Sue’s New Page 4/17/2018

Sue’s DBT webinar is one of the projects that has been keeping her busy.    She writes about some of the new skills she’s learning.  What do putting ice on your face or sucking on sour candy or naming the 50 states have in common?    Read and find those answers and also what it is that she says is…

All You Have to Lose

It’s been 2 years since Sue started writing her journal pages and I added content from my research.  With all that content, we know it is hard to know where to start if you’ve not been following from the beginning.  Earlier this year I went through her journal pages and highlight some of her words to help you to find pages that may be helpful to you.

There are 4 Sue’s Musings pages, you can start here:

Sue’s Musings: Then and Now – Part 1 – 1/18/2018

I know that some of you save your favorite journal pages. Do YOU have a page you’d like to recommend?  If you do, add it in the comments section or email you recommendations to me at light2sight5153@gmail.com.  Thanks!

 

 

Sue’s New Page 4/14/2018

Sue continues to discuss stem cell research.  Stem cells can be harvested from various sources and in this page, Sue covers the sometimes-controversial topic of embryonic stem cells.  We respect an individual’s right to object to their use.  Sue’s goal was simply to provide a…

Dissemination of Ideas and Facts

Spoiler Alert – why should you read Sue’s Journal Pages?

After a year of learning how to deal with her visual impairment both physically and emotionally, Sue has a rather ‘normal for her’ life: At age 64 and with advanced AMD geographic atrophy, she works several jobs, attends regular exercise classes, rides her bike safely, travels, walks her dog, kayaks, attends social events with her friends.   We are not suggesting that reading her journal will ensure you the same results but we hope that Sue’s Journal of Her Journey will be educational and inspirational.

We’ve compiled the first part of a series of Sue’s Best Pages.  If you don’t think you are ready to tackle all 500 of them, here’s our suggestion of where to start.

Sue’s Best Pages: Part 1

Sue’s New Page 4/12/2018

In her previous page, Sue wrote about the first 2 items in the article Nine Things To Know About Stem Cell Treatments.   The first item on the list is “Currently, very few stem cell treatments have been proven safe and effective.”  The second is “There is something to lose when you try an unproven treatment.” She finishes these 2 with a discussion of finances, specifically, what you may have to pay for (travel, there may be lost wages) and what you should NEVER pay for (to be included in a clinical trial).  And then there’s the [unrelated] case of the…

Disappearing Fingerprints

Headworn Magnifiers

Here’s a good article about the head mounted (also called headworn or head worn) magnifiers, include the general advantages & disadvantages and reviews of some of the popular devices.

Head Mounted Electronic Magnifiers

 

Sue’s New Page 4/8/2018

Even though 90% of the people with AMD have the dry form, dry AMD seems to be underrepresented – even ‘underappreciated’ in clinical research.  Sue writes about an article where Dr. Philip Rosenfeld  at Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute basically says that dry AMD is a disease that gets…

No Respect

Spoiler Alert – why should you read Sue’s Journal Pages?

After a year of learning how to deal with her visual impairment both physically and emotionally, Sue has a rather ‘normal for her’ life: At age 64 and with advanced AMD geographic atrophy, she works several jobs, attends regular exercise classes, rides her bike safely, travels, walks her dog, kayaks, attends social events with her friends.   We are not suggesting that reading her journal will ensure you the same results but we hope that Sue’s Journal of Her Journey will be educational and inspirational.

We’ve compiled the first part of a series of Sue’s Best Pages.  If you don’t think you are ready to tackle all 500 of them, here’s our suggestion of where to start.

Sue’s Best Pages: Part 1

Sue’s New Page 4/6/2018

One of the low vision devices that Sue depends on is a CCTV which stands for Closed Circuit TV – not to be confused with what is used for security purposes. It’s a device that has a video camera that points down onto what you want to see. The image is shown on a monitor at eye level.  You can magnify and do other things depending on the capabilities of the device you are using.  They are expensive but Sue has written about how to turn an iPad into a CCTV for about $90.  Sam of The Blind Life has a less expensive way to do the same thing with any tablet.

DIY CCTV

It’s been 2 years since Sue started writing her journal pages and I added content from my research.  With all that content, we know it is hard to know where to start if you’ve not been following from the beginning.  Earlier this year I went through her journal pages and highlight some of her words to help you to find pages that may be helpful to you.

There are 4 Sue’s Musings pages, you can start here:

Sue’s Musings: Then and Now – Part 1 – 1/18/2018

I know that some of you save your favorite journal pages. Do YOU have a page you’d like to recommend?  If you do, add it in the comments section or email you recommendations to me at light2sight5153@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Sue’s New Page 4/4/2018

Would you be surprised if I published a page of Sue’s that talked about her relaxing with her feet up?  Or her writing about being caught up with everything such as housework,  report writing, etc? I would be! She does find time to share the latest low vision news, this time in regard to an interview with Professor Pete Coffey about the recent UK stem cell results which clarifies some points. Here’s the next installment in…

Bedlam Continue reading “Sue’s New Page 4/4/2018”

Sue’s New Page 4/2/2018

If you’ve been following Sue’s pages, you’ll not be surprised that she is again writing about something that she does that you should not.  This time it’s related to her love of bacon, lettuce & tomato (BLT) sandwiches with mayonnaise.  She writes about prostaglandins & their role in autoimmune disorders which is related to continuing evidence that AMD may be an autoimmune disease.  So…

Do As I Say – Again

Headworn Glasses/goggles for low vision
There are several types of glasses or goggles that help SOME people with low vision – not everyone, though. Most of them are actually hands-free magnifiers, like a CCTV (Closed Circuit TV, not security devices or Closed Caption FOR TV). Several things to do in evaluating them:
 
– make sure they have a return policy
– make sure they have the kind of support where you can call or email “How do I do…”
– make sure it has a good warranty in case something goes wrong
– make sure you have tried them for more than a few minutes
– if you have a problem with motion sickness, you may have a problem with these glasses. They are not intended to be used while walking and definitely NOT for driving
– find reviews that are not from the company who makes them
– consider getting a CCTV (you can use an iPad on a stand to do some of what a CCTV does) or at least compare the capabilities of each
– go to YouTube and find out if Sam of The Blind Life has reviewed them. He’s someone with low vision who reviews all kinds of devices and apps and is independent of any companies. Here’s his channel—> https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCNbzN3eHbLKPzltSB560DkA
 
I’ve created 2 pages to share the general features, prices, tasks for the most popular ones:

Sue’s New Page 3/31/2018

To say that Sue keeps busy is, well, an understatement.  And sometimes it leads to her feeling…

Overwhelmed – Again

Reading, large print materials. Can you still read large print? Don’t know where to find large print materials?
In the US
Here’s a GREAT list of places where you can buy or get a loan of all kinds of large print materials, from books to newspapers, to games, to religious books to dictionaries to magazines…and MORE! This is a page from the US National Library Service (NLS) in the US but I’m sure that many of these resources are available outside the US–>https://www.loc.gov/nls/resources/general-resources-on-disabilities/large-print-materials/
 
Also, many US libraries have a special-format library service that can help you find large print materials. Here’s a way to find a library near you that has this service–>https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/find-a-local-library/
In the UK
The RNIB has large print books to sell and to borrow—>http://www.rnib.org.uk/information-everyday-living-reading/large-and-giant-print
Around the World

Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico.   Find the book department & you should see an option for large print.  If you have a specific title, enter it in the search and add ‘large print’.

Sue’s New Page 3/28/2018

During the last week, we’ve had quite a diverse selection of headlines related to the UK stem cell research that showed vision improvement in 2 people. One of them caught my eye so I sent it to Sue: “Breakthrough treatment may cure 50% of all cases of blindness!”  We did some digging and confirmed what we knew and that is that AMD is a small % of all cases of blindness.   We found that there are 12 million children in the world with refractive errors. Sue writes “In other words, we could CURE 12 million cases of childhood visual impairment with glasses!”

Children Cannot See!

So you do not have a computer or tablet or smartphone but you want to continue to read?  Want to listen to audiobooks?

The US National Library Service (NLS) has a FREE service called Talking Books where if you qualify they will send you an audiobook player and audiobooks (also includes audio magazines). They have hundreds of thousands of titles that you can see here–>https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/online-catalog-search/

You can also find the library near you that has a special-format library service that can help you find the equipment and the audiobooks–>https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/find-a-local-library/

Next time: Where can I get large print materials?

Sue’s New Page 3/26/2018

Many of you were told very little about the disease process of AMD when you were diagnosed.   And it is likely you were not told how to live with the visual impairment you had then or will develop in the future.  Sue writes that it makes her furious!  On the other hand, she writes about how proud she is because every day we are educating people about all aspects of AMD.

Furious and Proud

Spoiler Alert – why should you read Sue’s Journal Pages?

After a year of learning how to deal with her visual impairment both physically and emotionally, Sue has a rather ‘normal for her’ life: At age 64 and with advanced AMD geographic atrophy, she works several jobs, attends regular exercise classes, rides her bike safely, travels, walks her dog, kayaks, attends social events with her friends.   We are not suggesting that reading her journal will ensure you the same results but we hope that Sue’s Journal of Her Journey will be educational and inspirational.

We’ve compiled the first part of a series of Sue’s Best Pages.  If you don’t think you are ready to tackle all 500 of them, here’s our suggestion of where to start.

Sue’s Best Pages: Part 1