It’s hard to believe that a mere six years ago I was preparing for my annual trip to Ocala with my beloved eventer, Calico. Blankets were washed, bodies were being clipped, my rig was tuned up, and endless hours of preparing for our dressage test were logged under saddle. Fast forward to December 2012, and I’m navigating the sidewalk with my new 4-legged companion, Elvis, a yellow Labrador Retriever who now serves as my guide and my eyes. We are traveling downhill towards the train station, en route to a meeting, and I give a half-halt on the rigid guiding…
Stepping out into the lobby at Vitreous, Retina, and Macula Consultants of NY, I was greeted by the familiar faces of Maria and the other ladies of the reception desk. They oohed and aah-ed over Elvis, as my Guiding Eyes trainer Kate and I hit the water fountain to give him some much needed water to calm his panting from our successful trip from CT via train, then learning how to navigate the subway system and streets of NYC. We had all worked really hard to get there. Finally, Lori and Gene, my two favorite employees at VRMNY came out…
Chapter 2 If I can’t pronounce it, I don’t have it It’s Friday afternoon of Halloween 1998, and I’m unhappily sucked into a doctor’s appointment that I’m annoyed to be at. I’m reading my Organic Chemistry textbook while waiting for Dr. Markind to step into the exam room. Dr. Markind has been my neurologist/ confidante now for 13 years, working together to get my debilitating migraines under control. I always enjoy our banter as we talk school, the wine business, and new trends in Pharmaceuticals; all mutual interests between two wine/ science geeks. He’s watched me grow up with these…
As the years passed, Dr. Yannuzzi and his team learned more about my disease, adding a second diagnosis to the list, calling it AZOOR, which stands for “Acute, Zonal, Occult, Outer Retinopathy”; basically a long description of a mix of conditions. I was now one in 5 million, and liking my odds of maintaining some useful vision into adulthood, less and less with each gut-wrenching set of more bad news. My retina was extremely damaged, and a full-color montage of photographs of the back of my eye painted a very clear, concise picture of the extent of the carnage. It…
Page 112- Before I had Elvis to guide me safely through my daily routine, I had a few more than close calls. When I was initially diagnosed, I fell down the stairs at my old house because I didn’t see my ex-boyfriend’s dog asleep at the top of the flight. After breaking two ribs, I still didn’t slow down much at all for many years, and was usually covered in mysterious bruises from objects that were within striking distance, but outside of my field of extremely centralized vision. Immediately before I got Elvis, I traveled with the horrific white cane…
