Questions and debates about blindness:

dreama said:
Thanks for explaining about that. How would they test it?

I think it's differant then psycosomatic blindness. As Psycosomatic blindness is where a person THINKS they are blind. But really they aren't.

The question is wether It is still Psycosomatic since I've only had a standard tests so far which said the eyes themselves were in good working order. The second lot of standard tests I had last september didn't even work because the eye doctors wouldn't proceed when my eyes wouldn't open. I had terrible migranes and eye strain for 4 days after that experience.
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cortical blindness is tested by using fMRI scanning (functional magnetic resonance imaging -- a specialized type of MRI) or the use of electrodes to detect responses to stimuli in the retina and the brain.

dreama,

were you born prematurely by any chance? if so, that could be the cause of your blindness as it was mine.
 
Hear Again said:
cortical blindness is tested by using fMRI scanning (functional magnetic resonance imaging -- a specialized type of MRI) or the use of electrodes to detect responses to stimuli in the retina and the brain.
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Thanks for the explanation Hear Again, *sending you a message*
 
Hear Again said:
cortical blindness is tested by using fMRI scanning (functional magnetic resonance imaging -- a specialized type of MRI) or the use of electrodes to detect responses to stimuli in the retina and the brain.

dreama,

were you born prematurely by any chance? if so, that could be the cause of your blindness as it was mine.
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Thanks for explaining. Yes, I was born Premmie. However, I'm sure if I had ROP that would have been detected ages ago. I could see well up until the age of 18. The only thing I had any problem with was depth perception. For some reason I've always had problem with that.

I've had lots of EEG for epilepsy and also the Audio one for hearing where they stick electrons everywhere. First one I had aged 11 I had 40 db loss. last one gave me 80 db loss. I think age about 21. I've only had one Electronic test done on me for sight when I was 18. They said although their was something wrong it shouldn't have been enough to cause legal blindness. I've not had another one of those tests for 20 years so I'd be curious to know if it said the same thing or not. Since my sight has definately changed since then.
 
typeingtornado19 said:
Hear Again, Nika, Dreama,

Do yall ever have a lot of eye pain? Why? and what do you do about it?
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Yes I do. There's not much I can do about it since my body doesn't respond to painkillers. So I just "live with it" so to speak.
 
Nika said:
Yes I do. There's not much I can do about it since my body doesn't respond to painkillers. So I just "live with it" so to speak.
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I don't take painkillers either as I try to avoid taking medicine as much as possible.

Nika: have you recieved the PM I sent you earlier?
 
My elementary school experiences were awful. Every six months or so I would try to tell my parents again that I couldn't see. They would bring me to the eye doctor and the eye doctor would give me a 5 minute check-up and then tell him in adult-code that I was malingering. Finally at 12 he did a more thorough check-up and I also found another eye doctor through my friend who has made medical history in the eye world. This other doctor discovered many of my underlying vision problems.

During middle and high school I had my eye surgery and was going to the eye doctor 4 times a week. So everyone knew that I had eye issues going on. People would tease me for my red eyes and my thick glasses and for running into stuff. They would clap their hands in my face and so on.

High school was a nightmare for different reasons. The main reasons were that everyone thought vision therapy "cured" my eye problems so to speak, but I just started having different eye problems. Having gone 7 years undiagnosed I decided not to tell my parents and am just waiting till I'm not living with them anymore. I just don't think I could handle their denial all over again--it hurt enough the first time around.

I used to spend hours doing my homework. I would try to read the print and use a magnifying glass but the power was just not strong enough. I still haven't told my parents about my eyes. They think that just like my interest in ASL, my interest in braille and so on is incidental. When I go to the eye doctor, I go alone, so whatever he tells me is between me and him.

It sounds like a recurring story among blind AD'ers.

In short blindness isn't hard to live with. But I have to admit that having so many sighted people around me wanting to believe so strongly that I was sighted did wear on me.

On the brighter side, now that I'm at the college level, my professors have been much better about being accommodating. They're not ideal but I have to say it is a major improvement from my high school and middle school teachers. It really helps that all communication is direct, and not through my parents.
 
dreama,

from what you've described, it sounds like the hearing test you had was an abr (auditory brainstem response). have you ever been tested for AN (auditory neuropathy)?
 
Hear Again said:
dreama,

from what you've described, it sounds like the hearing test you had was an abr (auditory brainstem response). have you ever been tested for AN (auditory neuropathy)?
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I don't know. What's the differance?

The test I had I was put in a sound proof room and they stuck these things to my head. And then I hear noises coming through speaker. That's the test I had.
 
Nika said:
My elementary school experiences were awful. Every six months or so I would try to tell my parents again that I couldn't see. They would bring me to the eye doctor and the eye doctor would give me a 5 minute check-up and then tell him in adult-code that I was malingering. Finally at 12 he did a more thorough check-up and I also found another eye doctor through my friend who has made medical history in the eye world. This other doctor discovered many of my underlying vision problems.

During middle and high school I had my eye surgery and was going to the eye doctor 4 times a week. So everyone knew that I had eye issues
going on. People would tease me for my red eyes and my thick glasses and for running into stuff. They would clap their hands in my face and so on.

High school was a nightmare for different reasons. The main reasons were that everyone thought vision therapy "cured" my eye problems so to speak, but I just started having different eye problems. Having gone 7 years undiagnosed I decided not to tell my parents and am just waiting till I'm not living with them anymore. I just don't think I could handle their denial all over again--it hurt enough the first time around.

I used to spend hours doing my homework. I would try to read the print and use a magnifying glass but the power was just not strong enough. I still haven't told my parents about my eyes. They think that just like my interest in ASL, my interest in braille and so on is incidental. When I go to the eye doctor, I go alone, so whatever he tells me is between me and him.

It sounds like a recurring story among blind AD'ers.

In short blindness isn't hard to live with. But I have to admit that having so many sighted people around me wanting to believe so strongly that I was sighted did wear on me.

On the brighter side, now that I'm at the college level, my professors have been much better about being accommodating. They're not ideal but I have to say it is a major improvement from my high school and middle school teachers. It really helps that all communication is direct, and not through my parents.
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I am really sorry to hear about your experience. That's why I always believe in giving people the benifit of doupt. It's easy to jump to conclusion of malingering. Especially if someone from edical profession says so but even those people get it wrong sometimes. It's hell when people are convinced you are faking. Especially if you really have GENUINE problems.

Personally I'd rather risk indulging a malingerer then making it harder for some with a REAL illness that someone has claimed to be untrue.
 
I agree. It doesn't hurt to bring your kid to the doctor a few extra times only to be sure there is nothing wrong, instead of leaving a medical condition neglected.
 
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