I Can Still Read

 

I was talking to Bob Lim last night on Skype. He asked about my eyes. When I told him the latest he reminded me that I had not mentioned this on my blog and that people could be interested. He's right.

To remind you, last November I went along, I thought for a new pair of specs, only to find myself sent to the eye hospital for a diagnosis that I am in the process of completely losing my central vision. I will reach a stage where everything looks to me just as it does on the tv screen when they have blanked out faces to preserve anonymity. I will not be able to see faces and, appallingly, I will not be able to read. My eyes are pretty much well down this road due to a condition called pattern dystrophy. I have had the condition for a very long time and it is just now approaching a serious level. I mentioned it on my blog because there was a possibility that it could seriously affect the Big Walk - and in fact it did so because I could not read maps and my ability to walk on rough and uneven ground was severely compromised.

I went for a checkup this November and found, to everyone's surprise, that there has been no measurable deterioration since last year, which is better than the best possible expected outcome. A year ago I was told that not only is there no treatment, but that the only thing which coould "possibly" slow down the rate of deterioration by "up to" 40% was the consumption of Omega 3 in quantity. Since then I have been taking some special Omega 3 eye tablets and also have retreated from being a strict vegetarian and have been consuming fish. This, or something, has done the trick, although I understand that I should not expect the problem to have stood still - it is just having a rest before resuming the onslaught.