In those first dark days at the hospital post heart transplant, I promised myself that I would make the best of this borrowed time that I was gifted. I did a lot of dreaming in those early days.
Thoughts become things and here we are today, just two years since I lost my sight. One of those dreams have come true. I wanted to write and share my experience. It has been a journey getting here. It was three or four weeks before I was able to have a device. They would not even give me my phone for fear I would lose it. I was given an old phone set up for WI-FI only. Siri and I had to become friends. Pre-transplant I was anti Siri and may have bad-mouthed this AI tech. This was not the first time in life I had to eat humble pie and back track such opinions. The first time I recall eating humble pie was when bicycle shorts first became popular. Ha! Ha! I thought they were atrocious. A brief time later I would find them to be the best thing ever. Sorry for the eighty’s digression. In other words, never say never.
Yes, Siri and I would become friends. Months later I would graduate to the I-phone screen reader. Today I was using my phone to pay when my companion said there is nothing on your phone. That is because I have the screen turned off and use it with gestures, taps or voice.
Many nurses would run into my room in the first days to find out what all the yelling was about. Siri would not let me into an app. I have come a long way in less than one-and-a-half years. I still have a long way to go with my digital literacy.
The day I was able to order groceries and pay with my credit card on my own, such a feeling of accomplishment washed over me.
I have always been a bit of a dreamer or visionary. I see an outcome and then simply do the next thing to get closer to my goal. I visualize the two ends meeting somewhere in the middle. Sometimes the
path is linear, others it is chaotic. When the path is chaotic, that is usually my creative mind running the bus. My left brain then takes over and makes some sense of it all.
All good dreams come to fruition with intent. There was never a moment in those early days that I doubted I would get back on my own two feet.
I grew lots of patience whether I wanted to or not. I then thought of each accomplishment as a steppingstone to get to the next step and so on.
I got my laptop set-up with my screen reader in October. I would do little with it for several months.
One day while having my teeth cleaned my hygienist inquired if I had written a letter to my donor family y. I replied not yet with the excuse that I did not know how to write the letter yet. He encouraged me saying I would soon be able to do it. I pondered for several days at my lack of literacy. Late one evening I put down my grief and denial and turned on my laptop. With the help of Siri guiding me through keyboard shortcuts I managed to create and name a new file, write the letter, open a new email, attach the document, and email the letter.
This accomplishment was a major breakthrough, and I was on my way. Each milestone is a steppingstone to the next skill and so on. I realize I will not get back thirty-five years of knowledge in one or two years, but it will come quicker the second time because I already have the knowledge. I am simply travelling on a new road to the same destination. This is what neuroplasticity looks like for lifelong learners. I am grateful for the brain I have…even if it is no longer twenty-two, I can still learn.
She thought she could, so she did.
There is a way through every block.
Edwina Nearhood is a long time Fort St. John resident sharing her vision loss journey. Please remember, every person’s vision loss experience is as unique as they are.