Some history

I am the first person in my family, that we know of, who was born with a visual impairment. The way my Mum told the story, she knew there was something wrong straight away. However, it took some time to convince the medical staff that all was not well. When  I was eventually referred to an ophthalmologist they diagnosed me as being completely blind, having both micro-ophthalmia (small eye) and congenital cataracts in both eyes. Their course of treatment consisted of recommending that my eyes be removed for cosmetic reasons! This conclusion would tend to undermine the story which my mother told but we won't hold that against her! As you can imagine, my parents were very upset to hear this. They both agreed though that removing my eyes was not an option and thank goodness for that.

After a few weeks, my mother noticed that when she laid me down my head would always turn towards the source of the light. It took quite some time to convince the same medical professionals that I was in fact not completely blind. Unfortunately, this still did not mean that there was any treatment available but at least there was hope.

As a child I would go to the hospital for appointments to monitor my eyes and when I was about three years old I was admitted so that they could give me a general anaesthetic to enable the doctors to ascertain how I was able to see anything at all. It turns out that there are microscopic holes or hole (not quite sure which) in my cataracts which I manage to see through. The level of sight I have is very limited, meaning that I am registered blind, but it is definitely better than having no sight at all.

I was born about forty years ago (a girl doesn't want to divulge her exact age!)  and thankfully when my daughter was born, eleven years ago, medical science and attitudes had evolved.