Losing Well Part 17

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


December 2015
2010 was a forgettable year. Clearly because I don’t remember it well. Having two kids under the age of 4 will do that. My vision didn’t have any major new issues. Although I continued to struggle with RP. My degrees were below ten in each eye. This meant I now read slower than I ever had.

2010 was also the ten year anniversary of being told by Johns Hopkins that I’d lose all my sight due to RP. I didn’t. My eyesight wasn’t great but I could still read 20/40 out what was left. When I asked my doctors when I’d lose the rest of my field they just shrugged their shoulders.

At work, many of the internal websites couldn’t scale. I couldn’t use the built in magnifier of the web browser. This wasn’t an accident. Web browsers can magnify text by default. To make it so the site couldn’t be enlarged took proactive coding. The end result was that I couldn’t read them. I submitted multiple ADA requests to remove the magnifier lock down but I never got a reply. 

I was forced to do reviews by holding up a magnifier to the screen. It was infuriating and insulting and completely preventable. Your basic bank experience.

The children were becoming more driving dependent. Which put more stress on my wife as the only driver. I felt horrible that I wasn’t able to help her out more. I’d looked into get transportation services from the city back when I’d first found out about RP. At that time I was told that I made too much money.

In 2011, my team expanded into China. I’d never had more people working for me. I was getting good reviews. But my vision was also getting more unpredictable. It was often blurry in the mornings. This impacted my ability to read the computer screen. 


3 April 2011
This morning I met some of my friends at the park. I got into a soccer match as goalie. I was the blind zen goalie master. My team played good defense so I rarely had a shot on goal. The two that came at me I deflected, so no goals scored. My eye disease makes no sense.


15 September 2011
Kids cleared the eye exam with no issues. Already doing better at tests then I ever did.


26 November 2011
Just found out that a guy who helped me out 12 years ago with info on RP was hit by a car while crossing a street. He was crossing the street with a guide dog and cane and still got hit!


Part 18 is here.