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Sunday, May 8, 2011

Is Tom Blind?

The short is answer is yes. But I usually say that Thomas is visually impaired because he does have some vision and because I don't want people to treat him differently. I fear that people will ignore him or interact with him less if I tell them he is blind.  People often assume that blind means total darkness. And for some blind people it does, but most actually have light perception.

Some blind people have light projection meaning they can tell where light is coming from. The next step is to be able to see movement and the highest form of vision is actually being able to see forms.

Tom's surgeon said that a best case scenario for Thomas would be seeing what we see in a foggy bathroom mirror after a shower.

Since Thomas can't tell us what he can see yet we will have to wait. He does reach for toys that are very close to him. His field of vision seems to be within about 6-8 inches from his face.

The first time I put Thomas up to a mirror he really enjoyed himself. He licked the mirror and smacked his hands on it. He really looked at it. We don't know what he saw but it was enough to entertain him and enough to encourage him to use his vision. That's really what we are trying to do at this point; get Thomas to use the vision he has.

So yes, Thomas is blind but he is so much more than that. Anyone that has met him has come away with quite an impression.

There seems to be something about him that draws people in. Everywhere I go people are stopping to say Hi to Thomas. I think that as he gets older he will be an excellent ambassador for the blind. He's already doing a very good job!

Tom also DJs - professional attire, reasonable rates
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 10, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    A wonderful, upbeat Mother's Day entry... Tom can DJ our next party!

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  2. PennyMay 11, 2011 at 12:30 PM

    Ahh the blind vs visually impaired label. Been there bought the t-shirt it will most likely be an issue that will never be solved for us.
    Calling my daughter with some vision blind has set me free. I used to say visually impaired. People simply don't understand. They really assume all blind people are with out any vision. A very small portion are. The issue with the label is it never rolled off my tongue. I was never comfortable saying it. To me it sounded like she was broken. She isn't she is just Abby. I don't like the label handicapped and impaired just almost sounded like the same thing. Abby suffers from some embarrassment from her blindness and I also use blind to take away the jabs that one naturally hear when the word is used. She has already been teased and it hurt her when a peer teased her in a mean way and called her blind. If she is comfortable with the word blind then it can't hurt her when someone teases her. Abby being blind is just another characteristic of Abby like her being tall and her being sassy. Labels really don't matter. All that matters are YOU and Tom are comfortable with what ever you use. Its all good. I need to keep up with your entries because this was wonderful. A issue we all deal with. You are a great mother :)

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