Friday, August 07, 2009

New Beginnings

It has been nearly two years since I was able to access my blog and to write on the computer. I am so excited to be sitting here at my computer and doing things I used to do with ease. You see, I have had a life altering experience through the loss of most of my eyesight. The cause was Ischemic Optic Neuropathy. Yes, I had never heard of such a thing before myself! It is a rare condition, I learned. I have met only one other person who has it, and I will talk more about that the next time. For now, I just want to say that I am very happy to be writing here once again. I will be posting photos again, and writing again. I have NO IDEA of anyone reads my blog any more or not, but I will write anyway. It feels so GOOD to be able to do it.

My sight left in two stages, very quickly. First, on January first 2007 my left eye went. I was at the gym, and I noticed that my vision was blurry. I commented to my husband that "I don't know what is wrong, but I just cannot see today." Subsequently, I went to the doctors and quickly learned I did not have an eye problem, but I had a medical emergency. Blood tests were done to determine if I had a systemic illness or disease. I did not. Then, I had surgery on my right artery in my temple to remove part of it so determine if I had temporal arteritis...I did not. I am so thankful for that. Finally, the diagnosis was confirmed and I learned about my condition, Ischemic Optic Neuropathy!

I was told that most people only have it on one side. I did not need to worry, I could still manage to see to do my work, but with difficulty. I had problems knowing where things were in space. I had problems reading. But, I continued on, teaching my classes and living my life as usual, but with care and a bit of caution.

I searched the internet for this condition. I soon saw that most people DO get it on both sides, and lose vision in both eyes. I had 10 more months before that happened to me. About the end of October 2007 I again had the severe headaches and my vision began to blur. Once again, I was hit by this condition but now in the other eye.

Next, I will write about what I did after I experienced this sudden sight loss. I have told you what happened, and now I will tell you what I did about it to change my circumstances.

1 comment:

Camille Murawski said...

Dear Lynda,
I am a friend of Susan M's in Florida, and she directed me to your blog. My 16 year old son is currently going through a similar health crisis - his vision in his right eye went from 20/20 to 20/400 and seems to be losing sight in his left eye. they have ruled out all the usual suspects, and are now thinking he has Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. This won't be confirmed until we get back results of his genetic test.

Anyway, I am enjoying your blog and your beautiful jewelry :). nice to meet you...