Vicki L Griggs - Vis-Ability: Raising Awareness of Vision Impairment

Copyright 2020 Vicki L Griggs

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

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ISBN 978 1838597 252

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I dedicate this book to my mum.

Thanks, Mum, for being my rock in life, for being my voice, for always having faith in me and for all your help in getting me where I want to be.

We have been through a lot together.

Luv u loads, Muma xxxx

In loving memory of

my lovely grandparents,

Grandma and Grandad Griggs

and

Grandma and Grandad Seeley

and

my great aunty Edna.

You are all missed every day xxxx

I live in a lovely little village in Hertfordshire with my mum and dad along with our furry and feathered family: Bertie and Jessie (our two dogs), and Sunny (my baby Senegal parrot). Bertie is a Yorkshire Terrier and although he is a small dog, he has loads of energy, so loves long walks. Jessie is our manic but lovely Labrador x collie, who enjoys making you hold her bone for her to chew on! Sunny is like a little monkey acrobat and delights in showing off (especially when Mum is eating grapes and he wants one!). I also have an older brother, Wayne, who lives a five-minute car ride away from us.

In my spare time, I love spending time with my family and pets, playing table tennis, dancing, going to the theatre, reading and doing anything to do with Potter.

The aim of this book is not only to raise awareness of vision impairment, but also to reach out to those who have a vision impairment.

This is my story about my own experiences of having a vision impairment and will give you factual information on this subject too. If this book helps just one person, then I have achieved my goal.

Hope you find it useful!

Things are going smoothly,

And life is great,

Then something happens,

Turns your life upside down,

Thrown in at the deep end,

Not knowing what is happening,

Just living each day as it comes.

Life is like a rollercoaster,

With so many ups and downs along the way,

Youre worried and scared and angry.

With all these emotions running through you,

You dont know just what to do,

Putting on a brave face,

To just carry on.

Being brave, strong and positive,

To just get through it,

Then you fall down,

Hit a brick wall,

Feel youre being weak,

Letting people down,

Cause all you wanna do is,

Hide, give up, let the darkness swallow you up.

You somehow find the strength within you,

To pull yourself back up,

Brush yourself down.

Being brave, strong and positive,

Is how you get through it,

Always be grateful for the things youve got,

Family, friends, people who support you,

You have no idea when things might change.

When things get tough,

Think to yourself,

I can get through this.

By Vicki Griggs

Vision impairment is a visual disability where a person has any sort of vision loss that cannot be corrected to a normal level by using glasses or contact lenses, etc.

Some people can only see centrally (tunnel vision), which can be caused by damage to the optic nerve or retina at the back of the eye. Others can only see peripherally, which means they cannot see centrally, but around the outside of things. This is usually found in people that have age-related wet or dry macular degeneration but can also affect younger people who may have an eye disease or condition that affects the retina.

Some people can only see with blurry or misty vision. This can be caused by having a cataract or being short-sighted.

I am short-sighted and only have vision in one eye. Being short-sighted means that I can see things close up but distant objects appear blurred or fuzzy. When I am out and about, I wear glasses to help, but even with glasses my distance vision is still blurry.

All my life my parents have called it the Vicki Griggs Syndrome, but now it is actually nice to know exactly what it is, to be able to put a name to it and to know what the disease might entail.

There are many types of eye diseases and conditions. My eye condition is very rare; it is called FEVR (familial exudative vitreoretinopathy), which, in a roundabout way, means I have a genetic eye disease involving the blood vessels and retina at the back of the eye. Whats strange is that none of my family have any trace of it. As a disease, it cannot be treated, but the symptoms can be.

Symptoms of FEVR are:

Retinal detachment loss of vision (although if caught early enough, some vision can be saved).

Flashes of light and floaters.

Glaucoma high pressure in the eye (causing pain), can cause sight loss if not treated.

Vitreous detachment (also known as posterior vitreous detachment or PVD). The jelly part of the eye comes away from the retinal wall and this can cause floaters and flashing lights.

Abnormal blood vessels these can cause fluid leakage and bleeding into the eye.

Sometimes I feel really angry and resentful, as I am the only member of my family who has this disease and would like to know why I am the odd one out.

I was born three weeks premature. Within hours of being born I gave my mum a scare; she was trying to feed me when I turned blue. I was rushed off to special care, where I stayed for ten days.

I was a rather difficult baby. I didnt sleep through the night until I was eighteen months old. Mum would pick me up and cuddle me until I was asleep, then lay me down in my cot where I would open one eye and start crying again.

I was born with a squint in my right eye (a lazy eye), which wandered inwards; so, at the age of one year, I had a squint correction and an examination under anaesthetic (EUA). At the age of four, I was laying on the floor colouring when I said to Mum, My eye has gone all funny. I didnt say any more about it, but when she tested my right eye a bit later, by covering my left eye and holding up her fingers, I could not see.

Fortunately, we were going to Moorfields the next day, having been referred by the optician.

At Moorfields, we met Mr Aylward, who was to be my consultant for the next eighteen years. Clumps of abnormal blood vessels were discovered in both of my eyes. The abnormal blood vessels in my right eye had bled into the vitreous (the jelly part of the eye). They said to leave it a few weeks to see if it would clear on its own, but it didnt. I had a vitrectomy under general anaesthetic; this removed the jelly which contained the blood.