This is my experience with finding work and keeping it after vision loss; hopefully it will ease your mind at little.
Brandy is in the US so the links wont apply to the UK but the information is still relevant. If you are in the US like a few of out members they may be useful to you. Continue reading
Hello all
I’m new to this forum and don’t have Birdshot, rather I have Still’s – aka juvenile rheumatoid arthritis + uveitis. But I am very relieved to find this forum, and will post more elsewhere in more detail if anyone is interested, as I am happy to share my experience with long-term use of oral prednisolone. Continue reading
This post has been written by Adrian, a member of the Birdshot Uveitis Society.
Dear All,
I thought I’d write a post about the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), sharing my own experience at work.
To gain protection under the DDA you must normally have a disability. It is for you to provide the evidence that establishes that you have a disability.
The effect of a disability is not always obvious in the workplace. There are a number of conditions that can amount to a disability but aren’t always recognised, such as fibromyalgia, depression, dyslexia, etc.
Someone is defined as having a disability (for the purposes of the DDA) if they have “a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on her/his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” Continue reading
Isn’t it interesting how, when life is absolutely perfect and you couldn’t want for anything more – along comes something that you definitely don’t want just so you can experience a bit of angst!
So, there I was, aged 51, back in 2005, in the perfect job (Director of Social Services) – the one I had spent my whole life dreaming about – and living an amazing life with my weeks being spent in Winchester, one of the most beautiful cities in the UK, and my weekends in London.
I had a little cottage in Hampshire with its back garden running straight down to the river – breakfasts spent communing with the ducks and days spent in my office in the castle, working with amazing Hampshire people and ensuring that we delivered the best possible social care to all those in need.
Back in my home town, London, for the weekend, I took advantage of the wonderful cultural life and saw a play at the Shakespeare globe, followed by a meal. Shortly after the meal, I started to feel very strange, aching bones, dizziness, pounding headache and a feeling that I might just be sick! So I made my excuses and went home, straight to bed. What a Saturday night – was woken halfway through the night with violent vomiting, a headache so bad I thought I was dying and at some stage, I passed out. Woke up several hours later with a huge bruise on my face and feeling very delicate. Spent Sunday in bed and went to work in Winchester on Monday, still feeling very fragile. Recovered by Wednesday. Continue reading
Birdshot
Its hard to think back to the time when I first began to have visual problems and when exactly I realised that something bizarre was going on with my eyes.
I remember struggling to drive along unlit up roads and thinking – well I can’t do that anymore, I must be getting old!
I remember floaters driving me mad but the optician told me I didn’t need to worry I didn’t have a detached retina and my macula looked fine.
I remember frequent changes of prescription and new glasses and still not being able to see properly.
I remember the horizon going grey fading into nothingness.
I remember struggling to fill in forms with faint grey boxes that I couldn’t see
Paperback’s whose print faded into the page
Difficulty in underground car parks, getting keys into the locks at night, finding light switches, deactivating alarms in poorly lit areas.
Continue reading