[stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Anita,

I can no longer make out objects. All I "see" is light, so any light,
even a small lamp, can cause sensitivity, usually leading to headaches
if I don't wear sunglasses. I even have to wear them indoors a lot,
which I hate, but I'd rather wear them frequently than experience
migraines frequently.

I use to wear sunglasses around the house even if light was too bright,
though we normally didn't have lights on unless people were over. Now
with the baby though, we have lights on constantly and have the curtains
open. I don't like to wear sunglasses with the baby so he can see my
face and facial expressions.

My sungalsses are always cute though, grin. Right now I have a purple
pair with small pink rinestones on the side with black lenses. They are
a little bigger in size; kind of a Jackie O style.

I do miss looking at the scenery of life. I can picture the world in my
head, but it would be nice to have a different view each day other than
this TV fuzz, grin & sigh.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter, editor, Slate & Style
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can
satisfy, we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for
another world."
C. S. Lewis

Message: 12
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:26:09 -0500
From: Anita Ogletree <yrstrli at gmail.com>
To: Writer's Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling
Message-ID: <5118ff8b.b2763a0a.6159.2826 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed

Bridgit,

I have heard that a lot of blind people opt to wear dark shades 
to protect their eyes.  My problem with that is this: I have been 
using that part of my vision all of my life.  I love that I can 
see the sun light (especially when I can catch it when it peeps 
in slowbby through a slight part in the curtains or blinds). When I look
around a room (like I am doing now as I write), I can 
pick up the colorful furniture in the living room.  The walls are 
painted white in the living room but my furniture (if I can 
remember correctly) is a darker color that I have just decided 
not to try to guess because I will probably be wrong.  But if I 
were to wear dark shades, the shadows get a little darker and I 
feel crazed.  i also get a little dizzy.  When I was in school 
out in California, I was given orientation and mobility training 
on campus.  I did ol up until I started experiencing dizziness. I was
told that my equilibrium was thrown off due to an inner ear 
infection which occurred if I had a cobbd or a sinus infection.  
It in happened very frequently back then and it is one of the 
reasons I withdrew from school.  I do not have that problem as 
much anymore and possibly not at all.  I believe I mentioned that 
my doctors told me that I had developed this nerve condition 
usually brought on by stffess.  Between trying to navigate around 
campus, trying to study without adequate or efficient support was 
very stressful.
I can walk with a sighted guide and sometimes I have been told 
that I am pushing them.  But what they didn't understand is that 
I had no control over what was happening nor was I aware that I 
was doing so.  It is almost impossible for me to walk around a 
track for exercise or anything else with my cane and I don't tend 
to sway to one side or another.
No one has ever told me this might be related to the 
lightstobject perception I have.

Anita