As I approached the end of May 2025, I found myself confronting the reality of living with two conditions as a deaf person with disabilities. The journey from September 2024 has been a rollercoaster, filled with challenges, uncertainties, and fears. Yet, I made a courageous choice to undergo surgery, believing it to be the most promising path. Now, I stand on the brink of relieving the eye pressure in my right eye through laser treatment on the 23rd of May 2025.
I hold in high regard all individuals with low vision and seniors who grapple with sight impairments and the onset of cataracts or glaucoma in their later years. I share my story as a deaf person with a disability, now in my 60s. The strides in health technology, particularly those without additional disabilities like deafness, neurological issues, or physical mobility challenges, have been a game-changer for seniors with eye conditions, showcasing the potential for further advancements in this field.
The ability to struggle through everyday life is the ability to lip-read someone in the same room, watch television with captioning, use signers and interpreters, look at road signs when travelling on the roads, make PowerPoint presentations, read materials/resources, work on a computer device, and use the display, including the font size and background screen—white to black as dark mode. Around home, gardening isn’t easy due to the appearance of plants and leaves, highlighting the daily challenges faced by those with vision impairments.
Image if your eyesight like this except during the foggy morning!
My circle is not immune to the challenges of vision impairments. I have a cousin who is partially blind, a great-grandmother who developed a hearing loss, then lost her eyesight, became blind over 80 years old, and a grandaunt who developed hearing loss after her cataract surgery many years ago. One of the Deaf seniors I assisted in the past had a cataract, and it was difficult for him to tell me if he could see better because he lost his glasses several times. These shared experiences have fostered my deep sense of connection and empathy.
The two implant lenses in my eyes have been a game-changer. They have significantly improved my vision, allowing me to navigate my surroundings better, lip-read more effectively, and even notice areas around many rooms that need more cleaning jobs and the ability to watch staff/directors/board team and the interpreters during Zoom meetings. I continue to work under the Social Services and one of the Disability Organisations until I decide to retire, when I feel ready to step down and let another person take over. I continue to advocate for people with disabilities, D/deaf with disabilities, D/deaf people and seniors in the community anywhere. My writing days are not over.
My eye surgeries arrived on Wednesday, 2nd April 2025, after a short waiting time from November 2024. My partner took a three-day leave from Wednesday while I took a two-week leave. Yes, it had been a long, anxious wait for the outcome, to follow the Hospital Procedures before the surgeries, and to recover within the time frame. I did not have an interpreter that day. My partner – Rusty, kept reminding nurses and an anesthesia person with a small communication skill with finger spelling and gesture signs – a bonus for me because of my deafness and difficulty lip reading. We arrived before 615am because we lived in a rural home outside the city. Then, everyone, including us, entered the waiting room before the surgery at 645am. It was a long waiting time and dull as well. Many people like nurses, anesthesia, GPs, Specialists and other types of hospital staff can not see my disabilities because my disabilities are invisible to them. The same issues in our home in the rural area, like neighbours failing to understand or to acknowledge my disabilities and my needs different to any of their family members like grandmother or seniors. Awareness of invisible disability everyone has a long way to go, and we learn to understand our world by removing ableism in rural areas.
One nurse came to put markers above my eyebrows as he realised I was having two eyes in surgery—not one eye only, where the other patients were having one eye surgery. These Markers were to ensure the correct eye was operated on.
An anesthesia person, Niam, came to speak to us, and I found trouble lip-reading him. I told him to move toward me so I could lip-read, and out of the blue, he signed his name in fingerspelling and chatted over any issues I may have. He explained many good examples, warnings, tubes inserted through windpipe – urgh, drug side effects and many other problems. Niam put a long needle into the vein while Rusty was curious to see how it worked. The time was 1030am, and I waited for another half hour before going to the theatre.
When I entered the surgery room, nurses, a specialist, and an anesthesia team checked over me. There were a few issues the nurses wanted me to move up to the headrest – oh boy, a couple or three times shuffling upward. Then, one of the nurses placed an anesthesia mask over my mouth, and I was knocked out to sleep through the surgeries.
The nurse tapped my shoulder in the recovery room to wake me up. I began to wake up slowly and took a while to visualise the room and team. The nurse told me they had called Rusty to come in. Through blurred time, I noticed it was after 130 p.m., far out, which was why it was so long. The nurses asked several questions (one nurse is a third year’s training) if I would like something to eat – cheese and onion sandwiches and a cup of water. Rusty spoke to me and patiently asked if I was okay then. Just before an hour was up after the recovery time, the nurse asked me if I would like an ice block with lemonade flavour. I took the offer and ate the ice block until I was finally ready to go home. I changed from the hospital gown to my day clothes. We were waiting for the assistance person to take me in a wheelchair via the Hospital Pharmacy – four bottles of eye drops and one large tablet, Car Park Pay Machine, and then up to the car park building where Rusty parked his ute. I wore two transparent protective eye shields with tapes. These shields protected my eyes from potential harm during the initial recovery period. See Photo.
I was surprised how the surgeries went, and the implant lens in each eye helped me a lot better than before. I started to visualise the environment while going home. Yes, my eyes were tired after a long day, from morning through evening, each day and night. Gross bruised down the windpipe due to the tube inserted, and I took it easy while eating a dinner meal. I took a tablet plus other tablets before going to bed. Bearing in our thoughts, we have three dogs who were relieved to have us home, and they (dogs) knew something in me. The first night went without a hitch until Day Two in the morning. I remember feeling a mix of relief and apprehension during the first night; I was relieved that the surgeries were over but apprehensive about the recovery process.
Day Two: I did not remove the transparent protective shield until we went to the hospital first. Finally, I was allowed to wear shields without transparent protection during the day. I left several messages for my managers at two workplaces, close colleagues who trust and know my deaf and other disabilities, and one good and trusted neighbour who is a cousin to my mother’s side of the family. We went back to see the Soecalist at the Waikato Hospital for the follow-up. We spent another three hours from 10 am to around 1 pm. We found out more about the long hours through surgery, and it was about giving me another drug to continue the other eye surgery. The team had to wait about an hour. Usually, for anyone to have an extraction cataract surgery, it takes approximately 30 minutes and one hour of recovery time. The most important item you are required to wear is sunglasses, and I use sunglasses when going outside because the sunlight will be sensitive to implant lenses in the eyes.
Rusty got a mobile call from his boss, who gave him a week off after three days off to the weekend. That was very nice of his boss. I was still tired and took an easy around the house while the dogs sat beside me. In the afternoon, an unexpected delivery came at the gate and rang Rusty while he was napping. It was the florist delivery from my work – Social Service Trust. The mobile call/text to us from the gate is easier for anyone unfamiliar with or not bothered by our dogs without permission. Our dogs act like assisted dogs to raise the alarm, knowing someone is at the gate, someone is trying to do a home invasion/house break-in, and other methods are available to us. I hear nothing through nights in the large property – zero sounds/noises without dogs, and our dogs are alarmed many times by hearing someone trying to break in, come in without permission, here and in the neighbours. Recently, our dogs raised the alarm and came to me when I worked from home, and there was a serious three-car accident at the intersection that killed a young mother and a child. A young man (An apprentice carpenter) was responsible for the accidents.
Did you know there are five different assistance dogs and the cost of getting one in New Zealand? Let me tell you what type of assistance dogs are available here.
Guide Dogs – $173K for Low Vision, Blind and Blind with Disabilities people
Assistance Dogs – $75k for Neurological children, Teenagers, Youths and adults
Mobility Dogs – $50K for people with disabilities (difficulty mobile functioning around the house and in the garden, supermarket and other activities), D/deaf with Disabilities, seniors with poor mobility functions
Hearing Dogs – $30K for D/deaf people and Hard of Hearing people (most D/deaf with disabilities people depending on their disability)
Therapy Dogs – $5K outside Auckland for anxiety children, Youths, isolated seniors in the rest homes/their own homes, sensory recovery for people with invisible disabilities like Epilepsy and chronic asthma people/youths.
After eating a light meal in the late afternoon, I continued using eye drops four times daily. All went well, and I went to bed with the protection of transparent shields for the next four nights and slept on double pillows for both eye pressures throughout the night.
Day Three to Day Five
My usual routines: I take off a pair of transparent protective shields in the morning, ensure dogs are not jumping towards my face in bed, do not shower, wash my hair, walk around the house and a bit out in the garden with sunglasses. I watched TV, where there is captioning in the television programme, and it was better than before, except for reading minimal sentences (everyone has the same problem with this one). I am getting there to read fonts in the newspapers and emails on the computer, iPad and mobile. It has something to do with screen and display. I continue to use it four times a day eye drop for another three weeks. My right elbow, where the needle pucked into the vein, showed signs of an angry bruise scar.
Day Five to Day Eight
Finally, starting tonight, I will not be wearing a pair of transparent protective shields. Yes, it is a bother to tape the shields onto your face or mine each night, and I recommend you tie your long hair back, even the long fringe hair. I started doing this on day one, and I found it helpful. I continue to use normal routines while both my eyes are starting to improvise visually here and there, over there, and further away as much as I can without overusing my eyes.
On Day Eight, it was my birthday, and I was glad because I did not like having any surgery on my birthday. Another year added to my age of over 60 years.
In the morning, I planned the safety procedure for washing my hair after showering, which was the best thing to do. We have a handheld shower head that we can remove/lift out of the slider. Rusty helped me wash my hair, and I used a dry face cloth placed over both eyes and bent over the bath without a hitch. We went on a half-day trip to Raglan, where my mother, brother, and sister from Hamilton visited us for lunch on our birthday. Seeing the scenery of Raglan, beaches and shops was better than before, and Pirongia-o-Te Aroaro-ō-Kahu (Mount Pirongia) was brilliant.
I consider the Low Vision People and the Blind People I know and respect, for I understand it is tough for those with low vision or blindness to know what out there is like except to describe the background. There are several people I know whose disabilities are Deafblind; not everyone realised this except to learn about Helen Keller or Laura Bridgman. There is a Deafblind lady in Matamata, and she was involved with the Waikato Deaf Society Inc. before 1999; she went to the same Deaf Schools where I have several Deaf seniors through home visits, and lastly, she remembers or partially remembers seeing Helen Keller when Helen and Polly Thomson in 1948 at Sumner School for the Deaf (note the name of this school changed to van Asch then Ko Tahu Reo – Deaf Education New Zealand) in Christchurch.
A few people asked me after learning about glaucoma and the cataract I am living with and said too much computer/laptop/iPad reading and working, kindle reading, and even mobile caused the result of glaucoma and cataract. The answer is no!
My partner spoke to the Ophthalmologist about the cause of my eyes developing and whether my work with computers, laptops, and iPads resulted from this. The Ophthalmologist firmly assured my partner that it did not and was related to eye pressure and nerve damage.
“Glaucoma is an eye condition that damages the optic nerve. This damage can lead to vision loss or blindness. The optic nerve sends visual information from your eye to the brain and is vital for good vision. Damage to the optic nerve is often related to high pressure in the eye. But glaucoma can happen even with typical eye pressure.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/glaucoma/symptoms-causes/syc-20372839#dialogId20439982
Catarach – “Most cataracts happen because of regular eye changes as you age.
When you’re young, the lens in your eye is clear. Around age 40, the proteins in the lens of your eye start to break down and clump together. This clump makes a cloudy area on your lens — known as a cataract. Over time, the cataract gets worse and makes more of your lens cloudy.” https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/cataracts
In my family, the history of eye surgeries is not uncommon. Several family members have undergone eye surgeries, which points to a strong genetic link in our family. This underscores the importance of being aware of our family history and taking necessary precautions for our eye health. It’s a shared responsibility that we all need to be mindful of, strengthening our bond and sense of duty towards each other’s health.
The fast-growing trends in technology include desktops, laptops, iPads, and mobile devices for everyone. However, one serious problem is Computer Vision Syndrome. Did you know this? If not, it is time to look at yourself and think about how often you look at the Computer vision screen every day and night. It’s crucial to take regular breaks and give your eyes a rest. By taking a break from the computer screen for more than three hours or having free time without looking at the screen through the evening, you are taking control of your health and empowering yourself to prevent potential issues.
It is the same trend where young children, young youths/teenagers and adults spend more time using earpieces or iPod devices, and it damages your hearing loss without following the guidelines, e.g. 60/60 (60 minutes and using 60 maximum volume. The safe time limit for listening to music is one hour daily, with a volume of no more than 60%. By being aware of these guidelines and following them, you are educating yourself and taking proactive steps to protect your hearing. If you listen to music for over an hour, you should reduce the volume to below 60%.
It’s crucial to prioritise your hearing health. If you use listening devices that allow you to exceed the maximum volume control, be mindful of the potential long-term effects. Whether you’re working or enjoying music, it’s essential to maintain a safe listening volume.
Note I will continue to do my journey blog before and after both eye surgeries and to realise how far I managed and the outcome of my recovery through seeing with implant len in each eye.
I will need to install the SEO plug-in without robbing my bank account. SEO—short for search engine optimisation—is about helping search engines understand your content and users find your site and decide whether to visit it through a search engine.
How far have I managed my eye conditions since the last post of my journey with eye conditions here?
Some days, as the season changed to Autumn, we were getting more cloudy and slightly foggy on my way to work in the morning. I felt like my vision was affected by the weather, similar to the symptoms of double vision associated with glaucoma. I shifted my lot of sense for driving in the car and waited patiently at the intersection from our home. On the left side, there is a long drop hill sitting in the sunlight/foggy area and on the right side, it is not too bad; however, the drivers often drive at the centreline, which is wrong. Note our intersection along with our neighbourly; we were familiar with this intersection because there was a three-vehicle accident site in February 2022. A young mother and under 1-year-old daughter were killed, and I assisted as a front response.
Mid-March week, I received a letter for the pre-surgery, and my partner and I went up for the assessment and prepared for the upcoming surgeries. Oh boy! What a long afternoon! A nurse was concerned about my blood pressure as she used the electrical blood pressure monitor equipment. I had to politely refuse to believe their reading because this equipment can sometimes give us wrong or almost accurate blood pressure readings. I asked the nurse to use the old-fashioned equipment, and she declined. Then, the GP notified me to see my GP by letter about monitoring my blood pressure the following week. Oh boy! Ultimately, I got blood pressure equipment from the PB Tech and monitored myself every morning. It worked well by recording the results, and I will return to my GP next week.
Yesterday, I received a text message from the Ophthalmology Department about the surgery date, and I am happy to accept the date because I want to have the surgeries done by Winter. This morning, I received an email letter confirming the surgery day along with other details. The surgery date is the 2nd of April, a week short of my birthday, which falls on the 9th. These weeks will allow me to rest at home with my partner and three dogs during recovery. It is the 25th of March, and my surgery date is next week. This surgery is a significant step in my journey towards better health.
Tomorrow, I will be making a short video about my sick leave for the D/deaf people and hard-of-hearing people to post on my Facebook page. I emailed several people I work with and assisted with them this morning. With my second workplace under the Disability Organisation, the case manager arranged for relief support workers to shadow my work with a Deaf, CP and speech-impaired chap several weeks ago, and one more person to do shadow work with me next week (Tuesday, the day before the surgery). I’m grateful for the proactive support from the case manager and head manager, who have informed me of my surgery date. The first workplace under the Social Service has been notified, and we will be sorted out tomorrow.
Life in Eureka 
You must be logged in to post a comment.