Diabetic eye disease

ID for train travel at reduced rates for blind citizens

 Because my grandmother was blind, I've always been sensitive to (and frightened by) eye diseases. Her condition was not caused by diabetes (most likely a disease/virus transmitted by poultry when she was a child, but no one really knows), but diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults today. There is a lot that can be done to stop the progression of diabetes, particularly weight loss, proper diet and exercise, and then medication, but too many think, "It will never happen to me."  Even some in my own family! Even some who read this blog!!

1. Diabetic eye disease comprises a group of eye conditions that affect people with diabetes. These conditions include diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema (DME), cataract, and glaucoma.
2. All forms of diabetic eye disease have the potential to cause severe vision loss and blindness.
3. Diabetic retinopathy involves changes to retinal blood vessels that can cause them to bleed or leak fluid, distorting vision.
4. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of vision loss among people with diabetes and a leading cause of blindness among working-age adults.
5. DME is a consequence of diabetic retinopathy that causes swelling in the area of the retina called the macula.
6. Controlling diabetes—by taking medications as prescribed, staying physically active, and maintaining a healthy diet—can prevent or delay vision loss.
7. Because diabetic retinopathy often goes unnoticed until vision loss occurs, people with diabetes should get a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once a year.
8. Early detection, timely treatment, and appropriate follow-up care of diabetic eye disease can protect against vision loss.
9. Diabetic retinopathy can be treated with several therapies, used alone or in combination.
10. NEI supports research to develop new therapies for diabetic retinopathy, and to compare the effectiveness of existing therapies for different patient group

National Eye Institute (NEI) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX4w6U-Qs1k

Stop editing yourself is this blind painter’s advice

There’re so many people saying, ‘Well, I can’t draw a straight line,’ or, ‘I can’t do this or that,’ and it’s interesting how, if you stop editing yourself–if you stop judging every little thing you do when it comes to art–you end up invariably being able to do way more than you thought. It seems like it’s the same way in life. When I lost my eyesight, I really thought everything was over because I already had epilepsy and all; but then thankfully, with the painting, I stopped thinking about it that way. I stopped editing everything I did, stopped worrying about the past or the future and just focused on being in the moment. Things got a lot better after that. I wish more people would do that, because they don’t realize that what they’re capable of is incredible.” John Bramblitt

https://usodep.blogs.govdelivery.com/2014/08/06/artist-sees-painting-as-a-way-of-life/

 

http://bramblitt.net/

This film is 10 years old, but shows how he has developed his art and skill. https://vimeo.com/5497828

Ohio State School for the Blind to march in the Rosebowl Parade

Thirty two musicians and 36 volunteers will be marching in the Rosebowl parade when the Bucks meet the Ducks on New Year's Day. Blind musicians aren't particularly rare, but marching together? That takes a lot of effort, practice and heart.

"This is going to be hard. Six miles is a long way, longer than the parades they've marched in to prepare for Pasadena. In the past year, they've been playing and playing and playing. Performances in Lancaster, at churches, in Cincinnati, at the Ohio State University skull session and in the Circleville Pumpkin Festival parade.

Practice has not made perfect. That's the honest truth.

Eleven band members have perfect pitch (hearing them hum during marching-only practice is beautiful enough to make you hold your breath).

But when they pick up their tattered and battered and borrowed instruments, not every note is hit just-so.

Having perfect pitch "doesn't mean you have the finesse you need. It doesn't mean you have the articulation skills you need," says Carol Agler, the blind school's music director and co-director of the band. She turns no one away who signs up to play at the beginning of the year. No auditions are required, just desire.

It hasn't made a lick of difference to the audiences who have heard the blind band play."

Story by Jennifer Smith Richards. Go Marching Panthers!

As a brief Monday Memory, I mention watching my grandmother play the piano at our home in Forreston, IL. They didn't have a piano in their home, as I recall. They didn't visit often--we would go there--because she got car sick. I'm not sure how old she was--maybe mid-to-late 50s. She began losing her sight in grade school so wasn't able to go to high school, and was completely blind by her early 20s. So I was really surprised that her hands and her ears remembered from all those years when she was a child and took piano lessons. Thirty some years later she was residing in the nursing home in Oregon, IL and her roommate was a woman a few years older, named Olive. She had been Grandma's piano teacher. They had such a wonderful time together, and when Olive went back to her home/care giver, they talked on the phone just like young girls.