Brave New World?

Small disclaimer: I'm now using speech to text software, so please pardon any weird words that may pop up. I'll try to catch them as I can, but I'm not offended. If you wanna laugh at some of the things it thinks I say.

As everyone knows, I have not posted a very long time. It's not because I've been busy or that I've been unable to get back to posting. I actually have not traveled since April 2025. What is the my focus has actually been something that emphasizes the importance of this blog for me.

I posted a brief update a while back. I'd like to make a more complete one now to explain what is happened in the last year, and I want to renew my efforts here. The short version is that in the last year, I have gone from being low vision to legally blind. The eye that I have for light on, that has always been so steadfast, managed to go rogue. For those that are interested, I will add details. This will also become part of my story in my profile.

July of 2025, my vision in my right eye (my "good" eye) cloudy. It was a run of the mill kind of infection, but in treating it, my retina specialist noticed that my glaucoma shot had come exposed. The glaucoma surgeon confirmed this and set up a surgery to repair it in August 2025. The surgery went as expected, and a new skin graft was applied. However, my body rejected the skin graft, which could be an auto immune response. Another surgery was set to redo where the shot exits, in December 2025. Not only did my eye reject that skin graft as well, but the pain was devastating. in January 2026, she removed all of the hardware and cover the area with a skin graft that also included an amniotic membrane patch to assist with healing. It didn't work.

I was diagnosed with a condition called scleral melting or scleral necrosis. In a nutshell, my eye tissues were melting. That is most definitely an auto immune response. I saw a rheumatologist and found that my old junior rheumatoid arthritis from childhood was back. And it was attacking my eye. Once we begin treating that, the melting stopped and a solutions could be found. My glockoma surgeon called in the assistance of a reconstructive eye surgeon. Together, in February of this year, they created a transconjunctival flap, which is basically a living tissue skin graft that is tethered to the inside of the island to maintain blood flow. That worked. Once that healed, the problem became my vision itself. All I could see was a dark shadow blocked out everything on one side of the Eyes field division, and cloudiness in the rest of division that allows me to see only the vaguest light and shadow. The glaucoma surgeon had done everything she could do, so the vision issue went back to my retina doctor.

Since this problem started in 2025, I've been unable to receive the regular eye injections. I've been having every five weeks or so for the last several years. so, the eye had built up an amazing amount of scar tissue. In fact, he told me I was rather an overachiever in this aspect. Yay, me? On May 28, 2026, he performed what would be my 13th overall eye surgery. My eye is currently still partially filled with the gas bubble from that. I think it will help when it fully dissipates because, right now, whenever I move or speak, it wiggles in my field of vision. That's not distracting at all.

He removed what he described as the "Empire State building of scar tissue." We can predict how much that will improve my vision on its own. From what I can see around the bubble, things have not improved. About 75% of my vision is a dark cloud on that side, and the rest is cloudy. As a reminder, my left eye has permanent damage, and the vision is very distorted. In other words, it's no help, but it's all I have to rely on for now and maybe forever.

When the bubble is gone, I'll be able to resume the injection treatments. Will that improve things? There's no way of knowing, but I have been told to prepare for the real possibility that it will keep it from getting worse.

Given all of that, what do I do about this situation? Giving up is not an option for me. I don't want to stop working or doing all that I love doing, including and especially traveling. I am exploring adaptive and assistive technologies, including what is built-in to my computer, assistive software, and even smart glasses. I've also registered with my state agency for the blind to receive supportive services to help me learn to do tasks in the kitchen that are otherwise dangerous and to navigate the real world.

I've had a lot of people tell me that I'm brave. I don't feel brave. I feel like I'm doing what I have to do to not give up. T0 not let this just roll me over and bring me to a standstill. as of often said before this phase of my visual impairment began, they help us out there. You just have to reach out for it, find it, and put it to use. So that's where I am.

I have a few old ideas, still in my notes and photographs. I will add those, but they will have the perspective of being low version and not legally blind. I have a trip planned with my daughter and son-in-law to England in October. Barring any complications, I'll be able to start riding about how engaging with the world as a legally blind person has affected the way I travel. I do hope you stay tuned through all of this! I'm going to try to include some other bits about my journey and what I discover is helpful to my daily life and maybe what is not. I've already had some pretty Ilari adventures in speech to text, but that's for another time.

Thank you for hanging with me. I sincerely hope I will make it all worthwhile!