"Knock the t off can't"

Insights and Sound Bites

Knock the T Off Can’t

Presented by Douglas Walker

Douglas: Hello, and welcome to the Insights and Sound Bites podcast, where people facing vision loss share insights about what has helped them cope and adjust.

Voice 1: You cannot do this alone. You need people who are experiencing the same thing.

Voice 2: Probably the hardest part was just navigating through the emotions of it.

Douglas Walker: My name is Douglas Walker. When you’re new to vision loss it can take time to learn to do things in a new way. Today we’ll be hearing from Ruth. Ruth will share with us some of the things that helped her work through the emotions of vision loss

Ruth: It was gradual that the vision problem developed, and I was still working full-time. And I found myself using magnifying glasses to check my work on my computer at work, to check numbers. I did a lot of work with numbers at that time. I also did lots and lots of sewing. I love working with fabric and sewing. That has really suffered, but I was able to accomplish much more in less time until I began to lose my vision.

I have COPD as well as the vision problem, and they both seemed to appear or be identified at about the same time. And I came home one day, I just went to bed and cried. And then after a while, I didn't go to sleep and I didn't die and I thought, "Now, Ruth, this is stupid. Just get up. There's lots of living to do, get up and go get busy." So, after that, I decided to face the world and cope with problems that were there.

When I was a little girl, my mother had a slogan, she said, "Knock the T off can't," and that's been something that I would keep in mind all my life. And so instead of thinking, "I can't do that," yes, just knock the T off and do it.

Well, at first, my family almost freaked out. I have a younger sister who called practically every day. "How are your eyes? How are your eyes?" Well, she drove me bats and I said, "This is not that bad. I'm doing pretty much normal things."

One of the first things I worried about was personal hygiene and makeup. What if I got my eyebrow pencil in the wrong place? Things like that. I worried about that. So, it's kind of a joke in my intimate friends and family. If you see that I've drawn a line where it shouldn't be, let me know. One of the goals I had was just to continue as much as I could the life that I had been living and make as minimal amount of change as necessary, and I think I still approach life that way.

Douglas Walker: Was there something that someone said to you or something someone did for you early on that made all the difference in the world in helping you to adjust to living with vision loss?

We’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to share with us, just leave us a message on our Insights and Soundbites podcast voicemail by calling 847-512-4867. Or you can use your smartphone or computer to email us a recording to [email protected]. Again, my name is Douglas Walker, take care and see you next time.