Friends of the Newly Blind

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Hi Lawrence

I just found your site and so far I’m glad I did. One of my best friends lost his eye sight within 48 hrs 2 yrs ago from MS he had no warning signs or conditions before this happened. He hasn’t let it stop him though he just accepted by a service dog school in Michigan and leaves next month for a month of training and plans to return to school in the next couple of years.

He loves the outdoors and fishing. I am wondering how I can get him on your website and radio broadcasts as he does everything with voiceover programming.

Tight lines and good luck
Greg

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your message about your friend who recently lost his sight quite suddenly. His situation differs from mine in that my vision loss began when I was age eight, and continued up into my 40’s when my last remaining vision slipped away. Not sure which would be worse, being plunged into sudden blindness like your friend, or having to continually readjust to a constantly but slowly deteriorating situation, which was my case. Either way, learning to live without the use of sight is like being reborn only your fully cognitively developed but you just can’t do anything physical like walking, dressing, feeding yourself, shaving, etc. – it all needs to be re-learned and takes at least a year.

To learn more about the very accessible sport of fishing, have your friend visit my website BlindFishingBoat.com to learn about different technologies and ways to fish and boat without sight. If he’s using “voice over” on his iPhone, have him subscribe to my podcast BlueFishRadio.com.

Wish your friend good luck for me with the new guide dog as well. Leader Dog is where I received my first guide dog. That was before we had guide dog schools here in Canada. I now get my dogs from the Mira Foundation. They are all good.

And you know, it’s O.K. for you to grieve your friend’s loss as well, it is a loss. And, like him, you both need to address the loss. There are the things that need to be relearned, yes, but the loss itself also needs to be recognized for what it is and explored, understood and accepted. This can take a number of tries since awareness of the various ramifications doesn’t happen all at once. Take care of yourself and good for you for sticking by your friend’s side.

Lawrence