…it’ll change everything! Or nothing. Who knows!

I’ve had double vision since I came out of my coma in August 2003. I’m not going to lie, it sucks. However, if my April eye surgery works (my third in a year), it won’t fix it entirely, but it will mean that the two overlapping images I see will be on one plane  – as opposed to the two axes on which I see things now (kind of overlapping diagonally) – and that will hopefully be enough for prism glasses to slam those two images together as one.

Thinking about this logically, I can’t help but be extremely optimistic! Seeing a single image, one that isn’t blurred and dizzied by an interjecting, overlapping and disorganizing one, would have to improve things. Wouldn’t it?

Double vision has very real consequences to my walking, my balance and my coordination. However, if I am able to see just one unaffected image, I can’t see how that wouldn’t help me walk – especially up/down stairs and uneven ground – help my balance and allow to to catch without having to guess which of the two images I see is correct.

Explaining my double vision is difficult, but I’ll give it a shot. If you close your right eye, remember the image you see, then close your left eye (and open your right eye). Those images are generally the same but not quite identical. I see those two slightly different images overlap each other at the same time.

All that said, I’ve had double vision for 7 and a half years and I’ve gotten somewhat used to it. I can walk around on even and uneven terrain (I have to be careful with curbs, etc.), stairs are difficult, but a rail helps. Luckily, my reading has not been too greatly effected. I probably read more now and I enjoy it more now too (even if a lot of it is for work).

I was at the pool this afternoon, so I’m tired and when I’m tired the double vision is more apparent and it’s tougher to focus on one image. In the end though, it’s something I’ve lived with for 7 and a half years and if this is the way it’s going to be, I’ll be ok with it. Obviously not seeing double would be idyllic, but I’ve made it part of my life for so long now, that frankly, it is what it is.