Ah, Life. it just gets better and better all the time.

[chochiyo_sama]

I was getting irritated today because my cell phone kept vibrating and vibrating in my pocket during sixth hour.  Finally I looked to see what fuckwit was not getting the clue that I was TEACHING and therefore was not able to pick up the phone.  Well, it was my sister from the Cities.  She had finally just sent me a text which read:  "Mom is in the Rochester hospital for a torn retina.  give me a call." 

Well this was not good news since Mom had a torn retina in her other eye a few years ago which resulted in her not having vision in that eye any more.  She has macular degeneration and has been getting shots in her 'good' eye every month for about 5 months now to slow the progress of the degeneration.  Well, now THAT eye has a torn retina.   Every time we talk about her eyes, she expresses  the fear that she will go blind and that is the one thing that she doesn't think she can handle.

Now going blind seems like a very real possibility.  Everything she loves to do requires vision--she loves to crochet and knit and sew and read and embroider, play cards, play board games with her grandchildren, mess around on the computer, and watch movies.  There is not much of that you can do if you are blind.

I am sure she is scared to death, poor thing.

If you are praying people, please pray that the surgery saves her vision.  it will just kill her if she can't see anymore. 

I am pretty darn sad about this right now.  I am just barely holding it together because i don't want to cry at school.

:(

Comments

[polarisdib.livejournal.com]

Being blind is a huge fear of mine, too.

And macular degeneration runs in the family here as well.

Teh suck.

--DiB

[sgt-majorette.livejournal.com]

When fear-of-blindness gets to me, I remember Peter's grandmother in the old children's book Heidi. She was blind, and used to sit and knit. Lace, maybe not. But blankets, scarves, texture patterns...

I always think --no, feel-- that sight is the one sense I couldn't live without, but then I think: let me not jinx myself with fear. I'll spend a couple of minutes walking around my apartment blindfolded. It's encouraging how much you really can do. And it's amazing the accessiblility technology that is available!

If your mom is religious, remind her of the old saying, "God never sends you a trial that He doesn't send you the strength to deal with it."

How terrible.

[the_godiva]

I hope she retains some of her vision.

My Library Professor for my master's, Dr. Loertscher (very famous in the library world) has dry macular degeneration. He has to wear a huge magnifying headpiece. And this was a few years ago. For a librarian that reads a lot, writes and using a computer, this must be a living hell.

Your Mom might still be able to crochet and knit even if she doesn't see very well. There are playing cards with braille if she's willing to learn. There are even movies for the blind that are narrated (sorta like subtitles for the deaf)

I'll keep your Mom in my prayers.

[mistress-laurie.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the knitting and crocheting. A lady at my church who has been blind since her teens knits and crochets beautiful baby clothes, blankets and afghans. She has others (usually the eventual recipients) choose the colors of yarn, then puts braille color tags on each ball or skein. After that, it's just counting stitches based on the braille pattern books she has.

She makes sets of caps, booties and receiving blankets in pink and blue for the preemie ward at a local hospital -- usually about 8 - 10 sets each month. She'll make any size afghan for anyone who asks, but she also sells them at a local gift shop -- for $80 - $100 apiece, depending on size.

If your Mom has been knitting/crocheting for many years (and I assume she has), she probably already does most of it by touch rather than actually watching every stitch.

Most libraries would be able to get Talking Books (unabridged books on tape or CD) for her, and there are many computer programs to convert webpage or word processing text to spoken text.

Here's a couple websites for adaptive resources in Minnesota:

http://www.lighthousefortheblind-duluth.org/

http://www.visionaware.org/mn