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My name is Mark Burtis, I am 49 years old, been married 27 years and have been blessed with three sons...One 22 and twins 18...I have very low vision, just another name for bad vsion, caused by a rare inherited eye disease called Juvenile Sex-linked Retinoschsis....I started noticing a big differance in vision around age 20...I had lazy eye and was operated on at age 7 so have wore glasses almost my entire life...At age 19-20 I was diagnosed as having glaucoma and things spiraled down from there ...It became hard to see at night...and my driving starting to become affected...By age 30 I was allowed to drive day-light only...but I cheated...I could not pass the eye test for driving and always had the optometrist sign my card....my luck finally ran out 4 years ago....I ended up with 20/200 vision with glasses and my right eye is 20/400....Now for transportation I use a bicycle...and have to be extra careful...In my driving career I never had one accident and brag to this day...I thrive on magnifiers and flashlights...A strong light is essential for me to see...and use a special 10 power lighted magnifier and have 4 power bi-focals, so pretty much read with my nose...I enjoy Talking Books from the NLC [green boxes] and recieve many magazines on tape...My ears do the work now....TV is tough to enjoy, except if I get about 3 feet away and have no distractions...My favorite program is Touched By An Angel on Sunday nite and also Court TV [only need ears for this one]..I quess the worst thing I miss with low vision is the ability to go where I want to and do the things I used to do...I feel I have adapted well as my home is my cocoon....I also put in 30 years with Kmart but lost out because of the pressure and stress....I am now on Disability...My depression has been lingering for around 6 years now...and I take Prozac to curb it, but have not yet felt the true help from it...The computer is my joy now, since the fonts can be blown up if needed. plus I meet new friends on Email...It gets embarrassing in public when you can not recognize faces..The wife helps on this...I am getting good at "seeing" by voices now, though...My favorite hobbies are Tropical fish, music [anything but classical], NBA basketball cards [definitely use a magnifier then], and best of all my pet rattey [domesticated rat] Bene'. Sher gives me something to take care of and not alot of trouble...My wife holds down a 40+ hour job and I call myself Mr. Mom...I do all the house chore s cept cooking...don't like reading the labels with a magnifier...I have everthing else memorized... Juvenile sex-linked Retinoschsis is genetic and passed down from the female...They are only the carriers and the sons get the gene...Any daughters from the said family would also carry the gene and pass it on....from what research I have read so far it sounds like the disease almost all originated in the northern Canadian area..Which held true for me as my grand-parents were from Canada..My mother , 70, has 20/20 vision but we both have cataracts...I don't notice mine since the loss of side vision...I was an only child and with my three sons the disease cycle has stopped on my side of the family....Back to Bat Cave page-click here