Hi! Hard to believe May is half over. One of these days I am going to wake up and be 90.
One of the 30ish girls in yoga declared she wants to live to be 110. Some of the slightly older folks said they wanted to live as long as they have quality of life.
What is quality of life? What is a life worth living (to put it in DBT speak)? That is something everyone has to answer for himself. However, whatever it is, we would like to think we are encouraging you to pursue it, vision loss or no.
I still don’t ‘get’ some of the reactions to my retiring from my school job. I was talking to my yogini about it the other day. She said what I say: I have been living my life for the past 64 years. (She has been living hers for 39). Why think I need to squeeze all of my ‘living’ into whatever time I have before my vision becomes even more of an impediment?
Maybe I have just been blessed what I have done for a living has contributed to my ‘living’. If you are/were not one of those people? Carpe diem, my dears. Carpe diem! Seize the day and get some living in!
Really not much happening here. I got two nights of lodging approved for the summer academy. That is the only way it will work since I will need to ride the bus down and back. Not liking that one but I am not being willful about it. Rejecting a slightly unpleasant solution – especially one that is the only solution! – is cutting off your nose to spite your face. [Lin/Linda: The summer academy that Sue refers to is the Penn State Summer Academy which is a program at the university that prepares high school students with visual impairment for college. You can read more about it starting with Sue’s page from last year I’m a Big Kid Now.]
But enough about me. Let’s talk about me! ?…no, not really. Let’s talk about the AMD information. VisionAware did an article in which they featured comments by Denis Jusufbegovic out at Indiana University. Dr. J. did a really nice job of outlining the clinical trial process and warning people – once again – to not get taken in on bogus trials. Remember, in the legit ones, they pay you, not the other way around. He also reminded us that these are experiments, not certainties. Don’t get taken in by people who promise you the world. Desperation is one thing. Vulnerability is another.
To end the article Jusufbegovic cited the research on CPBE-RPE 1. He gave that as an example of extremely promising developments.
What is CP…whatever? It is that experiment we talked about (webpage: The Patch) in which they used an extremely thin piece of Parylene to support a monolayer of stem cells for placement. The Parylene replaces the damaged Bruch’s membrane. Looking very promising.
The researchers for CPBE-RPE 1 are Humayun and Hinton. No only did they get $38 million to continue their research, Humayun was the 2015 winner of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. This is the nation’s highest award for achievement in technology.
Humayun is no slouch. This Pakistani immigrant is the only ophthalmologist to be elected to both the National Academy of Medicine AND the National Academy of Engineering.
The best thing about Humayun? He is putting that brain power towards solving our problems! Can’t beat that with a stick. With people like Humayun in our corner, how can we lose?
Written May 20th, 2018