Hi all,
(This got long, so I'll ask the question here, feel free to read the story below if you wish.)
*I've lost a ton of vision, am struggling to function, and would like suggestions for adapting and or getting by day to day from others with vision loss.
It has been a while. I'm struggling with visual impairment and looking for some advice. I have had retinopathy for the last few years. Two years ago I had laser done on both eyes. In April of this year, I started having severe pain in my left eye, which I ignored. When the pain went away two days later, I had lost a ton of central vision. Two weeks later, severe pain in my right eye, this time so bad I was nauseous. I saw my retina specialist as soon as possible, but not before losing everything except the faint sense of white light in that eye. I had retinal detachment in both eyes, the right worse than the left. I was told I needed a vitrectomy in both eyes, and that it was my only option. The right eye was done September 10th. The retina has reattached. During surgery, an oil bubble was placed. Since then, I've had a blood glob which floats to the top in that eye, which is just slowly starting to break up. I know this per my specialist and because I can see some diluted blood in the oil around the edges of the glob now. I've developed a cataract in that eye, which I'm told may be able to be removed when they remove the oil. I wasn't told until after the oil was in that it was another surgery to take it back out. Oh well.
I'm now being told the left eye may be stable enough to forgo surgery. I've had 1 of 3 laser treatments on that eye recently, and another this coming week. If I am thinking correctly, this means that eye doesn't ever get any better than it is right now. Not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, all that to ask this. Can anyone here who shares my struggle with vision problems offer any advice or tips to get by? I have nothing usable in my right eye now, and until that next operation, possibly in January, I won't know what I get back in that eye. Post surgery before things clouded up and diluted blood took over, I was seeing more in that eye but nothing in my central vision. I can't see to read, drive, or do much of anything. I can handle insulin shots only using my cell phone camera to zoom in as far as it will go. I manage to use the computer zoomed in to 1000 percent, but panning side to side for each line makes reading take forever. I've been out of work since April. I'm just looking for some insight into how others manage day to day. Any suggestions for adaptations I can make to make this easier. Ideas on how others manage to work, or get to work. As I said, I can't drive, public transportation would be about 4 blocks away, and other health issues make walking out of the question.
This really sidelined me. Other than doctors' appointments and the occasional trip to the grocery store with a family member, I haven't left the house since April. I'd really like to get back to whatever normal is going to be with these problems.
Thanks in advance,
Ryan