Hello and Happy New Year to you all!
It was February 12 , 2016 that I was given the news my second eye was “gone” as a result of dry age-related macular degeneration. It was that date that I was declared legally blind. You can do the math as well as I can so you know it is coming up on four years that I have been on my journey through sight loss. Hard to believe.
Time has passed rapidly. That is because Lin and I have been busy. Very busy! We started out with this blog. Journaling for my own mental health as well as the edification of others worked well.
It fact, for me, it worked so well I worked through my angst and became, well, shall we say, hard for the new folks to relate to. Consequently, I have been on semi-permanent hiatus here for a number of months.
What to say about that? How about this:
I hope for each of you to come to the point that I am at now. I hope for the pain and panic to end and for sight loss to become something that has enhanced your life almost as much as it has diminished it. Maybe even enhanced it more.
I believe Lin will agree my sight loss has enriched our lives quite a bit. While I did the “easy” work of going centrally blind, Lin rolled up her sleeves and got down to business. Her Facebook group is a minor phenomenon with several thousand members and a volunteer staff of assistants doing research and helping with the group in many ways. The Facebook group was the second thing that happened these past four years. It is something Lin is understandably proud of and I am proud of her. [Lin/Linda: Ah, shucks, thanks Sue!]
In the past six months or so, Lin and I started another endeavor. We were asked to write for Health Union. We saw – and see – this opportunity as a way to reach another audience of visually impaired people. Another way to help and support. Of course, I also saw it as a way to accomplish a secret ambition. I always wanted to be a paid author and now I am! Hot dignity dog!?
Another big accomplishment this year has been my acceptance into a clinical trial. Helping to advance medical science towards a treatment and eventually a cure for dry age-related macular degeneration through being in a trial became a goal early on in this journey. It is gratifying to have finally been chosen.
That brings me to another hope for the future. I hope that the time for newly diagnosed dry AMD patients being told there is no treatment and no cure is going to come to an end. Soon.
Where from here? The new year we are entering is 2020. It is the perfect year for a focus on vision and they are doing just that. While the initial thrust is on curing preventable vision loss, the definition of preventable is broadening every day. Regenerative medicine in the forms of stem cells and gene therapy will soon be a reality for many. New medications are slowing the progression of a number of eye diseases. This is our time, our fight, and it is exciting to be part of the endeavor.
Lin and I would like to thank you for enriching our lives over the past four years. When we started this journey, we had no idea things would turn out to be as gratifying as they have been. It has been you who have helped us turn my lemons into lemonade. You who have helped make so many good things possible. For this, we thank you.
Welcome to the year 2020 when exciting things will be happening. And remember, this is the best time in history to be going blind.
Written 12/28/2019