Vision Update

Apparently this never posted when I wrote it a few months back. So here it is.  

   It's been a bit since I've written much about my vision. I can tell that it is getting progressively worse.  Surprisingly, it feels like in the last few months it has really taken a dive.  It's always hard to explain to other people how your eyes see something, but the easiest way for me to explain it is that most of the time I feel like I'm wearing sunglasses indoors.  There's never enough light going into my eyes.  It used to be that I could see more and brighter in the center of my vision but that seems to be getting a bit darker as well. I keep finding myself raising my head up and down or side to side to try to see an area more with my peripheral vision but it never seems to help much, but sometimes it does.  In between the center of my vision and the periphery I don't see much.  Like I said, it simply makes for a much darker picture of things.  

    About three months ago I reached out to the Center for Independence and they sent me to the CO Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. After confirming with my ophthalmologist that I am indeed legally blind we moved forward. I initially reached out because I wanted to look into getting trained to use a white cane, but after talking with the low vision specialist I think they can help with a lot more than that.  I just spent the last two weeks going through assessments with the specialist talking about everything from my work space to walking and traveling to how I work in the kitchen. I'm actually really excited for the specialist to come to Grand Junction in the next 2-3 weeks and he'll take a look at the house and my work space and where we live and maybe even dive into some training and just discussions about tips and helps that will hopefully make life a little easier and not as stressful.

    Prior to these weeks of assessment I'd been getting kind of anxious thinking about how much was going on - in work things were crazy, Kim wasn't doing really well physically or mentally so I was needing to help hime more, and adding more learning and education to my plate (particularly when it came to technology and computer work) I was started to really get stressed out.  But after talking with the specialist and even in our conversations he would share tips and ways to organize that will make it easier for me to function, I started feeling a lot better about things.  

    So this morning I went to the DVR again and we went over the plan. I'm mostly excited about getting trained with a cane so I'll feel more confident in low light or even dark situations, and I'm also really excited about the sunglasses possibility.  I've tried to find good sunglasses for myself for years but I've never been able to find the right ones that will help with the sun and glare but not take away from what vision I do have. So the specialist is going to help me by having me look at some things both near and far and identify what I can see, and then try some different shades and see what works while I can still see the things I identified.  Yay!!  

    I'm not at the point yet that I'd probably qualify for a guide dog, but it could be something down the road if my vision continues to deteriorate.  We'll see.  I may just stick with my "guide son!"  He works pretty well!

    So that's my update.  I'll be sure to post more as I go through the training.

Thanks for reading.

~Sally