Artificial Eye Book Speaks To Different Generations

A Different Perspective

Sometimes it’s easy to think that the emotional impact of eye loss is mostly to do with the person who has lost their eye.

In the case of children, it’s the parents who have to deal with the big adjustments and emotions.

I think there can also be an assumption that if an adult loses an eye as a child then it’s no longer an issue for that person or their family.

I had an interesting experience this week that reminded me that the impact of eye loss stretches across generations and decades.

I’ve been up in Darwin running a clinic and I showed our book A Different Perspective to a client who lost his eye as a child.

To be honest with you I wasn’t expecting much interest because the actual trauma of the eye loss happened so long ago.

Originally we crafted the book thinking about people who were right in the middle of the whole eye loss experience.

Our plan was for surgeons to leave it with people after they’d been told their eye couldn’t be saved.

Here was someone who’d lived with an artificial eye most of their life.  I wondered how relevant this book would be.

My client attended the clinic with his wife and she was very interested in the book.  She said their daughter would really benefit from reading it.

Then my client told me his son would REALLY benefit from reading it.

I’m still surprised at times like this.  In retrospect it’s obvious really.  Family are such a very big part of the eye loss journey and they need information too.

The next day my client came back to buy another copy for his Mum. ‘She never got over it and she sure will shed some tears when she reads this’.

My client also told me that he and his wife have got a whole lot out of our book.

I didn’t imagine that our little book would resonate for all sorts of people of different ages with such different experiences and connections with eye loss.

From this and other feedback it’s clear that no matter where you’re up to in adjusting to eye loss it’s helpful to read about other people’s experience.

Many people don’t know any other person who has lost an eye.  They don’t get to meet other families who have supported a family member through this difficult experience.  This book is a conversation with real people about their journey.

Paul and I are  thrilled that the book has turned out to be even more useful than we’d hoped.

If you haven’t checked it out already, here’s a link to  A Different Perspective.

3 Comments

  1. Avatar for Nina Blevins Nina Blevins on June 10, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    Wow. To connect with others who have lost an eye is something I’ve aspired to do for many years. I’m 56 years old and in all my years of living I’ve only met one other woman who wears an artificial eye. As a teenager I felt very much alone. No one to talk to. No one who would understand. No one I thought would “get it.” So I kept my emotions and feelings bottled up inside of me not knowing what to do with them. As a young woman, though, God began to show me how to heal and gave me new perspective. I began to share my story and He opened doors for me to speak to groups and write of my spiritual journey. I not only wear a prosthetic eye, but I’m also severely hearing impaired. I now write a blog, gracedtolive: my thorn…God’s glory, and have a devotion book due to be released later this year which chronicles my spiritual journey. I would love to read, A Different Perspective.

    • Avatar for Donna Strong Donna Strong on March 10, 2020 at 1:02 am

      Only sitting ocularists office have I seen other women with an artificial eye. I have had a scleral shell for 9 years and just love it. It changed my life. I had an eye injury at 9 years old and gradually went blind over 3 years. This was after the doctor discharged me and said my eye was fine. At 12 I had 2 surgeries to save the eye but by then I was already blind in that eye. Things went fine until age 47 when I had surgery on it again and the eye hemorrhaged and the eye lost all pressure. It was a sight for several years and not one eye doctor told me about getting a scleral shell until one day I had an emergency and an eye specialist saw me for an issue with my other eye that he told me about the scleral shell. I had never heard of one. Why would your eye doctor let a patient go around for years with a really horrible looking eye when something like a scleral shell could change a womans life.

  2. Avatar for Binoy wilson Binoy wilson on March 13, 2018 at 5:55 pm

    Thanks for sharing your experience with Us. I have gone through your book “A different Perspective”. The book is so much useful for the people who are suffering from this problems.In india modernarteye is the Eye center to help the people who are facing this problems and has helped many. Who are in need for this can visit the website http://www.modernarteye.com/

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