Apolitical.

As I had stated in a post quite a while ago, I am making this blog apolitical. Pursuant to this goal I removed all links on the sidebar of a political nature.

I will be writing on political, social, religious, and philisophical issues on another blog.
I may delete older posts and re-post them on my newer blog, but I am not sure what the older political post's disposition will be. I will likely either post them on the new blog, or delete them entirely.

I will remain on this blog discussing my life with my two girls, my struggle to maintain normalcy within the reality of my failing vision, and other random events in my life.

McDonalds No More.

I went to McDonald's for the last time today. For some reason I had a craving for this chicken sandwich that I had there a while ago. I ate it and was less than satisfied with the taste, and I walked out feeling like my digestive track was in full mutiny.

So I decided no more McDonald's.

Pizza Fun

We made Pizza today with the new Pizza oven I got from perk points I got at work. It came out great. I made a test pie last night that came out good but I used too much sauce, and I overcooked it a bit. This time I used less sauce, and cooked it until it was nice and golden.

Big Girl helped me shaping the dough. When I finished the dough she sort of lost interest, and joined her sister who was watching a video. I was hoping to make it more of a family activity. Perhaps next week I can get them more into the making of the Pizza. I was thinking of making smaller individual Pizzas they could make themselves, but I do not think that I can fit two in at a time. That would mean that one girl's Pizza would be done and ready to eat while the other waits for her Pizza. I can see problems arising with that set up.

I was very happy with how much the girls loved the Pizza. I don't think we will be going to the Pizza shop anymore, or at the least not nearly as often.

Waste of Time.

I went to the Retinal specialist this past Tuesday. I got there a bit early, and waited for hours. They checked the pressure in my eye and dilated them as usual. However, it seems that this hospital has the tendency to give a patient dilation drops and leave them waiting for over an hour. It usually takes only a half hour for the eyes to dilate. I was finally seen by the doctor to have a five minute visit with him in which he told me absolutely nothing new. He looked into my eyes the same way the General Clinic did and told me that he saw no tears in the Retina. Duh. He could have known that from looking at my fraking chart!! In the end he scheduled me for a multi-focus ERG and a OCT which checks for swelling in the eye.

I feel as if I wasted the day to be told what I already know, and to schedule tests that could have been scheduled for that very day.

That is modern medicine for you.

Eye Exam.

On Tuesday, I took the day off to apply for medicaid. It a long arduous day it is usually with Medicaid. On Wednesday, NY Eye & Ear agreed to see me based on the pending Medicaid application. I am very thankful for the generosity of NY Eye & Ear for allowing me to be seen by a doctor. If I am not granted Medicaid the bill will be paid out of a charity fund.

I went to the general clinic, and as clinics go it took all day. I was eventually seen by a doctor who examined my retina. I was told that there is not evident physiological cause for the flashes in my vision. They saw no evidence of tears in the sensory layer of the Retina, not any areas of detachment. They referred me to the Retinal Clinic with whom I have an appointment in two weeks.

Rough Week

Over the past month or so I have noticed something new in my vision. I have been seeing pulsing lights or light flashes in my visual field. Some doctors describe this as wavy or watery vision. I think it resembles the disturbances in ones vision when they run a lot and become exhausted. I have also been seeing white lines resembling arching electricity pass through my visual field. These have been getting progressively worse, with a very noticeable increase last Thursday. It was so bad that I had to cancel my visit with my girls.

I have done some research on the net and all websites that I have visited seem to indicate that these flashes in my vision may be an indication of retinal detachment. I am in the process of securing Medicaid and seeing a doctor at a local eye hospital to get it checked. If caught soon enough, the problem can be corrected surgically. If I do not get it checked in time there can be permanent vision loss.

With my vision decreasing, doing tasks that previously seemed simple are much more difficult, and I find myself often very tired due to the extra energy I have to put into basic tasks.

I am growing tired of people who seem to intentionally get in your way when your walking down the street or a subway platform. I was in a store recently and I walked up to a lady who worked there and asked her where something was. She responded by saying, "It's over there". I did not see where she pointed to, but I can only presume she pointed somewhere. She walked away as if she actually helped me. Another worker who witnessed the event walked up to me and helped me find the location. I had to take a bus today to go to the medicaid office. On the way back I was sitting next to a bunch of kids on the bus. One of them, thinking he was funny, held out something right in front of my eyes and said, " see that?" I ignored him. I was on a line in a Coffee shop near my job, and there was a worker who takes your coffee order before you get to the register to pay. This person was a good seven feet away. I heard "sir what would you like?" The person repeated the question. Little did I know that this person was asking me from seven feet away. Realizing that no one else was answering I pointed to myself and asked "are you asking me?" I am lucky that I have a decent amount of remaining vision, but one would think that common sense would dictate that if a person walks into your store with a long cane then he can not see, and if you want to ask him for his order you walk up to him, and you do not ask him from several feet away while pointing at him as if he is going to see you pointing. Being able to see fairly well I can see how people react to the cane. Some people get this deer in the headlights look when you walk towards them. They might back away as you get closer but they move in the direction you are going and not out of the way. It is as if they see the cane and their brain stops working for a moment and one limb wants to go to the right, the other to the left, and in the end they just stand there in your way. In the end I usually walk around them as I am not heartless enough to walk into them with the stick.

People just do not seem to understand what I am going through. If they could only see the world through my eyes and realize how much of it I do not see then they might understand.

We do not educate people enough about blindness, and what it means for a person to be blind. It should be a basic subject everyone should learn. People need to learn that there are several stages to blindness. People think that if you have a cane and you can see something then you must be faking your blindness. I hear people say, "What's up with him.. he can see", or "look he walked right around her, why he got a cane?", etc. If people were educated about these things in the same way schools teach people how to respect ethnic, religious, and social differences then they would understand that the man with the cane who seems to see somewhat is visually impaired, but not blind. Instead of reacting with puzzlement, or in some cases rudeness they would either get out of his way and leave him alone, or offer him assistance.

So long as the blind population is a silent minority the sighted population will never take the steps to educate people about blindness.

Siberian Husky Shoplifts Rawhide Bone from Supermarket.