"Sometimes you can't help but laugh"

Hadley

“Sometimes you can’t help but laugh”

Scotty: I would just sit here in my chair and think about going blind. And what it meant to me, and you know, what it means to my wife. And that’s when I had the pity party.

Marc: This is Hadley’s Insights and Sound Bites, where people facing vision loss share what has helped them cope and adjust.

Scotty: Scott Stecker and I live in Metamora, Ohio. That's a little dot on the map.
I had gone to three different eye specialists all for the same thing. Something that's in my retina and it's growing. And they don't have a diagnosis for it cause it is so rare they don't even know. So, I said OK.

And then I asked my wife cause she has to do the driving and you know she got some stuff going on too in her life, but I said, “baby, you know, I want to go to Cleveland Clinic.” She said, “OK.”

So, we went there and I went through the same thing, the four different rooms and then the doctor, who was exceptionally nice, didn't act like a doctor that knew everything, but did act like a doctor that would answer all my questions.

So, we went there and I asked her, I said, so what is it? And she said this was my 4th doctor, she said, “I don't know.” And so, she looked at the other three and she said, “you know, the first one could have been right, the second one could have been right, and the third one could have been right. And Scotty, I really don't have a diagnosis because it's so rare.”

And I said, “OK, well, I already know the answer.” But I said, “so is there any surgery that can keep me from going blind?” And she said “no.”

And I remember how that affected me. So, you know, we made another appointment up there, you know, a month, month and a half later. And then, I would just sit here in my chair and think about going blind. And what it meant to me, and you know what it means to my wife. And that's when I had the pity party. Tears. You know, oh me, oh my, you know what's going on.

And I am just crying. So that was my first episode when I first knew in the fact that I'm going blind.

So here in Toledo, they've got this place called the Sight Center. What a wonderful, I mean this place, was just really gracious. They had the four different stations and then the second station was with an optometrist, not a specialist, and she went through everything. I mean magnifying glasses I can carry in my pocket or any of this. And I said, well, you know, I can't read the menu now when we go out to eat. And so, she had something, something or something. So, she tested my eyes and then then she came up with, well, you know, “can you read a book?”

And I said “barely, you know, with these glasses.” So, she said, “well, you know, let me let me give you some advice,” she said. “I want you to go to like the Walgreens or whatever it is, and I want you to get yourself a three-point 6-0 reading glass, 8 bucks, 9 bucks.” And I said “OK.” So, what a wonderful thing that was.

Just a quick story. I have lymphedema and it flares up from time to time and sometimes my legs can get so big. I mean, they're gigantic and I mean that. And so, my son's got this thing that when he first saw me, everybody was over here and he looked at me and he says, “Hey, elephant legs.”

You know what you hear that and you can't help but laugh because laughter is a great medicine and everybody else at the table was laughing and I thought, Thank God for that, Lord, because you know, anything takes my mind off of going blind is such a, such a blessing.

It took everybody's mind off of me and put it back to the family and then I could just sit down and enjoy hearing my family talk and what they're talking about. And every now and then I would interject, just things that I thought, but it was a wonderful thing.

Is it a struggle? Yes. It just brought laughter to us. It's such an encouraging thing when we laugh and takes away any type of feelings of insecurity or, I don't want to live the rest of my life, with the thought, you know, well, you're going blind and I choose not to live that way.

I hope this helps somebody. Thank you.

Marc: If this story helped you, consider a Giving Tuesday gift to Hadley so someone else can find the same support. Visit hadleyhelps.org/GivingTuesday or call us at 800-323-4238.

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].