Tag Archive for VIP

16 Apr 2013
About Me • Blind Blog

Rock Bottom

Having thrown myself into everything and anything, I began to freakish that my time was being overtaken by my need to help others, and the reason I was helping others was to stop me thinking about my problems and my issues that I was having with understanding and coming to terms with my own condition and sight loss.

The catalyst for this came when I began to find out that magnification on my computer was not enough to help me at work, it was time to move on to a screen reading piece of software.  This is a wonderful technology, using hot keys you move around a document reading your way around each page instead of seeing it.

 

For me, this was just a nail in the coffin to confirm that I was different and couldn’t just get by like I always had in the past…….. Still now almost a year later after it was suggested to me, I can’t bring myself to do it.

I am a MAC user at home, you name it, I got it…. Mac Book Pro, Ipad, Ipod, Iphone…. Me and Siri have a love hate relationship at times and a my friends are now getting used to reading between the lines in my messages.

 

But for me, screen reading is a major hurdle and because of this, I have not been at work since October and my future in my role is now in question.

Its not the learning something new part that I struggle with, I have learnt brailleIts so much more than that….. its letting go of using my eyes so much.

Its Hard.  It has led me into a world of depression and feelings of loneliness.

 

Writing about this is very painful, so bear with me please…..

Now however I feel that I have hit my rock bottom.  So for now I’m learning to climb.  And to not fear, but instead accept help when it is offered.

That is the hardest part, being strong, independent, yet allowing myself to ask for help and not seeing myself as a failure for doing so

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12 Apr 2013
About Me

Burying my head in the sand.

As you have probably worked out by now, receiving the news that you have an eye condition that will only get worse and could result in you loosing all of it in time wasn’t the best news!

 

when I was first diagnosed I researched my condition and looked for the positives…. Or ‘perks’ as I know refer to them.  As silly as it sounds, I had to find some good out of this bad situation.

I received lots of help from my consultant, social worker and good friends.  This was when I discovered just how many VIPs there actually are in Fareham and support groups to help… So I started volunteering, first at an active group called FAAB and was soon followed by volunteering for a local club that ran under the umbrella of the Hampshire based charity Open Sight.

Disability issues and sight loss became my world for a few years, I threw myself into volunteering and in an odd way helping others with their sight issues shelled me.  but I began to feel that I needed to spend more time on myself and my family.  I do still volunteer and enjoy helping out, just a little less than I did.

When I stopped helping others, I realised  just how much my own sight condition did actually upset me, and this was when I fell apart.

This was when I started to really understand my sight loss and me……. To put this post into perspective…… Despite my registration being in 2008, this has only just happened for me!

 

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31 Mar 2013
Blind Blog • Challenges

Training for the great south run-30 weeks to go

The blog title is right, in just 30 weeks I will be running in the great south run to raise money for guide dogs.

Before you ask, no I am not an avid runner and yes this blog is rewritten by a VIP.

So, how does a VIP train or even run you ask…..

Answer….. With a very trusted buddy and a bungie rope or tie of some sort!

In the coming weeks I will keep you updated on my training….. And exactly how this VIP is going to learn to run.

 

 

 

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29 Mar 2013
About Me • Days Out

Monkeying Around is the Bizness

Having 2 children who are always on the go makes life very interesting and active.  Being a VIP adds extra challenges to day-to-day life, but I have always tried to not allow this to impact too heavily on my little ones and allowed them the same freedom and adventures as others their age.

The fact that for now the 4 year age gap doesn’t stop them playing together is a great help!

i am a great believer that children shouldn’t just sit infront of the tv, but play out in the garden, run and get messy in the rain.  That’s why I bought a good washing machine.

In the wetter winter, spring and occasional summer days the great outdoors is nice and grey and makes it an enjoyable place to be with the children.  But in the summer months or when there is snow I struggle.

This is when I utilise the annual passes that the kids have for Monkey Bizness, an indoor play centre with large climbing frames, soft play, slides. Where pretty much everything is covered in foam and is brightly coloured.

This to me is heaven!

i can run around with the kids, having knocked myself out or bumped myself a few times, but not having to worry about the sun getting in the way of seeing them.image

They are within a secure area, which they need a member of staff to let them out of, they aren’t being burned or damaged by the sun’s rays and I know that even I can play with them too, if the mood takes me.

It is a place where the children are dressed in bright colours, to try and help, but this doesn’t always work.  We do however have a base point that the children know they can come back to me, if they are upset or in need of a drink.

As seen above, I also love joining in the fun, and monkeying around with them too.

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22 Mar 2013
Blind Blog

Looking through rains drops

A blurred night time image of car and street lights,

The reason behind this blog was to give you the reader an idea of how I see things, both with my eyes and with my thoughts and opinions. So I thought it would be a good idea to show you some images that I found on the web that best describe my sight.

A friend many years ago likened it to looking through raindrops.

 

Please comment below and let me know that you think x

 

 

 

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18 Mar 2013
Blind Blog • Days Out

Running my hands over a bronzed beauty

This post is not necessarily what you are expecting, I thought I would share a ‘perk of being a VIP’. When I found myself stood in Southampton art gallery, watching the curator unlock the glass case that surrounded Auguste Rodin’s crouching woman, a small bronzed sculpture.  So along with other members in our group I was stood with a pair of white cotton gloves ready to do something special that very few get to experience.

Black and white image of rodin-s bronze cast of crouching lady.

I grew up being constantly told by my parents that “you look with your eyes, not your hands” and here I was about to dispel this theory.

 

Black and white - newspaper print image of Rodin's bronze cast of crouching lady.

 

Bronzed sculptures have always been something of great interest to me, but by their nature, I often miss most of the detail other than the outline shape.  But here I was, about to run my gloved hands all over a cast of a sculpture that had been handled with such love and care when sculpted by the artist himself.

It felt amazing, that first touch, the coldness of the material.  The feel of the finger marks beneath mine.  The detail of the sculpture, you can feel the individual vertebrate in her back, the bones in her shoulders.

This was a wonderful experience that I can’t wait to repeat with other works of arts and artefacts and make the most of my new found ‘perk’.

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26 Feb 2013
Blind Blog • Days Out

Helpful advice delivered in the wrong way

Being unable to drive, I rely heavily on my feet and the aid of my GD. This means that once the kids are in bed and the other half is home I can go to the later and quieter swimming session at the local leisure centre.

 

It had been a really good session, and as I was walking home a little exhausted after my swimming, it was a clear night but a little cold, we’d almost reached home when I heard a van drive past me slowly, then the same van drive back past on the opposite side then I heard it behind me for the third time, and it stopped.

My pace quickened, but I was very aware that I was on a very quiet part of the road and it was 10.45 pm, Vicky felt my unease and quickened even further when there was a flash of lights and the sound of a siren behind me.

The van was, in fact, a police van containing 2 officers who had stopped me from making me aware of recent dog thefts in the area. I have the utmost respect for the police, but they got the brunt of my upset when they walked up to me.

I was shaking and still petrified when they reached me, I had never felt so scared. I was very aware of the recent attempts of dog thefts, so full pelt they felt my anger. They had, in fact, by trying to help put me in fear of danger. If they had not put on the siren, I don’t know what I would have done. It was a horrible feeling that haunted me for hours after. They did apologise for causing me distress, and I too apologised for my outburst, the reason they had, in fact, sounded the siren was because they had come to realise that they were causing me fear, but at a point where to just drive off would have been worse.

They offered to drive us home and told me to be aware of my surroundings and if I felt in fear to contact 101 immediately. I am grateful for their concern and information, but as I explained to them, the delivery was a little off.

Being on my own makes me very aware of my surroundings, and I’ve been known to grow anxious when passed by a jogger, but that is the female stranger danger aware in me, not the blindie.

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15 Feb 2013
About Me • Blind Blog

Missing the Obvious

I often feel silly and clumsy as I am totally and utterly able to miss the obvious.  My condition is such that my field of vision is reduced and then what is left in the reduced bit is incredibly short-sighted.  if I’m not focused on anything I can see a lot-or rather my brain tells me that that is the case.  But as movement into the mix and I actually see very little.

This is me, there is no hiding the fact, but it does mean that when looking at a bigger view I can miss the obvious because I’m focussing on the wrong part of it.

I can often miss someone or something right in front of me, often a friend or family member waving.  I can also be blinded by too much information and not see anything even though technically I can see it all.  This is where my brain and memory comes in..

But then that’s for another blog!

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28 Jan 2013
Blind Blog

Perspective

imageWhether you have a visual impairment or not, we perceive things very differently.

When you look at the image included with this blog-what do you see? Don’t overthink it or spend more than 2 minutes looking at it before commenting below.

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15 Oct 2012
About Me • Blind Blog

I am a person!

I admit it, yes I have a disability…. But that is not all of me !!

As both a VIP (visually Impaired person) and GD (guide dog) owner the following scenario often happens:-

strangers stop you in the street and ask you if you know their friend/brother/daughter cousin. When you say no. You are often met with “oh, but their just like you.”

VIPs and GD owners don’t have a telepathic wave, just as wheelchair users or civil engineers or athletes don’t know everyone with the same condition or job as them.

I am me, an average height, bouncy (currently blonde) individual who also just happens to have a visual impairment.

I just try to follow this misconception when I was first registered.  I thought that as a VIP I would have the same interests as other VIPs, so I threw myself into ‘Blind clubs’ and charity work and I have to say that what I discovered shocked me a little.  The groups had helpful information, but on occasions things were not so pretty.  At times there were some very negative discussions, about how other disabilities weren’t as devastating as sight loss, yet got more recognition lot more help.

I think that this is a very short sighted (pun intended) view.  But by definition a disability Is a condition that puts person at a disadvantage physically, mentally, cognitively or sensory to others.

I’m not saying that because you have a disability you should be more understanding of others, but to fight one disability off against another is just like going back to the days of segregation where you only ‘mixed’ with your own kind.

a person is just that, they are defined by their personality, not by their disability. It is just a small the my of them, like the colour of their eyes, which hand they write with and fundamentally just like these other traits is part of a genetic makeup.  And outside their control.

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