"It Finally Clicked"

Hadley

It Finally Clicked

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: My name is Douglas Walker. It’s easy to deny a loss, especially when you feel all alone. Today, we’ll hear from Leah. Leah will share with us how she finally found hope by listening to others who are going through the same things.

Leah: My name is Leah Moore and I live in Omaha, Nebraska.

Just a little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy, late onset. At the time I just figured, you know, doctors have been wrong before. They've been wrong again, I'm not worried about it. And I just kind of blew it off. After about four months, everything started looking like it was crumpled up paper. If you had paper that somebody crumpled it up and then tried to flatten it out, it would've had all the crinkles in it. And at that time, I just thought, "Well, maybe I should probably have this in my medical record." So I called and got the information, and when the doctor diagnosed me, she said, "Within two years, you will not be able to drive. You will not be able to read, and you'll not be able to recognize anyone's faces."

I felt like the doctor kind of just threw me to the wolves. You're going to go blind. Oh, by the way, make an appointment to see me in a year.

My biggest issue was just accepting it, knowing this is really going to happen because I was in denial for so long and trying to make excuses for everything. And once it hit me, we were on our way to the Grand Canyon to see before I couldn't see, and that's when reality hit me.

I have heard, it seems like all my life, I've heard people say, you're not alone, you're not alone. For everything they say, you're not alone. And it just meant nothing to me until I was able to actually hear other people who really were going through the same things, or they've been through what I'm going through now. And they'll say, "I remember that time, and you're going to get through it just like I did." And it finally clicked. I am really am not alone.

I get up when I get upset. I start singing, "I can do anything better than you can."

It reminds me, I can keep going. It is not the end of the world, and you can't even see the end of the world from here. It just keeps on going. And I can keep going too.

I am absolutely lost if I didn't have the assistance of others and the guidance and the people who share their stories.

Douglas: Was there something that someone said to you or something that happened along the way that made all the difference in the world in helping you 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 & Sound Bites voicemail by calling, 847-512-4867. Or, you can use your smartphone or computer and email us a recording to podcast@Hadley.edu. Again, my name is Douglas Walker. Take care and I’ll see you next time.