Losing Well Part 11

Continuation of my series, Losing Well. Part 1 can be found here.


2002

I don’t have any primary source material from 2002. I was too busy living life and I had a smaller digital footprint.

My first couple of years living with RP were rough. My whole life was turned upside down and I had to make a lot of choices quickly. But by 2002, I’d settled into a new normal. The band I’d run sound for had broken up and I was going out less. I had a better handle on how to use my cane and wasn’t too ashamed to use it. I had a girlfriend and a condo. I turned my focus to work and how to get ahead. I enjoyed going into the sighted world and beating them at their own game.

Work kept me busy with travel. I spent a lot of time in Atlanta, Norfolk and Phoenix. I went to Sedona for the first time. Rented a house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Kate and I were madly in love. I had a feeling that my life wouldn’t always be so stable and I was determined to enjoy what visual time I had. In the fall, I asked Kate to marry me and she said yes. My disability didn't scare her away.

As a personal highlight, I was able to attend the World Series in San Francisco. The Giants lost that game to the Angels. The crowd wasn't happy as we filed out of the stadium and I must have brushed the wrong person with my cane. I was pushed from behind and went flying through the crowd. I just managed to stay on the feet. Some guy was looking for a fight. The crowd turned towards him and somebody yelled, "he's blind!" The guy panicked and ran. 
Visually, I had more cataract problems. My body grew skin over the artificial lens that had been implanted during my cataract surgery. The blurry vision that resulted was just like having cataracts. The doctor performed a YAG surgery by bouncing a low powered laser off the artificial lens to cauterize the skin. It didn’t work the first time and I had to have the process repeated. 

The same week that I proposed, I found out that most of my team was getting laid off. The rumor was that I kept my job because I was visually impaired. I don’t think that's true. The accusation still stung. I kept my job but I went from being a manager back to a systems analyst.  

Part 12 can be found here.