Into a dark place
When I first lost my sight,
I fell into a dark place that was
heavily driven by the depression
associated with the drastic change
to my life. Two years after first
losing my sight, I participated in
a very emotional interview for
a documentary on diabetes and
vision loss. That night, after I had
opened up about my experience,
I went to sleep seeing black and
white, and woke up the next
morning to find I could see
colour out of my right eye again!
My healthcare team believes
I had been suppressing my
emotions, which created a mental
block, causing the black and
white vision. Through talking to
someone who had been around
other people dealing with the
same issues I was struggling to
come to terms with, and through
simply getting it all off my chest,
my brain began to think: ‘Hang
on a minute, we can do a little bit
better than what we’re doing.’
To the point where, if I get right
up in someone’s face, I can
actually make out who they are!
Everything is still blurry,
but what I’ve got at this very
moment is a little gateway –
OPPOSITE & LEFT: Neil with
his wife, Dearne.
diabetic living MAY/JUNE 2019 113