Posted in Glasses, How I'm Adapting

Visually impaired and labels

Woman holds up a hanger with a question mark on the labels
If I have my reading glasses I can cope with font that is a reasonable size.

If I haven’t got them on because I usually have my sunglasses on or distance glasses that aren’t good for the distance anymore really, I’m a bit lost.

In certain clothes shops they have a colour for sizes and I remember the colour on the hanger as I wander around.

Makeup has the smallest font that only someone with superhuman powers can see. I don’t think you have to have eye problems to have difficulty, so just mainly stare and hold it up close, move it around different angles and now I’ve started to ask people what the blumming colour is. I haven’t done this until recently as I was still in hiding.

I have a magnifying keyring on my keys but will not use that yet. At times I’ve not got what I wanted just because I cannot make out ingredients. Mainly as my son is vegan I look for food that may interest him to cook, but doesn’t have dairy in the ingredients.

It’s a good job I’m not allergic to any foods. That must be hard for someone who is. So I’m lucky that way.

One day I wanted a fish finger sandwich. Been shopping the day before and couldn’t read the jar properly. So off I went with my little jar of tartare thinking what a treat for my tea.

Sat down with my fish finger and horseradish sauce sandwich 😕 just because back then I wouldn’t ask.

Posted in The Medical Stuff

Lipofuscin, Drusen and Floaters

Derailed eye images on a clipboard explaining in picture form what is written in the blog post here

Now and again floaters appear.
We all have them it isn’t exclusive to the condition that I have.
So you know what I mean by this.
What I do have slowly building up inside is Drusen (Lipofuscin), a cell waste deposit, yellow in colour that because of my macular not coping with vitamin A and any waste the eye makes. Not being able to process it, just hangs around in there.

Drusen is a German word that means “rock” or “geode.” They are like tiny pebbles of debris under the retina. The cause of the drusen deposits is related to a type of “garbage” disposal problem. Retinal cells dump unwanted material, and immune cells normally clean up most of it. However, if too much is dumped, or it is not properly packaged for disposal, it can pile up. The drusen contain proteins and lipids (naturally occurring molecules that include fats). So this can scar the macular cause cell death and make it degenerate. Causing central vision loss.

Usually get about 1 or 2 at a time. Not many. This happens rarely but thought that I would mention it as I\’m going to read all this back to track my progression.
These don\’t bother me yet.
Usually if you see me with a coffee sticking my fingers in it trying to get a speck, a bug, a bit of dust out. You can bet 9 times out of 10 It\’s usually just a floater I\’m seeing in my coffee and I only realise when there is nothing moving to the side of the cup ☺

Posted in How I'm Adapting, Useful Information

Large font keyboard for mobiles

The keyboard I use for my phone and tablet is called SwiftKey.

You can make the pad larger so you can see the letters and numbers.

Also, you know those tiny blumming emojis and pictures? Well just type in a word of the emoji or picture you want to use ie… clapping 👏, laughing 😂, even monkey 🙊, and it will pop up on the right hand side of your keyboard if you have selected emoji predict.

Alot easier because you don’t want to be accidentally giving a smiley ☺ face or a thumb👍 up to a message or post that requires a sad 😔 face do you?