Friday, November 05, 2004
Half-crazy, now I'm half-blind, too!
Not a happy day here. Went to an optometrist. My fear was that he would discover that I had cataracts or worse, that one of my retinas had become detached again. I was expecting a full correction of my right eye & a partial correction of the left eye, which has remained weak since two retina surgeries in 12/00 & 1/01. Fortunately, the retina repairs (I'd had right eye surgery in 1991) were holding. But when I asked the doctor what he could do for my weak left eye, he said, "Nothing. You don't have enough retina in that eye to correct." I was stunned. I'd believed my previous optometrist, whose business was a medicaid/medicare assembly line operation, had simply been hasty & negligent in his exam. This wasn't a deterioration of my left eyesight over a four year period, or a failure to heal properly. This was something my retina surgeon knew immediately after the operations & should have told me during our followup exams in 2001. I was never informed that my left eyesight was now uncorrectable - that I was for all intents legally blind in that eye. The previous optometrist probably assumed I was aware of the situation. & this optometrist seemed surprised that I didn't know.
I am "blind" in my left eye. I can see colors & shapes & peripherally, I have no difficulty driving a car, my brain combines the good eye & bad eye into an cooperating pair. The left eye sees a big fuzzy red sign & the brain somehow recognizes it as "CVS Pharmacy" or "Pizza Hut" or "Wholesale Furniture Sales Blowout." The left eye watches shapes in the side view car mirror & the brain knows they are cars & where they are & approximately how large they are & how fast they are traveling relative to my car, & the right eye habitually confirms everything. So I am not "handicapped" in that sense.
But I suffer eyestrain more frequently from reading & watcting TV; I would not now consider having a reading intensive job like copy editing or working in a bookstore. Perhaps I could still teach piano for beginners. If I ever get into an exercise routine again it will certainly be swimming pool laps (which I never enjoyed), not jogging or any sort of jarring sport that could endanger my retinas. As much as I'd like someday to do all the crazy rides at Great Adventure, I doubt now that I'd risk it without an OK from an opthamologist. & I won't be jumping curbs, hopscotching old slate sidewalks & cutting through bumpy vacant lots on a bike anymore - the 1965 teenage skate punk is finished. It is imperative now that I move into a less stressful neighborhood.
For another assessment, I'll see a doctor who specializes in low vision problems. I may also consult an attorney.
Add YOUR comments here
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I am "blind" in my left eye. I can see colors & shapes & peripherally, I have no difficulty driving a car, my brain combines the good eye & bad eye into an cooperating pair. The left eye sees a big fuzzy red sign & the brain somehow recognizes it as "CVS Pharmacy" or "Pizza Hut" or "Wholesale Furniture Sales Blowout." The left eye watches shapes in the side view car mirror & the brain knows they are cars & where they are & approximately how large they are & how fast they are traveling relative to my car, & the right eye habitually confirms everything. So I am not "handicapped" in that sense.
But I suffer eyestrain more frequently from reading & watcting TV; I would not now consider having a reading intensive job like copy editing or working in a bookstore. Perhaps I could still teach piano for beginners. If I ever get into an exercise routine again it will certainly be swimming pool laps (which I never enjoyed), not jogging or any sort of jarring sport that could endanger my retinas. As much as I'd like someday to do all the crazy rides at Great Adventure, I doubt now that I'd risk it without an OK from an opthamologist. & I won't be jumping curbs, hopscotching old slate sidewalks & cutting through bumpy vacant lots on a bike anymore - the 1965 teenage skate punk is finished. It is imperative now that I move into a less stressful neighborhood.
For another assessment, I'll see a doctor who specializes in low vision problems. I may also consult an attorney.
Add YOUR comments here
