senses, primarily visually. For those with reduced visibility/blindness the city experience is different.

Navigating a mega-city like London on foot can be a fraught experience no matter who you are. But as a sighted person living in a sighted world, it’s nearly impossible to imagine what that experience can be like with a visual impairment.

Take, for example, the ubiquitous pedestrian crossing. While many in London are outfitted with tactile pavements to indicate where to cross and a protruding “cone” device at the bottom of the control box, it can easily take a blind person 10 seconds to orient themselves enough to safely enter the street. In that time, dozens of sighted Londoners may have already crossed the street without giving it much thought. (The Guardian)

It’s no surprise the public fears vision loss:

A recent study from researchers at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that most Americans regard loss of eyesight as the worst ailment that could happen to them, surpassing such conditions as loss of limb, memory, hearing or speech, or having H.I.V./AIDS. Indeed, low vision ranks behind arthritis and heart disease as the third most common chronic cause of impaired functioning in people over 70, Dr. Eric A. Rosenberg of Weill Cornell Medical College and Laura C. Sperazza, a New York optometrist, wrote in American Family Physician. (NY Times)

Today’s poll relates to vision.

This poll closes at 8pm tonight. Wednesday I’ll share the non-scientific results and some personal news on the subject.

— Steve Patterson

Where Am I? Facebook Page Cover Image Contest

I’ve often changed the cover image of the UrbanReviewSTL Facebook page, but now I’m asking “Where Am I?” for most images.

In the above example, which will ne uploaded this morning, three buildings are visible. The best answer will identify all three.

The reward for getting the first correct answer? Zip, nothing, etc. If this interests you like the page and look for notifications of new cover photos.

Have a great weekend!

— Steve Patterson

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