The history of me and RP

How it all began....
"I am sick of all these sparkly flashers, Adam. And what the heck, I am only 35, and I can't see anything at night!" "Hmm" shrugged Adam. "That's it, Adam. I am getting my eyes checked out and this time I am not stopping until they figure out what's wrong." "Good" shrugged Adam.

Okay, so I have always kind of seen fireworks, auras of light, sparkly things, when I closed my eyes at night for bed. I remember this from childhood.

I had lasik eye surgery in 2005. There was a battery of tests before surgery. One was a peripheral eye test. The young woman said, "push the button when you see the squiggly" I said, "Lady, I see squigglies all the time. I have no idea what you are talking about." She said ,"Oh forget it, this test must not work on you."

Well, as I aged the flashing lights became much worse, and then it was hard to navigate at night, walking mostly. We would go to friends houses, then maybe have a drink, and I was tripping on curbs and what not. I thought, man, I am a light weight. Next, we moved to Georgia in 2008. We live in a part of Georgia that is in the burbs and has lots of neighboring rural areas. I was pertrified to drive at night. I could not see shit.

In the summer of 2010, I had enough and made an appointment with an opthomologist. He told me that it was nothing but particles in my vitreous solution and not to worry. However he wanted me to come back for one more test. A visual field test. He saw the results and said it seemed that I may have a tumor on my pituitary gland, and he sent me to a neuro-opthomologist specialist. In the month waiting for my appointment, I wrote letters to my children in my head, trying to think of ways to tell them I loved them on their graduation/wedding/coming out party/whatever, and not depress them with thoughts of their dead mother.

I went to Emory in Atlanta. I saw the neuro-opthomoligist. She said you don't have a brain tumor dummy! Your just going blind! Whoo-hoo! I am not dying! Three weeks later...Oh crap, I am going blind. I had the final test (an ERG) to confirm the diagnosis, and I saw a retina specialist. And yes, I am going blind, and have been probably since birth.