Who am I?
I ask myself that on an occasional basis and come up with the following answers. I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, sister-n-law, professional publicist, amateur writer, a blind woman with a strong voice and Chief Family Officer (CFO). We don’t all have to be financial wizards to hold a CFO title.
Why share my story?
I kept it under wraps for so long it felt as if it was becoming “taboo” to even talk about it. The truth is I now find it therapeutic to share my story and it gives me the confidence to keep going and facing the unavoidable world of blindness that knocks on my door daily.
What is my story?
It was the summer of 1989 and I was 18 years old when my world changed forever. I was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Basically, my retinas are dying. It is a slow progressive disease and each year my sight becomes a little more constricted. In my case, the disease started with night blindness, but now also impacts my day vision. I have little to no peripheral vision, which means I view this world of ours through a tunnel (hence the term tunnel vision). I am loosing my eyesight and on my way to living in a world of darkness unless the clinical scientist find a cure to preserve my remaining sight.
Click here to learn more about RP (http://www.blindness.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=67#rp)
It was a family nickname bestowed upon me by my sister-in-law. She is married to my brother who is also the lucky recipient of RP. She has known me for more than 20 years and has seen me literally “bump” my way through life and joke whether or not we need to install a radar system to keep the bumping to a minimum. She would say, “What’s the matter Radar, you blind or something!” She’d deliver it with a witty smile and turn my tears into laughter as we made our way to the next destination. Usually with me rubbing my thigh, which would start to bruise within minutes. My philosophy is if I can’t laugh about it and turn this thing on its head, it will be a very long journey.
