"I chose to educate myself"
Pat shares with us the choices she made when faced with a visual impairment.
Hadley
I chose to educate myself
Pat: You have a couple of choices, you can either sink into it and be miserable, feel sorry for yourself, and wallow in self-pity, and I'm an educator by education and by trade, and so my idea is find out how you can do better.
Marc: This is Hadley’s Insights and Sound Bites, where people facing vision loss share what has helped them cope and adjust.
Pat: I was diagnosed with macular degeneration in 2014. What was thinking, I was going in to get a new kind of contact lens, so would help with my computer work and came out being told not only is your vision poor, but it's not going to get any better. My father had macular degeneration before there was any treatment and of course, eventually went completely blind. I had lots of opportunities in my hands, thank heaven. As anxiety ridden as being told you're going to lose your vision, you have a couple of choices, you can either sink into it and be miserable, feel sorry for yourself, and wallow in self-pity, and I'm an educator by education and by trade, and so my idea is find out how you can do better.
My thought was even though my vision wasn't that bad at the beginning, my weapon of choice was to educate myself, find out while I had relatively good vision, how to do things, how to adapt, how to make my home adaptable to my needs. So that was my theory for survival and optimism is education
Marc: You never know who might need to hear your story. If you’d like to share with us, just leave us a message on our Insights & Sound Bites voicemail. By calling, 847-512-4867. Or, you can use your smartphone or computer and email us a recording to [email protected].
All Episodes
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Episode 42
For Cynthia, every story shared helps her on her own journey with vision loss.
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Episode 41
Living with low vision meant Karen was constantly explaining to others what she can and can't see. Then she found a tool that has made a big difference.
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Episode 40
Having to give up the car keys was traumatic for Eugenia. She worried about becoming isolated until she found a new way.
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Episode 39
This week, hear how rediscovering a favorite activity helped Celia find balance as she adjusts to vision loss.
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Episode 38
Denise can struggle with the slow but continuous loss of vision she's facing. But she's found a way to pick herself up on a bad day.
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Episode 37
Listen in as Vanessa shares what has helped keep her from feeling hopeless and defeated due to vision loss.
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Episode 36
Stacy shares with us how being honest about her vision loss with her friends and coworkers has made all the difference in the world.
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Episode 35
For many, having to give up the car keys due to vision loss is traumatic. Deb felt it too. Then, during a call to arrange transportation for herself, a new door opened.
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Episode 34
Listen in as Anne describes how a question posed to her shifted her perspective for living with vision loss.
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Episode 33
This week, William shares how learning to continue with his favorite hobby, even with vision loss, has been therapeutic—and uplifting. Here's the link to his website https://www.blindtruths.org/
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Episode 32
This week Angela shares how she struggled to get around due to vision loss, how she tried to hide it from others, and what helped her.
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Episode 31
This week we hear from Appreciate. She found that a Facebook group, The International Blind Cafe, gave her a source of comfort and encouragement.