The Doctors Did Not Tell Me

This is nothing new when it comes to communication between doctor and patient, but for those of us who are afflicted with a vision loss it is even more difficult to deal with. For the mainstream patient they are at least able to access their information through their files, but when you are unable to read your own files because they are in printed format, that is an entirely different issue.

Here's what happened to me. In January 2004, the doctors performed surgery on me to reattach my torn retina and at the same time they gave me a new cornea. I lost almost all of my vision but no one really told me why. A second surgery was performed in September of that year, and I clearly remember the cornea surgeon telling me that he was very positive that I would receive some restored vision. But you know what? It did not happen and again no one really wanted to tell me why, in spite of my repeated questions. Lo and behold, I finally discovered the truth, but not until January of 2007. And the truth revealed itself purely by accident.

I had requested a copy of my files from my family doctor. When my friend was casually flipping through the pages, she stumbled upon a letter that my eye surgeon had written to my family doctor. The letter was explosive and explicit and emphatically stated that during my surgery of January 2004 my eye had been damaged due to blood trickling into it. What a horrible discovery! It was devastating and earth shattering to me. I could not believe that after three years I had to discover this all on my own and it only came through pure coincidence. My friend wept while I sobbed uncontrollably. Why no one ever thought to tell me will forever be a dark and mysterious secret.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your accessibility and special-needs business consultant wishing you a terrific day and begging you to go out there and urge your doctors to start being more honest with you whenever there is something difficult for them to share with their patients.