[humanser] news

[JD Townsend]

Excellent question & actually a good one for the list.

The reference to the power of the white cane referred to, in my little mind, 
the power of one to be a successful blind person in a sighted world that 
finds blindness next to Ebola as the worst thing that can happen to a 
person.  By the end of the article this psychotherapist is seeing a light at 
the end of that histrionic view of blindness.

I was asked to speak to a state blindness conference in New Jersey in the 
early 1980’s.  I touched on the narcissistic injury that occurs when one 
becomes blind.  At least one member of the audience vigorously objected 
believing that I was suggesting that blind persons are, by definition, 
mentally ill.

Any reduction in our abilities is a minor narcissistic injury, like the 
pulled muscle in my hit that happened yesterday while gardening.  It isn’t 
much and will not last long, but at the time I felt diminished.  Likewise 
blindness is an injury to an organ and to our healthy sense of self.  So, it 
is an issue if we perceive it to be, as the woman in the article.  But, by 
the end of the story it had host its immediate, devastating impact and she 
saw the “power of the white cane” in, let
S hope, a larger framework.


JD
-----Original Message----- 
From: Doug Lee
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2014 10:38 PM
To: JD Townsend
Subject: Re: [humanser] news

Doing this one off list to avoid a major debate off topic :-)

I am curious what about the final paragraph of this story is positive
to you. I like the idea of "the power of the white cane," but I cringe
at the idea of that "power" being that of clearing seats instead of
providing independence. Seen as a first view of the power of the cane,
it may be ok I suppose...

But I ask because I wonder if your comment referred to that part of
the text, and how if so; or if it referred to something else.

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 09:28:24PM -0400, JD Townsend via humanser wrote:

Another news story about a blind psychotherapist.  This one a bit of 
melodrama, but with a positive ending paragraph.


  The Day My World Went Dark.
By ELEANOR LEW.  I was watching Diane Sawyer on the evening news,
wondering how she manages year after year to look so young, when
suddenly her face disappeared.  Now you see.  Now you don't.  One
second.  That's all it took.  A dense black inkblot shaped like a
map of England and southern Norway suddenly blocked my view of
Diane so that all I could see was her blond hair and shoulders.
At first, I thought it was the television set.  Changing channels
didn't bring her face back, nor did rubbing my eyes.
'It's permanent vision loss1' my ophthalmologist said.  'Your
optic nerve and retina buckled.
He drew a picture of the inside of my right eye, the affected
one, and explained that my degenerative myopia, an inherited
condition that is far less common than ordinary nearsightedness
but still a leading cause of blindness worldwide, had caused my
eyeball to elongate excessively.  It looked like a house whose
walls had been stretched so thin that the roof caved.
The doctor didn't say much else, didn't make any recommendations
for physical or oc'cup'ational therapy, didn't tell me to call
him if I noticed any changes.  I left his office shaken.  'What
if it happens in my other eye? What if..."
In the weeks that followed, I began to notice bizarre changes in
my right eye.  Frequent flashing lights, like a dying neon tube,
sometimes flickering color or bright white light, so intense I
swore I could hear them buzz.  I observed my peripheral vision
diminishing.  England and Norway morphed into a large, bushy oak
tree with a short and wide trunk.  At a park, I came upon
children playing.  When I covered my good eye with my hand, I
could see only a sliver of sky, and legs and shoes of children
running in and out of the tree.
I wrote off the psychedelic changes to the 'buckling' and didn't
bother to call my ophthalmologist.  But I was scared and needed
help.
Calling around, I found little help for the 'partly sighted'
until a friend told me to call Ashby Village, one of about 120
'villages' that have been established throughout the country to
help seniors live independently in their own homes.  That's how I
found Thelma Elkins, a 90-year-old former social worker who had
just founded a support group for those losing their vision.
Thelma and the group have become my lifeline, a place where we
can share notes about the newest research and talk about the
anger and fears that at times overwhelm us.  At the beginning, a
few members didn't see the necessity of opening up and talking
about feelings.  They left the group.  The rest of us understood
the importance of staying connected to others, of countering the
isolation that declining vision brings.
Together we grieve the death of the independent life we used to
live and voice the anguish of being trapped at home, no longer
able to drive.  One member talked about feeling outraged that his
doctor didn't have time to talk about a vitamin regimen called
AREDS2 that might slow the progression of macular degeneration.
Another told of the terror she felt when a hallucination of large
tropical flowers popped up in front of her eyes while she was
driving, a phenomenon called Charles Bonnet syndrome that is
caused by the brain's efforts to compensate for vision loss.  We
provide comfort when a member recalls his panic after becoming
lost in a crowd in a large Greek port and not being able to
remember the cruise ship's name.  What we really share is hope.
As I nonchalantly described the creeping reduction in my
peripheral vision to my group, a couple of them urged me to call
my doctor and get an appointment for the next day.  I did.  My
ophthalmologist's eyebrows lifted as he assessed the changes.  He
suspected wet macular degeneration, caused by abnormal blood
vessel growth, was contributing to my vision problems and he
called my retinologist's office.
My first eye injection came next.  The retinologist adjusted my
chair until it was in a horizontal position, clamped my eyelid to
keep it from blinking and then said, 'Look down and to the left!
He carefully inserted a hypodermic needle full of medication into
my numbed eyeball.  He said I was lucky because the medication,
which came on the market in 2006, stops the bleeding and
vascularization.
I felt a prick and noticed a tiny floating water bubble, the
medication, and then it burst in my field of vision.  The world
turned purple, and I felt slightly faint for a few seconds.  My
doctor reached out his hand to shake mine, saying, 'I'll see you
again in four weeks.
The medication is working its magic, and the old oak tree has
shrunk back to its original shape of England and Norway.  I have
more peripheral vision.  Every day when I wake up, I check to see
that my good eye is still inkblot free and that England and
Norway are still the same size.
I still have a hard time talking to friends about my condition
because I am scared I will make them feel uncomfortable and drive
them away.  I read an article written by a blind woman about how
people assume that she can't possibly be intelligent.  They
sometimes shout at her, assuming that she's also deaf.  My
support group has helped me practice sharing my story with
others.
Recently, I accompanied a blind man I had met at the Oakland
Lions Center for the Blind to the BART station.  When my new
friend and I got on the train, his white cane, signifying his
blindness, prompted four people to offer their seats so fast that
I could feel the wind from their movements.  We took two of those
vacated seats.  I was happy to note the power of the white cane.
If and when it is time for me to use one, I will be ready.
Eleanor Lew is a marriage and family therapist and practices in
Berkeley and Emeryville, Calif.


JD Townsend LCSW
Helping the light dependent to see.
Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System
sh: vcard-filter: command not found

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-- 
Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
SSB BART Group           doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com 
http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
"Innovation is hard to schedule." -- Dan Fylstra

JD Townsend LCSW
Helping the light dependent to see.
Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System