"Things Turned Around for Me"

Insights and Sound Bites

Things Turned Around for Me

Presented by Douglas Walker

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.

Voice 3: Think if this had happened to a dear friend of yours, how much you feel for him or her.

Douglas: Hello, and welcome to the Insights and Sound Bites Podcast. My name is Douglas Walker. It's really hard to hear that nothing can be done to correct your vision. Today we'll hear from Darryl. Darryl will share with us how a referral to a low vision specialist was where his life with vision loss began to turn around.

Darryl: In my case I'm legally blind, but that doesn't mean I'm totally blind. The way I put it is I can see, but I just don't see very good. I can't see things at a distance. I can't see things close up to write.

The doctors weren't particularly encouraging about the dry macular degeneration. They weren't encouraging that there was any solution to that and they'd say, "Well, I don't think there will be a cure in your lifetime," which didn't really get you really excited and want to be what you wanted to hear.

It's sort of at that point where I decided, and then I was lucky I got referred to a low vision specialist, and that's where I think things turned around for me, that I kind of felt like, "Okay, now this is going to help me," because what I'm looking for, is I'm looking for things and ways that can help me see better with the vision I have, and that's sort of my goal.

Douglas: Yeah, I can see, I just can't see things very good. That can be so frustrating but a visit to a low vision specialist gave Darryl just the tools he needed to use the vision he still has. 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 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 and email us a recording to podcasts@hadley.edu. Again, my name is Douglas Walker, take care and see you next time.