Daydreaming!

Just got a letter in the mail notifying me that Oklahoma's Vocational Rehabilitation will send me to an eye doctor on June 6th, in the next town for eye evaluation and discussion about any ways to "improve" my vision.

I'm so excited!!

First a little history:

I was born with about 20/400 vision. Which means what I "see" at 20 feet - someone with 20/20 or "average" vision can see at 400 feet.

In my late teens and early 20's I had cataract surgeries to remove the cloudy lenses. Most cataract surgeries replace the removed lenses with artificial lenses, my my case the doctor determined that I was "too young" and did not receive these lenses. My vision after surgery was 20/200 without glasses and 20/80 - 20/100 with glasses.

I did consider Lasik surgery several years ago but decided against it because 1) it would still leave me with 20/80 - 20/100 vision; and 2) it's irreversable.

The last 2 years though my vision has slipped a little bit (my hubby says its "old age" oh shaddup!)

Here's what I've researched:

Intacs Corneal Implants:

* Are implantable "contacts" (hence the name "intacs") which reshape the curvature of the cornea. No tissue is removed (like in Lasik) so they can be removed or replaced if vision needs change.

* In U.S. clinical studies - 97% saw 20/40 or better; 74% saw 20/20 or better; and greater than 50% saw 20/16 or better.

* Candidates for intacs have between -1.00 and -3.00 diopters (less than 20/300 vision)

Catagories of Myopia: Myopia is the medical term for "nearsightedness". More than 70 million people in North America are nearsighted. Nearsightedness means that you can see things nearby clearly and things farther away are blurry. The more "myopic" you are, the more blurry things are in the distance and the "thicker" your glasses will be.

This website has a neat visual simulator to show the different vision fields.

http://www.getintacs.com/index_can_i_wear_intacs.php

Driving Requirements:

In Oklahoma, drivers must have at least 20/60 and a visual field of 70 degrees but it's possible to be a restricted licence.

So, after researching this I've been daydreaming.......

If I get a driver's licence I'd get a baby blue colored pickup truck like this one and stick a coyote decal in the back window.

I'd drive EVERYWHERE! LOL! I'm tired of being a passenger! My kids are tired of walking to school (it's only 3 blocks fercryingoutloud)! I'm tired of apologizing to them for not being able to drive them places! I'm tired of waiting on someone else's schedule! Just wanna grab the keys and go!

Ok, a little closer to reality would be - driving only in the daytime hours in hubby's minivan after dropping him off at work and only around town on a "need-to" basis (with gasoline nearly $4 freaking dollars a gallon yeah sheesh!)

Another bonus to being able to drive would be that I can expand my job search to other towns eh?

Oh well, time to stop daydreaming and walk to school and pick up the kiddies.

Scam Artists and Disabilities

For as long as time itself, people have taken advantage of various disabilities to gain monies, things, or "just for a good laugh".

From the classic person on the street corner with sunglasses and a cup of pencils or "fingerspelling cards" for money; to "kids" calling themselves on relay so they can make up the stupidest calls to hear the relay operator say it; to people telling the blind clerk that the $1 they just given is actually a $10; to the newer scam of using TTYs to call companies to place large orders of expensive merchandise on bogus credit cards.

What can we, people with disabilities, do about it? Because it DOES affect us:

* We get "blacklisted" because of some bad experience a company had so that "anyone with that disability" is the same.

* It'll hurt the true nonprofit agencies when people won't buy fundraising products because they "gave" at the street corner.

* Hard-working people with disabilities are taken advantaged of (as with the blind clerk).

* The general "image" of independence is ruined by jokesters and the general public sees and remembers the negative impressions.

The different things we can do are:

* For "charity" scams - Ask the person for the name, address and phone number of the charity they're fundraising for; ask what percentage of the "gift" will go to administrative costs (should be 35% or less); or at the beginning of the year decide which charity you will donate to and stick to that.

* For "Taking Advantage" scams - A lot of us need to quit our "not my problem" attitude, this goes for both people with disabilities and people without. If you see a scam in action - do something! Sure, you'll say "don't want to get hurt". "it doesn't involve me", "I'm just one person". It doesn't matter, in the long run, scams hurt everyone. Scammers do it 'cuz it's easy, let's all make it harder for them to try eh?

* For "relay pranks" - If you see one of these on a website or blog like YouTube, you can e-mail the host site and ask them to remove the video or blog. Is this a violation of their right to "free speech"? No, because I believe this falls under "damaging to individual interests - libel and slander".

All in all, everyone needs to take a pro-active stance, be aware, be helpful, get educated, be the educator!

Here's some websites to check for any kind of scam:

http://www.snopes.com/

http://www.scamspotters.com/find.html

http://www.bbb.org/alerts/scam.asp

Careers for the DeafBlind

Warning!! The following is just a tongue-in-cheek humorous sketch from a warped mind. So don't start wagging your finger and going "tsk tsk" at me. If you're DeafBlind and DO have one of these jobs then all the more power to you!

Manager at LensCrafters:
"Here are your glasses Sir"
"I can't see anything!"
"They look fine to me"
(Crash) "Eep!"

Forklift Driver at Sam's Club:
"Yeah that skid will fit up there"
(Hum of machine forks lifting heavy stacked skid 2 stories high)
(Shove - 2 skids fall off on the other side)
"There! That'll do it!" (zips around corner in forklift)
"Hey?! Who left this mess??"

Switchboard operator at AT&T:
"Hello welcome to AT&T, please hold"
"Hello welcome to AT&T, please hold"
"Hello welcome to AT&T, please hold"
(snickering - you get the picture)

Order Taker for Pizza Hut:
"Good evening, Pizza Hut, what can I get you?"
(mumbling on phone line)
"Yes sir, be there in 30 minutes"
DrMZZ: "WTH?? I Didn't order anchovies!!!??"

Security Guard at Harrah's Casino:
(boss storms into security office)
"We just lost $10 million dollars!!"
"Really?? I didn't see anything."

Driving School Educator:
"Hmmm how come I don't have any customers?"

Doggie "DooDoo" Cleanup Service:
(Crawling around a backyard on hands and knees)
"Found one!" (picks up doodoo and puts it in bag)
(patting around ground some more)
"Found another!" (picks it up and puts it in bag)
(patting around and stubs fingers on tree)
"OW!" (puts fingers in mouth)

Alright, alright, my mind's getting crazier by the minute :)
Humor is just my way of dealing with stress (as my husband will tell you with eyes rolling). I tell people "Ya know what they say about if someone loses a sense, another one takes over? Well I got weak sight, weak hearing, and no smell! So my sense of touch and my sense of humor took over!"

What to do???

Been a busy couple of months here in Oklahoma! Finally got my Permanent Resident card from Immigrations back in January. Then went to get my SSN # (thats SIN # for you canucks).

Started job hunting with hardly any luck, living in a town of 5,000 people with the big companies being WalMart, Lowe's and Walgreen's. Got a call from Walgreen's to come in and finish the 2nd part of the application. "Whoo hoo!" I thought to myself. But that feeling was short lived as I finished filling out the application and turned it in to the manager and recognized the all too familiar "nervous but polite grin (or sneer?)" and the condescending "Thank you, we'll let you know" remark (people with disabilities will know what I mean). I don't even think that application made it to his desk but to the trash can instead.

Looked through tons of help wanted ads, the majority require phone work (grumble) and if they don't require phone work they require a driver's licence (grumbling louder).

Filled out applications for SSI (Supplemental Income) but I don't qualify until I've lived in the US for 5 years. But I did find a "loophole" and can become an American Citizen 3 years after application because I'm married to a US Cititzen.....so 2 more years to go! But still....2 years of doing what???

Sure my husband tries to reassure me saying "Being mother and taking care of the house is a really important job". But my first reaction is "Yeah but it's not paying the @#$%^#@ bills!!"

Hunting all avenues I could, I came across Oklahoma Vocational Rehabilitation and fired off an email to them. I got a reply saying that they'll come by for a visit. After filling out what seems like 10 pages of applications, they said I do qualify for their services, either for job hunting, or for retraining. The catch is, that won't be until July when their new fiscal year begins and they have money to take on new clients. Time to play the waiting game now!

So I spent some time researching what kind of careers deafblind people can enter. But, having a tough time because many websites are very vague on this subject. "Many deafblind people are employed in administrative positions, factory jobs, computer jobs, etc" Yeah, but doing WHAT???!!!

Did a few free "Match your interests to a career" but then it says "Send in $29.95 for your full report!" So much for being "free" sheeesh. (Banging head on computer desk).

So everyone out there in Cyberland!! (waving with my arms) Tell me what can a person with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration; 2 diplomas as an Accounting Clerk and Finance Assistant (can't remember that training now 'cuz no one gave me a chance to practice it); not enough hearing for phone work in an office; not enough eyesight for quality control in a factory; is supposed TO DO??!! Send in your comments on what careers deafblind people have done that you know of, and please be a little specific and not just "work at Post Office".

Just this past mother's day my daughter gave me a poster she made at school called "I know my Mom Well". One of the questions was "Her job is..." and my daughter's answer was "washing dishes". So I'm going down in my daughter's memory as a dishwasher!! Whoo Hoo!!

I know the most important job I've got is just being a mother, but just sometimes there's a twinge of wanting to provide more for my family.

Anyways, there's a pile of dishes waiting to be washed (snickering). I'll appreciate every comment and suggestion anyone has! Thanks!