Always Amazed with Lucentis

I don't think that I will ever cease to be amazed by the speed of my improved vision following a Lucentis injection.

At 2pm last Friday I went to my eye doctor, my vision was so poor that I could not see the technician's hand as she brought her fingers to my face. The only indication that her hand was there was that I could no longer see the fuzzy glow of light.

I had missed my original planned injection two weeks ago, because of a change in insurance there was some dispute as to whether the new insurance company would pay for any treatment.

By Friday last week, the swelling behind the retina was so bad that I could not ignore it any longer. Luckily the insurance company relented and agreed to pay for the now emergency treatment.

The OCT scan supported the fact that my central retinal vein occlusion (crvo) swelling was back. My doctor decided Lucentis was the treatment to use.

I was injected at about 2:30pm and as usual my doctor was very quick and almost caused me no pain. There is always a little, but she minimizes pain with her firm and decisive action as opposed to those doctors who like to play about for twenty minutes, trying to put themselves in the mood to inject.

One the way home after a qiock sandwiche at Marie Callendars, I noticed that I could now see the rear view mirror in the car and after a while, the dark looming shapes of trees at the side of the road.

The loss of sight which had taken about a week to take full effect was receeding. Within three hours of the injection, I was begining to see some of the world about me again.

A Master's Degree. Progress So Far.

After four months research, asking schools, my former professors, friends and school advisors. I have settled on a school and a degree programme to take my Master of Arts degree in History.

As the hope is to gain the degree in order to possibly teach in Community College, I placed a lot of weight on the advice of the professors at my Alma Mater community college, their advice for me was to go with National University.

Other people agreed that the university was more well known in this region of California and as they offered a full Master of Arts degree in History online, National seemed a long way ahead of the competition.

There was some delay as I talked to them regarding the course. They were uncertain as to my being able to cope with the pace of their course. They move very quickly, four weeks per class and the whole degree could be completed in just ten months.

I admit that pace may be too quick for me, but they do allow a one month break between classes. This would be a perfect opportunity for me to read ahead on textbooks, and prepare for the next class.

The new Intel Reader which I purchased a few weeks ago will help me have access to the texts. It does take time however to process a book, but with four weeks I can see that being possible.

As things stand I am now set for classes to begin on January 9, 2012. I could have begun classes as early as next week, but with Thanksgiving and the Christmas Holidays coming up I thought it best to concentrate on those, and making preparations to study at a slightly more relaxed pace.

My proposed timetable gives me an end to classes in about September 2013 and with submission of a thesis in early 2014 graduation in about the same time as a traditional Master's course timeline.

That is of course with the expectancy that the History Channel with all it's Nostradamus and Mayan Calendar prophecies forecasting the end of the world on 12/21/2012 is completely wrong. If it isn't and the world does end, it has the benefit that I get part way through an interesting course and won't have to repay a student loan for doing so!. :(

What is it Like to Go Blind?

Today I saw a new article on Yahoo! Contributor Network.  The article "What is it Like to Go Blind? was interesting and there are many links to similar articles. They come in the form of personal experiences to creative writing articles.

These can be a very interesting resource as to blindness and its causes, implications and solutions.


To read the article Click HERE!

Is there a Master's Degree in the Future?

After some seriously hard thinking, boredom and number crunching. It seems that I could try for a Master's Degree.

My choice is to try to take a Master of Arts Degree in History with National University.

The course would be online. This allows me not to worry about travelling several hundred miles per month to in seat classes at the nearest campus.

It appears that I could take alternate sessions off.

Classes run for four weeks and it is possible to complete a Masters Degree within one year. This is a bit of a gamble with my vision deterriorating as it is, so I am planning to take one class, break for four weeks when I can read ahead , preparing textbooks with my Intel Reader, create MP3 files and such, ready for the next months work.

The course is 10 classes long so I am estimating if I begin in January 2012, that I will complete my Master's in September 2013. Not much shorter than a traditional Master's but in this area, National has a a good and well known reputation.

We will see what happens.

National University Website   HERE!

Life Grows Ever More Blurred

For about a month now, my vision has continued to decrease noticebly.

In fact my vision has gone to the point where I can no longer see the screen to write my posts. I meremy now listen to my screen reader as I type. Just hoping that I am writing something that is readable.

Maybe I should consider going over to a spoken blog?  Well then you have a real problem, no matter how bad my typing, you can perhaps make out my general meaning, when I speak then you have to contend with my thick Northern English accent.

Yesterday I was told I need to just ignore my blindness. Ignore it? How? It is not a pimple on the tip of my nose, red and shiny for the world to see and ignore. I open my eyes in the morning and there it is, a thick, bright dense fog that I cannot escape.

Funny thing is, now even with my eyes closed I can still see light. I woke at about 4am the other morning. The room seemed full of a light so bright that I was dazzled. The real fact was my eyes were closed and  the room was in absolute darkness, I had not left a light on to wake me.

I wish, I wish , I wish.