The Low Vision Store co-owner Patty White writes about her life with low vision in her Living With Low Vision Blog. See the latest posts below and browse archives on the right.
When I took the plunge and got a small flock of chickens a year ago, I was thinking I was pretty smart to get different breeds and colors of chickens, so I could easily tell them apart and also identify their eggs. Turns out, I can tell them apart just great, but the egg thing remains a puzzle. ...
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Motivation is everything as a person adapts to a life with diminished vision. It takes motivation to find low vision aids in the first place. It takes still further motivation to explore and acquire the right tools to help you do what you want to do. Once equipped with tools, you learn a n...
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Marjorie Sundvahl Newton passed away on April 30, 2010. She was 94 years old. She was my mother and the love of my life. I have been able to think of little else these recent weeks. I wrote earlier about my dad, who had a bucket of eye problems as I was growing up. My mom, too, was not spared ...
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Anyone who purchases a hand-held magnifier from us will receive in their box a sheet of information about the Lifetime Warranty that comes with the magnifier. But after the greeting on this large print piece of writing, the very first sentence warns you not to leave your magnifier out where the ...
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My world is full of puzzles as I seek a semblance of clear vision. I am determined to do what I love to do, at the moment I want to do it. I like cooking and gardening, reading and writing, knitting and jewelry making, just for starters. I even enjoy watching TV sometimes. Like a normal person, ...
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Several people have suggested I write more product reviews in these pages. Readers are correctly getting the idea that I use a lot of devices to keep me going. Now that a very good electronic pocket magnifier has come out for under $300, I think it is time to write about pocket magnifiers. I thi...
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Many people facing eye problems tell us they want to ask their doctors whether they should purchase reading aids. I suspect ten different doctors might address this question ten different ways. Having been in the patient chair with many eye doctors, and having worked in low vision with many...
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I am one who believes in being an active, informed patient. I think a patient, by taking initiative to learn about their eyes, the nature of what afflicts them, what treatment options exist, and ultimately what prognosis or outcome might be expected, feels stronger in facing vision challenges on...
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I have an abiding interest that people who are living with vision impairment investigate contrast enhancing eye wear, certain specific colors that filter parts of the light spectrum) as part of the assembly of tools for daily living. You can contact us if you want a link to a source. They are no...
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I so clearly remember when the bubble burst on my notion that the optometrist could fix everything with his glasses magic. "This is as much as I can do, he said one winter day in 1995. I'm sorry, there is an underlying problem preventing clear vision." How could this be? So much changes with our...
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A Blue Moon welcomed a new decade last night, and no peek could be had from the rainy northwest. I did manage to reflect on the wild ride of the last decade. So many large scale world events marked the decade. On the personal side, the scale for me was no smaller. I made a list. It started with ...
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I think we all benefit from a good dose of courage. It challenges a person to the core to lose the ability to see the million daily details of life. Poor vision makes it difficult to manage a life on your own, all by yourself. After years of resistance, I now regard the limitations I face doing ...
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I have found it interesting to explore with different people I meet the point when they decide to look into electronic reading machines. Because of our store, people usually meet us before or when they are making this decision. Some people, for a variety of reasons, wait way too long to be ...
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People who feel at risk for falls or insecure about bumping into things, either in their apartment or outside in the world, should contact their state agency for the blind and ask for assistance in obtaining a white cane and learning its proper use. This is, of course, just my opinion. But many ...
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Beginning this blog is highly personal. While Ken is engaged with it, the writing is my project. It feels natural to begin sharing my thoughts and experiences with a broader community. For years in our business I have conversed with individuals on a multitude of topics about managing this life w...
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One of the most annoying aspects of having macular disease is losing the ability to recognize faces. With macular problems, your sharpest vision is right up close to you, absolutely. So unless a friend or spouse is prompted to whisper the name of someone who is waving at you, you will miss the c...
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Ken always says that when someone in the family has eye disease, the whole family is affected. That was certainly the case for my family when I was a child. While a young man in his mid-30s, with a wife and two small kids, my father learned he had a degenerative corneal condition that would take...
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"Clutter bugs" have the biggest challenge, I think, in living with low vision. The more things on the table, the more like wallpaper that table becomes, a pattern into which individual items will just disappear. A person with a lifetime habit of leaving things on any horizontal surface will not,...
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I remember when I was in my 40's knowing that I was in "mid-life" when I needed those drugstore reading glasses. I call it the good old days. Costco had handy three-packs. How perfect, you could get three reading glasses for about the price of one! But then, they were never where they were supp...
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