48 hours without contacts in - How life is different

[kieran19685]

My experience of live without a contact lens for just 2 days

Broke my contact lens on saturday night by standing on it accidently and had to manage 48 hours without my lens until my new ones came, for some reason two weeks ago i ordered a replacement set incase i lost them - best decision ever

I had to travel on a coach from Victoria to leicester with my 15 month old daughter, i processed to go to the wrong departure gate as i mistook the 16 for an 18 and nearly missed my coach and also had to work a day at my pc without my lens, i was basically touching the screen to see anything, its the hardest thing ive ever done

Advice has to be order backup lens - contacts basically change my life

[khatrimaf]

Thanks for your advise.

[Laura Hook]

Try being without contacts for three years! I don't think people realise the day to day problems- trying not to get run over, telling male and female public toilets apart, properly understanding conversations without seeing the other person's facial expressions, being asked by little old ladies what a bus' number is and not having a clue what to tell them and on top of all that studying for A-Levels! I'm sure you can imagine all the embarrassing situations my eye sight has gotten me into!

[kieran19685]

Hi Laura

Thanks for the reply, how come you didnt have contacts for three years?

[Laura Hook]

I wore lenses for 4 years but havnt been able to for the last few due to allergies and dry eyes, so I've been left to manage with 6/60 vision! Finally got my consultant to agree a cornea graft for next year though, so things are looking up!

[kieran19685]

How do you manage without anything ? I couldn't do it for 2 days, it must get you down but at least theres hope

[Laura Hook]

I persevere because the way i see it, the alternative is giving up and doing nothing, which is definately not an option. I guess i've adapted? Blind and partially people have to get around day to day and i suppose i'm no different. I just have to be prepared to fall down and walk into things from time to time Studying is probably what i struggle with most, i'm doing maths, chemistry and biology A-levels which involve me struggling with fiddly intricate practicals and having to do quite a lot of the maths in my head because i can't read what i'm writing on paper. I figure that when my eyesight is finally sorted out my brain will have so little to think about that life'll be a breeze

[GarethB]

Laura

Your situation sounds similar to mine some 25 years or so ago!

I studied chemistry, physics, biology and maths A level in the days before you could get large screen calculators and when PC's were available to write things up on with everytning enlarged so we could see it but print in normal size for marking! I was allowed extra time for exams and given a copy of the exam paper in large print with the option of writting the answers myself or dicating the answer to the person monitoring the exam for them to write in the answer book.

Got my A levels, grafted a month after the last exam in right eye and started a degree in micro biology registered blind which meant having a white stick which helped avoid bumping in to things and meant I could identify in many cases steps. After first year at uni had suffiecient vision to nolonger be registered blind, had left eye grafted during summer vacation and went back to uni where during the second year studies I also did all the first year practical assessments.

Since graduating had a varied career in science and I think because I have worked through the issues throw at me with KC, I haven't been out of work for more than two weeks since graduating and that was because I walked out of one job in 2001 because I no longer liked it.

You're right that it is a mind over matter and making a conceous choice to carry on as best you can because as you say there are many people registered blind who manage perfectly well and they don't have the choices most of us with KC have.

Good luck with your studies and I hope your career choices and grafts are as succcesful as mine.

[Rose]

Laura
Well done first of all; what a fantastic mind set you have.
I expect you know [but in case you don't] you can get some allowances in taking your A level exams.
My son has KC and took his A levels in the summer. He got large papers and extra time in the exams. He did not like the large papers - difficult to manipulate in Science subjects and also, beware, questions that asked students to increase or decrease measurements could not be done because the enlarge paper was not done so keeping the ratio the same!! Hope I explained that correctly.
Anyway the extra time was very useful and he said useful. So just in case you did not know make sure you are getting what you are entitled to.
Good luck and well done again.

[Laura Hook]

Hi,
Sorry i didn't get back to you quickly, i went to London to see muse at the O2, negotiating the tubes was interesting but atleast we get a light show ten times better than anyone else!!
You wouldn't believe what a relief it is to here from someone who's managed to succeed in science with KC, you'd be surprised the amount of people who seem to think that anyone with sight problems is destined to be a piano tuner.
Thanks Rose, yes i do know about the exam concesions. I get extra time and a reader/scribe but still have constant battles with exam boards. The largest print modified paper they provide isn't big enough print for me to see (i'm supposed to learn braille apparently ) so my school has to enlarge my papers to unmodifed A2 size which is ridiculous to manipulate within the tiem provided. I still have constant issues with ratio sizes, and the exam boards constantly make mistakes when modifying papers. You'd also be surprised to know that even in this day and age publishing companies "can't find" the electronic copies of their text books.
We also had a hard time finding a large print calculator (using on screen ones are much slower and annoying). There's loads of large print calculators for little kids but the only scientific large print calculator we could find cost well over £100!