If you are new to our website, you might have looked at the LONG list of Sue’s pages and felt overwhelmed. I hope this series of “Sue’s Best Pages” will help you to navigate through some of them. We hope you will eventually read them all.
Spoiler Alert – why should you read these 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.
For the newly diagnosed
- You need to start In The Beginning. Follow the sequence of pages with the links that are at the bottom of each page. The first 13 were written in the early days of this journal.
- Page 13 “A Human Doing” is where Sue starts to talk about her experiences with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation’s Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services. Because she wanted to continue to work, they were instrumental in getting her the assistive devices and training she needed to do that.
- Of course, we hope you continue to read from there. If not, please continue with the next section.
Pages highly recommended by our readers
We ask readers to rate the pages. I’ve taken the ratings and comments to select these pages.
- Sue writes about her first 100 days starting on page 69 My First 100 Days: Part 1 Hopelessness? which is the first of 4 pages in that series.
- 189-191. One Year Anniversary: Part 1 What I’ve Learned (3 pages linked together)
- 296. Hindsight is 20/20
- 334. Not Your Parents’ AMD
- 342. One Foot in Front of the Other
- 374. Meaning and Purpose
- 455. Get Busy Living
How She Does What She Does
Sue was 62 when her vision deteriorated so quickly that she had to stop working and driving. She could have started early retirement but she is not the ‘retiring’ type. ::smile:: She contacted Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation’s (OVR) Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services (BBVS). The services she received included low vision, technology, orientation & mobility and rehabilitation. Counselors for each of these services came to her home and workplace to deliver assistive technology, software and training. There was a one-time co-pay based on income. Some people pay nothing. Sue paid a small fraction of the true cost of the services, software and devices.
166. A Day in the Life which covers the time she is not working.
288. A Day in the Life: Work Day