January 2 - Happy New Year

The New Year has begun and so I want to wish us all a happy and healthy year ahead in 2019. I’m sorry I didn’t put up any posts during the holiday season but we had two little two-year old grandchildren running around our house, and while this was enormous fun, I spent considerable time trying to stay out of the way.

Holiday times, birthdays and other special occasions often find me feeling a little nostalgic. This year I found myself in a different space of reflection. It occurred to me that I have now spent nearly half of my lifetime as a visually impaired person. In fact, unless I am in unfamiliar surroundings or confronting new situations, I rarely focus on the fact that I am legally blind.

Do I even remember what it is like to be fully sighted? I’m not sure that I do. I certainly don’t spend any time thinking that I used to be able to drive a vehicle or see the printed word. I am becoming more used to people identifying themselves to me when we meet on the street or in the store. I do recall that originally I was quite sensitive about this. These days I am just grateful for the information.

Perhaps all this means that I am finally becoming adjusted. I am looking forward to 2019. Lyle and I have a few adventures planned and God willing, weather permitting, it should be a good year. I wish the same to all of you.

December 17 - T V for the Visually Impaired

Lyle and I don’t watch a lot of television but there are certain programs that we enjoy more than others. For instance, we both like the music programs on PBS. We like documentaries and travel programs, and as for me, I like sitcoms where I know the characters and I can “watch” with my eyes closed.

However, it isn’t the programming that I want to write about. It is the advertising  -advertising that seems even more constant as Christmas approaches. What are these commercials all about? Have you ever tried to just listen and to watch the ads with your eyes closed?

Some commercials give the viewer absolutely no idea of the product or store they are claiming to promote. Perhaps there might be images portrayed with musical background, and then at the very end, a single word in tiny print flashed on the screen. Obviously, these commercials aren’t geared to the interests of viewers who listen rather than see their advertising. Sometimes Lyle and I will amuse ourselves by taking guesses as to the product being promoted. I will be glad when the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day sales have run their course.

In the meantime, I wish everyone all the blessings of the Christmas season. May good health and happy times be with you and with those you love.

Sue

December 1 – Blue Sky Ahead

November has been a difficult month for us and it is with some relief that this weekend we were able to turn the calendar page to December. I think that most people go through a rough patch now and then, and this past month has been the time for us. Injury and loss have taken an emotional toll. I think that it is at times like these it is so important to have a support system. Our friends and family have been good to us and although we aren’t out of the woods yet, we can see blue skies ahead.

Two highlights of the month have been musical evenings. Last week we went to a John Denver Tribute. Lyle loves Denver music and the night was a good escape. I am so so on the Denver music part but I did appreciate the quality of the sound and the comfortable seating at the Winspear Concert Hall. Thanks Jonathan and Laura for the ticket gift!

Then, this past week there was a real treat. We went with friends to the Oh What A Night Tribute. The first half of the concert was a tribute to Frankie Valli and the second half was Christmas music with a tribute to Andy Williams. Again, the night was an escape for us from the sadness that had prevailed over the past couple of weeks. The music was performed by a male quartet. They were talented vocally and extraordinarily agile and coordinated on stage. There were quite a few costume changes during their routines and Lyle described these to me during the show. It was all great fun, and being with friends was the icing on the cake.

 Perhaps you might remember that I wrote about this particular quartet in the spring. We had attended a performance then too and our friend George had taken a picture of me with James, one of the group members. George had his phone along again last night and we were able to show the picture to James, as well as take another photo. There is a picture of James standing with me at this latest concert. I would highly recommend this group’s performance to anyone who likes to tap their toes to lively music.
www.ohwhatanighttribute.com

So, the countdown to Hanukkah and Christmas has begun. Our church calendar calls this season Advent – a time of anticipation and preparation. Lyle and I are certainly looking ahead to blue skies and brighter days.

Sue with James

November 22 - White Cane Lesson Learned

I feel a little silly writing this after my words of wisdom from last week. I suppose that I still have a lesson or two yet to learn. I should remember that I need to always have my cane with me. I didn’t exactly do that this past week.

Here is the story.

Lyle injured his back and we decided to go to the doctor. The doctor referred us to the local hospital for an x-ray. All good so far and I had my white cane not exactly with me but in the car. It was folded and on the floor in the passenger side. I didn’t take it into the hospital with me because really we were just going in for an x-ray and it was the local and familiar hospital and I had Lyle’s arm to guide me.

Well, the x-ray was taken but there was an anomaly. Lyle was referred further afield for a CT scan. No problem except that the doctor insisted that the safest way to travel there was by ambulance. By this stage Lyle was dressed in one of those pretty hospital gowns and I didn’t think that I could find my way back to the car by myself to get my cane.

Fortunately, we lucked out with an amazing pair of ambulance attendants. Bonnie took the car keys and made a quick dash out to our car to retrieve my cane before we set out again. How foolish I was not to have the cane with me in the first place.

That night we were shipped around for a further CT scan and more tests in a larger city hospital. Although I travelled with Lyle in the ambulance, we were often separated when he needed to go for these tests. How glad I was to have my cane with me. It was definitely a lesson learned. I use a fold up cane so it is very simple to have it with me even when I feel that I only need Lyle’s arm to guide me.

The end of the story is that Lyle is feeling better although still needs to be careful with his back. As for me, well I learned yet another white cane lesson.

We are also very grateful to Bonnie and Craig, the two ambulance attendants based out of Rimbey. We also owe a huge thank you to the doctors and nurses at the University Hospital in Edmonton.  Lyle received excellent care there and I was treated with care and courtesy as his accompanying spouse.

November 15 - Learning New Skills As A Visually Impaired Person

When my sight changed all those years ago now, I was given two pieces of advice. The first was from my ophthalmologist who told me very bluntly that I should go home and learn braille. He told me that I would likely become blind, that there was nothing he could do for me and that I should start learning braille right away. The second piece of advice came from Lyle. Because computers were just coming into their own, Lyle suggested that I learn touch typing. This was good advice.

Well, after several attempts, I’m afraid that I didn’t master braille. Fortunately though the pessimistic prediction of that particular ophthalmologist hasn’t come to pass either. I am indeed “legally blind” but I do have much more sight than he forecast.

However, in the initial days of my vision loss I persisted in teaching myself to type. Indeed, I have come from tapping away with two fingers to becoming a fairly proficient typist.

It was at our last peer support group meeting that Denis reminded me of all this. Lyle had read out a lengthy manuscript that I had written. Denis was curious to know if I had typed it myself or if Lyle had done this for me. I felt pretty good when I acknowledged that I had done it on my own.

It was only after our meeting that I started to mull over the different skills I have acquired over the years. When I was a fully sighted person, I didn’t anticipate that I would need to have more than a two finger typing skill. I now type with both speed and reasonable accuracy. Nor did I anticipate that I would be using an audible screen reading program on my computer instead of using my eyes to see the print on the screen.  It was another skill to be learned.

As a fully sighted person, I was an avid reader. Little did I know that as a visually impaired person I would now need to develop my listening skills if I was to continue to enjoy books, magazines, newspapers and other literary works. Listening instead of seeing is a learned skill.

As a sighted person, I had never thought about using a white cane as a mobility tool.  Again, this was something I needed to learn. There is an art to using a cane safely. I took mobility cane instruction with Janice at the Edmonton CNIB office. Thanks Janice for your patience with me.

While becoming partially sighted might not be the best thing to happen to a person, it is not the worst either. Certainly for me, diminished sight created opportunities for new learning experiences. As well as the above obvious challenges, I went back to university and earned a Masters Degree. I gave the valedictorian speech at my graduation and was offered other opportunities for public speaking.

In spite of, or perhaps because of the varying difficulties associated with some of these lessons, I found that I was in a position where I could share my experiences with others in similar situations. Of all the new things that I have learned over this journey with vision loss, I feel that lesson of sharing with others is the experience which has meant the most to me.

November 10 - Sight and Sound

Lyle and I both enjoy live on-stage performances and concerts of all kinds. I think that I have mentioned this before. We like plays, musicals, single and group performers and so on. However, when we book our tickets, we always choose carefully so that I can get the most out of what I can see and hear. This sight and sound combination is fairly irrelevant to Lyle but because we are a team, he always obliges me with our seat choice.

For the most part, this choice of seating works well. Alas, it was not the case for a concert we attended last week. Celtic Thunder was performing at the Penticton Entertainment Centre, B.C.  – a venue which doubles as the ice arena in season. Our seats were in the second row, seats which we thought would be a good choice. This was not the case.

For starters, the front row was set far back from the stage. I knew immediately that I wouldn’t be able to see anything, but I reasoned that this was a musical group and I would really just be listening for the sound.

Sound it was! It turned out that we were seated in front of one of the speakers and the bass appeared to be turned up full volume. My chest vibrated with every bass note.  At one point, I was so startled that I fairly jumped off my hard stadium style seat.

Lyle and I were both disappointed with the concert. We thought afterwards that the selection of musical items might also have contributed to our disappointment. We had anticipated that the program would have included more of an Irish flavour.

Now this post is not just a critique of one concert. Instead I wish to say that we don’t intend to let this one night hinder us from enjoying future musicals and other live performances. Again we will try to find seats that will allow the most beneficial combination of sight and sound for me, but whatever the result, we will make the most of the experience. There is certainly something to be said for being part of a live audience. In fact, at our Celtic Thunder concert, we were seated in the midst of some Celtic Thunder groupies, and I enjoyed their enthusiasm even more than the concert itself.

There is always something to take away from every experience.

November 1 - Blindness and Hope

This past week, I was talking with an elderly friend. My friend has no sight in her left eye and over this past while, she realized that the sight in her right eye was deteriorating. My friend expressed such sadness at the prospect of becoming completely blind. She said that she felt that there was no purpose left in her life.

The conversation with my friend took me back to the early days of my own vision loss. It has been some time now since I dealt with that dramatic and traumatic change. I know that I have come a long way since then but I can still recall the emotional upheaval that initial diagnosis brought. 

In many ways, the initial experience of vision loss has given me some insight and understanding of what other people might be experiencing. Although we all feel grief and loss in ways that are unique to our own situations, there are also common threads.  When someone is grieving over a loss, it is not unusual for them to have feelings of denial. Why is this happening, or why is it happening to me? They might have feelings of anger, of frustration or confusion. There is often a time of extreme sadness bordering on depression. This is what my friend was feeling. While all these feelings can overwhelm a person at different times and last for differing durations, eventually most people reach a stage of acceptance.

I like to think that my own experience has broadened my horizons and brought me to a place where I can be more sensitive to the needs of others. I would like my life to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Dealing with blindness or change because of vision loss can be challenging for sure, but life can go on. I prefer to look at life with hope and optimism.