Flower
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I've lived for decades with just some central vision in my right eye, the other eye is blind after the ravages of proliferative retionopathy in the late 1980's early 90's.
I haven't got any peripheral vision at all, it was lasered to try and protect my central vision. I still think of peripheral as meaning the sides but it also means loss of sight above and below. I've found my way of coping and bizarrely needing crutches to walk due to Charcot foot and having my leg/legs in casts for the past 25 years helps in that I can feel the edges of pavements, steps and kerbs as I can't distinguish them.
Sometimes I get really scared in busy areas, stations etc where people are crisscrossing in front of me and I don't see them until we almost/do collide. I have no sight in low light and the dark so have lights that stay on in my house and I always carry a torch.
I manage and try to carry on doing what I need to. I had a bad fall about 7 days back in my house, thankfully I didn't break any bones- my right leg is already in a cast! I tripped over the vacuum that I'd abandoned on the floor to answer the door. I didn't see it, it just wasn't in my very limited field of vision. I catapulted myself head over heels face down on the floor flat out, thankfully one side of me was a bit protected by my crutches breaking my fall but my left hand side really hit the floor hard. I scared myself sick and lay there winded trying to work out what hurt the most.
It really frightened me how easy it was to damage and scare myself. I ventured out today but was so nervous and jumpy concentrating so hard on not tripping over, it's damaged my confidence and made me so aware of what I can't see and the dangers all around that aren't in my field of vision. I look up and trip over broken flagstones & uneven pavements or I look down and walk into people, I can't do both.
Just a grumble really on the reality of sight loss and a reminder how vital retinal screening is. There wasn't a National retinal screening programme back in the 1980's when proliferative retinopathy hit me so aggressively & I didn't know anything was wrong until it was too late. Anti Vegf eye injections which are so effective at limiting retinopathy & maculopathy progression didn't exist back then so my only option was surgery and maximum laser.
Lesson learned. Do not drop anything on the floor because falling over is so painful and very frightening.
I need to find my confidence and mojo again 🙄
I haven't got any peripheral vision at all, it was lasered to try and protect my central vision. I still think of peripheral as meaning the sides but it also means loss of sight above and below. I've found my way of coping and bizarrely needing crutches to walk due to Charcot foot and having my leg/legs in casts for the past 25 years helps in that I can feel the edges of pavements, steps and kerbs as I can't distinguish them.
Sometimes I get really scared in busy areas, stations etc where people are crisscrossing in front of me and I don't see them until we almost/do collide. I have no sight in low light and the dark so have lights that stay on in my house and I always carry a torch.
I manage and try to carry on doing what I need to. I had a bad fall about 7 days back in my house, thankfully I didn't break any bones- my right leg is already in a cast! I tripped over the vacuum that I'd abandoned on the floor to answer the door. I didn't see it, it just wasn't in my very limited field of vision. I catapulted myself head over heels face down on the floor flat out, thankfully one side of me was a bit protected by my crutches breaking my fall but my left hand side really hit the floor hard. I scared myself sick and lay there winded trying to work out what hurt the most.
It really frightened me how easy it was to damage and scare myself. I ventured out today but was so nervous and jumpy concentrating so hard on not tripping over, it's damaged my confidence and made me so aware of what I can't see and the dangers all around that aren't in my field of vision. I look up and trip over broken flagstones & uneven pavements or I look down and walk into people, I can't do both.
Just a grumble really on the reality of sight loss and a reminder how vital retinal screening is. There wasn't a National retinal screening programme back in the 1980's when proliferative retinopathy hit me so aggressively & I didn't know anything was wrong until it was too late. Anti Vegf eye injections which are so effective at limiting retinopathy & maculopathy progression didn't exist back then so my only option was surgery and maximum laser.
Lesson learned. Do not drop anything on the floor because falling over is so painful and very frightening.
I need to find my confidence and mojo again 🙄
