One Vision - useful advice on monocular vision problems at last!

Today I spoke with the lovely people at One Vision.

Who are they?

OneVision is the only UK registered charity dedicated to helping people through the various experiences of sight loss in (or removal of) one eye… and move on! (from their website)

I've lost vision in one eye as you'll know if you're a regular reader of this blog, and found that they are most helpful! It was great to finally talk to someone who understood, and identified that it's not just the physical aspects of my vision that are up the creek, but also the emotional and psychological aspects of my life that have naturally taken a major knock too. This aspect had been ignored, and by talking to the person at One Vision, it felt like a major boost and aid to resolving those non-physical issues too.

The difference between the advice from the RNIB (as reported previously on this blog) and One Vision in a nutshell was that although One Vision also said that I would have to get used to it, they were certainly not blunt and dismissive of me because I had one good eye; in fact very helpful, because they then quantified it with advice on how to move forward with my life.

I've now got some advice on how things may move forward with returning to work (I'll need to discuss this with work closer to the time, after I've spoke to medical professionals again). These were simple things that I hadn't automatically thought of, like maybe taking a different desk, so that my right side (my blind side) is maybe by or near a wall, and not near a corridor or main thoroughfare through the office, etc. Also I could try and sit in a particular place or certain way so that people, when approaching me, have to enter my field of vision on the left side so I can see them. And so on. Already it's helping at home, by me simply changing which chair I sit at, in the living room. By changing position so that my right eye is wall-side, I can actually see better what's going on in the living room generally now.

I was advised that if my vision is going to stay unimproved (as it certainly may seem), I will adapt, and things do usually settle down, but it can take a long time, or it can take a short time, for my body to accept that I should be running on one eye instead. It's difficult to say how long though at the moment.

There are somethings I can't do now, such as driving a bus or a lorry. I can't do those things anyway, as I can't drive, so I am not bothered, but I am still able (if I so wish) to learn to drive as I have one good eye, so that's something I may consider for the future. I hadn't even considered that, to be honest, as I had accepted that any potential future driving had automatically been negated. One of my eventual life-goals (learn to drive) has now been returned to me, just through a passing comment by One Vision!

It felt just good to talk to someone who wasn't dismissive of me with the comment "You've got one good eye". They didn't use words like that at all. And they actually understood what I was going through. Above all, I felt that the adviser summed it up with three words as to how to do things so that I can move on with my life.

• BIGGER
• BRIGHTER
• BOLDER

Make things bigger and bolder so I can see them, don't be afraid to ask for stuff in large print (or I can't see it) and seek plenty of bright light on things. Light helps by seeing things better, so I have a marginal chance of telling a bit better how far away they are. They are going to send me some information through the post too.

Finally I feel I have a chance to move forward. If you've come to this page looking for help coping with monocular vision, I recommend speaking with One Vision.

Thank you, One Vision.