A 94 year old relative with dementia constantly rubs her one good eye.  She
lost the sight in the other eye when an infection entered the eyeball, and we
fear the same thing will happen with the other eye.  She has abraded the cornea
so much that she can no longer read, and the eye doctor describes it as looking
out a frosted glass window.

She has glaucoma of long standing, so, other than moisturizing eye drops, most
other eye meds like Visine are precluded.  Same thing about antihistamines, if
there is an allergic component to this.

When we ask if her eye itches, she says no, it is just a bad habit.  But within
a minute of telling her not to rub her eye, she's doing it again.
She's been doing this for several years, and her lower lid began to droop, and
this made the eye quite dry.  So we had surgery done (I call it an eyelid tuck
but it has a technical name), and this was successful, but she had undone the
results within 6 months.  I don't think a second operation makes sense.

She still lives alone, with housekeeper and family support twice a day.  She
understands the danger to her vision, but forgets very quickly.  While she is
pretty bored, that's not the cause, because she does it even while someone
plays Rummy (currently her favorite activity, other than eating sweets!) with
her.

She's on Aricept, Namenda, and a low dose of Seroquel (this has been very
helpful in reducing some anxious behaviors, but we don't want to up the dose as
that would sedate her too much).

Has anyone dealt with a problem like this?  Any ideas?  I've been thinking of
trying to locate a weighted wrist band (like ankle weights) that would not be
too restrictive, but that might help her to remember that rubbing is a no-no.

Liz