January 9 - Hope for 2015

I met Peter several years ago when Lyle and I were walking on the beach in Australia. I was walking beside Lyle, but Peter was walking alone using his white cane. I was quite impressed by this. Peter has no sight at all and I thought he was incredibly brave to tackle this walk without the benefit of a curb or grass edge on the side of a path. Peter assured me that he felt safe.  However, this time, Peter did tell me an interesting story of being stung by a blue bottle when he was on the less populated end of the beach. Blue bottles have a nasty sting and Peter said that he had some sort of allergic reaction to it. He felt quite dizzy and nauseous and needed to sit down. For the first time he found himself wondering how he would attract attention if he couldn’t make it back to the busier part of the beach on his own. Fortunately for Peter, the spell passed and he was able to return home under his own steam.

Peter and I also spoke about his potential participation in some cutting edge research. Around the world there are a number of research projects with the goal of restoring sight to the blind. About four years ago Peter heard a radio announcement soliciting volunteers for one such project. Peter contacted the institute and is gradually making his way through the selection process.

First he had to meet some initial requirements. Participants in the research needed to be completely blind but with no damage to the optic nerve.  Participants needed to have had sight at some stage. They needed to be in good physical health and to have no brain damage or other physical challenges. Peter had lost his sight in an industrial accident when he was in his early twenties and the damage was to the exterior of his eyes.  Peter was able to pass these screening requirements successfully. He continued on to fill in several reams of paper work giving his consent to the ethics part of the research.

In 2014 the field of potential candidates was narrowed to ten. Peter flew to Melbourne for an MRI and a comprehensive health check. He passed this with flying colours. The next step is for the researchers to choose one volunteer candidate for surgery. In this surgery, several – Peter thinks that it will be eight – tiny chips will be inserted into the brain. The blind person will then put on a pair of glasses with a miniscule camera in the lens. Somehow or other the sight images will be transferred from the camera to the chips in the brain. If the surgery is successful, participants have been told that at best their sight will be fuzzy and in black and white only. It will be something similar to the first TV reception.

Only one of the ten candidates will be chosen for this first surgery and Peter is hopeful that it will be him. I am keeping my fingers crossed for Peter and I am looking forward to our next conversation when Lyle and I return to Australia.

The picture below shows Peter and myself standing by the beach after a morning cup of coffee. We are both using our white canes. This worked well when we walked side by side. I am right handed but Peter is left-handed and so we could walk without our canes clashing together. 

Peter and Sue

January 2 - Winter Days

While today in Alberta there may be blue sky and sunshine, tomorrow might be drab and colourless. I enjoy the cheeriness of those bright days, but I find that the brightness is hard on my eyes. I wear sunglasses but still tend to squint to keep out the glare. On the other hand, I find the dullness of a grey sky quite depressing but easier on the eyes. The one consistent thing about winter days is that they are short and daylight hours are never long enough.

We have just come back from a long walk by the river and it was one of those grey sky days. I found myself thinking of Connie. I met Connie in Nova Scotia during the White Cane Connections Cross Canada walks. Connie is colour blind. I don’t mean that she can’t distinguish between red and green or blue and brown. I mean that she simply can’t see colur. It was perhaps what I saw today on my walk – white snow, dark trees and bushes and other objects that tended to blend into a dark mass of green or was it grey or perhaps brown or black. Connie has never known what colour is and I found myself wondering how to explain colour to a person who has never seen it.

What feelings, emotions or sensations are evoked by different colours?  I am reminded of a little game that I once used as an icebreaker at a meeting. I had passed around some Smarties. The idea was that people would look at the colour of the Smartie they had chosen and tell the group how the colour made them feel. We had gone from the bright happy yellow to the soft mellow of blue when we came to the person holding the red Smartie. To that point, I had thought of red as being angry, but the person holding the red Smartie was Chinese and explained that for her red evoked happiness. Another person in the group also held a red Smartie and told that for her, red was a powerful colour. When she wore her red jacket, she always felt in charge and in a position of authority. I’m not sure if there is an adequate way to explain colour to someone who has never seen colour.

The lack of colour in the drab days of winter also makes me nostalgic for the bright spring days that we left behind us in Australia just this past month. Spring in November is a burst of colour and I love it. Primary colours abound in most gardens. The two pictures with this post were taken within a block or so of where we stayed on our last visit there. The first is of a tree with an abundance of purple blossoms and I am standing in front. The second is of a bush of red leaves. It is great to have this blaze of colour before the dry days of an Australian summer. 

Sue in front of tree with purple blossoms

Bush with red leaves

December 28 - Making A List

Arriving home in Canada with just over two weeks until Christmas has proved to be an exceptionally busy time. There were so many jobs to take care of before the holiday season – cards and letters to write, gifts to buy and of course, getting the house ready with groceries in the fridge and clean sheets on the beds. I tend to make lists of all these jobs – well, isn’t that what Christmas is all about –making a list and checking it twice? Still, when one doesn’t see the printed word on a page, this making of a list does present some challenges. Usually, I will record my lists on a file on my computer. I can then hear what I have written with my audible program – JAWS. This works well when I am sitting at my desk. It doesn’t work quite as well when I need to take my list elsewhere, for instance to the grocery store. I am fortunate in that I have Lyle to read a print out of what we need and to help me search for grocery items in the store. I know of other people who are blind and who take an audio list of the items they need. Yes, with today’s technology there are ways to get around list making and memory reminders. For that I am grateful, in spite of at times feeling frustrated at the tedium of the process. As this year draws to a close I am also aware that some of my computer programs are another year older. I know that I am working with outdated equipment, but to upgrade costs money.   Nevertheless, this will be one of my goals for 2015 so I will start saving my pennies – well maybe loonies and toonies would be a better bet. Do you have goals for the coming year? It is almost time to make those famous New Year’s resolutions. As I have just written, I am a list person, so no doubt I will write down a few. With 2015 only three days away, I want to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the New Year. May it be one of good health and happy times.