Mistakes

The Next year

It was the following year when I received the MMD diagnosis. The realization that I was not clearly seeing what needed to be seen was brought up to the front and center of my thinking.

At this point, I began to recognize what was happening with my vision and became more aware of the issues it was causing. A simple task of writing checks and recording this information into our checkbook register became a lot more challenging.

There were days where if the lighting was not just right, the challenge of seeing the numbers to log was a bit of a mess. Mistaking the number 8 for a 6, for example, was becoming harder and harder to really see. I was recognizing that I needed to become even more conscientious of myself as I worked through our financial books.

More mistakesDuring this time of adjustment, for myself, there were more issues of errors that I had to address. There was the time when I inadvertently doubled the baking soda in a cookie recipe. Fortunately, this error was caught, and a quick doubling of said recipe turned this mishap into a bonus for the cookie jar. Or the time when I painting, I reached for what I was sure was the black paint and discovered a deep, dark green instead as I applied it to my latest work. Briefly mortified at this happening but I was able to work around this mis-coloring and completed the art work with a little more enhancement to cover this blunder. Just recently, wanting to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special dinner for my husband and I, I set out to make the reservations for it. I did so and on the appointed day we headed out, anticipating an evening of fine dining. A five-course dinner with accompanying cocktails, definitely a treat for us. As we pulled up, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of traffic in the parking area. Approaching the restaurant another realization hit, there were no lights on in the building. Quickly rechecking the reservations and it hit me, this was not the right night. The dinner was to have been for the Saturday night prior to Valentine's Day. Another blatant example of not seeing clearly the information that was so necessary. LearningThe diagnosis of MMD brings with it many challenges every single day. With these challenges I am learning lessons on how to safely and correctly manage my day to day life. Just like I used to tell our four kids as they were growing up and doing their homework, “Double check your work”, only in my case I think I will add another line to that decree. Double-check your work and then go back and check it once again, for your own good.Share your macular degeneration journey with us!