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Thank you for responding. I would love to join RPemail list.
In regards to your earlier question, yes, I've had o & m training. I spent 6 weeks at the Addie McBryde Center for the Blind at the UMC in Jackson, MS. I really learned a lot. My instructors were either legally blind or completely blind. It was a wonderful and reassuring stay. VocRehab has also been very helpful in providing visual aids for me.
In Feb. 1990, I was found to have a malignant melanoma which finally required the enucleation of my left eye in Oct.'97. I began laser surgery in 1992 when it started to grow. I had 4. It was never completely destroyed because of the location(the choroid at the back near the optic nerve), and growth began again between one 6 mo. checkup and the next in 1996. This time I had cryrosurgery. Between 1994 - 1996 the vision in my right eye began to deteriorate rapidly. I went through many kinds of tests, but no one could find the cause. I returned for my 6 mo. checkup in Sept. 1997. The melanoma had increased greatly in size, so I was scheduled for surgery on Oct. 10, 1997. I requested a referral to a neuro-ophthalmologist for my vision loss. (She) told me it was mental. ??? This was based on tests less than my ophthalmologists always did, and the fact that she kept telling me to compare a letter to others of similar shape and size and 'guess'. I was not there for a test of my cognitive abilities! I was a learning disabilities teacher, for Heaven's sake. I know all about skills to use to 'figure' out what things are. I taught it for nearly 18 years.
I see multiple images of letters and objects. Patched blacktop looks like a 3D object sitting in the road. I am so extremely photophobic that I am totally blind outside unless it is dark or stormy. Lights look like what children draw - the long spokes coming out all around them. Fluorescent lights in stores with glass display cases cause almost the same problems as the sun does.
There have been several cases of unknown blindness in my mother's family in each generation as far back as they can remember. This doesn't seem to make any difference to any, except one, of the doctors I've seen. He was also a neuro-ophthalmologist who I saw after the fiasco with the first one. He put me through many, many tests, but nothing showed up. He said "There are many things that can affect the vision that we have no knowledge about." He also said that I am legally blind, must not become complacent because melanomas are notorious for turning up again, and I needed to learn to settle for what I am capable of doing. At least he made me feel as if I was not insane. I apologize. I become very angry when I think about what I've been through with most of the doctors I've seen, AND Social Security. Anyway, that's the background of my eye condition. Thank you for your invitation. Talk to you soon. Nettie