Brad's Vision Quest

I went blind in two weeks. Hi, my name is Brad. I am fundraising for expenses due to my sudden loss of vision. I wish to cover expenses outside of the cost of the initial surgery. My funds would be for living expenses. travel and aid for accomplishing everyday tasks. More on this later...

 

Within 14 days, I went from "Hey, I think I might need glasses" to needing a white cane and assistance to get around. The Lions Clubs of Bartlett, TN, is sponsoring my initial surgery in one eye. I will definitely need at least one surgery on each eye. Beyond that, there are too many variables such as timing, Lions Club funding limitations, waiting lists, and non-optimal outcomes, among others, that can affect the timing for any additional procedures.

 

A bit more about my medical journey for those who are interested. In August, I thought I might need to get a new pair of reading glasses. That all changed the last week in October. Within two days, I started noticing a haze. I thought from the experience of other extended family members that it was likely cataracts, that it would just be a minor inconvenience and very slow-growing.

 

Two days later, I had trouble making out objects. I contacted Dr. Hines at the Optometry Group in Memphis. In an additional two days when I had my appointment, I had already been experiencing the loss of brightness, contrast, color, sharpness and tint. My world had just turned to various shades of grey, with very diffuse shapes and very muted colors. I could not see my hand in front of my face. Dr. Hines confirmed that I had an incredibly fast-growing, aggressive, and severe form of cataracts, unusually in both eyes and equally bad in each. By that point, I had become functionally blind.  Now a few months later I'am very nearly completely blind.  I can only see very dark grey or black, with no features, shape or color.

 

Dr. Hines and members of his staff offered to reach out to a number of places. The Lions Club very quickly approved me and arranged for my initial surgery. Unfortunately, the initial surgery has been delayed a few more months due to covid and scheduling issues.

 

Things I didn’t realize would be ridiculous to accomplish on my own until I went blind.

I now need to pay for assistance to achieve doing the following:

 

General living expenses

Ordering from Instacart and in-person grocery shopping

Cooking

Household tasks

The cost of transportation to and from shopping and appointments and aide to get around in those various places.

May need to purchase Apple products because the adaptive and blind-friendly interfaces would offer far more independence for the next several months.

Help for possible relocation depending on scheduling future surgeries beyond the initial surgery, to be closer to family, friends, and support system.

 

Thank you for considering donating!

Created with assistance...

The following testimony is from the Facebook page of one of the associates at the optometry group:


Hello friends! Please take the time to read our patients story! Brad came to us for help as he was quickly loosing his vision. We are only an optometrist and do not do surgeries but We we’re determined to do what ever we could to help him get his sight back! We helped him get paper work filled out so lions club could help him with surgery. And he now has surgery lined up!! I talk to him all the time he has such a positive outlook on life and is always making me laugh. He has definitely become a friend. We were able to acquire a cane through the white cane program for free which has given him some independence back!
If you could help him reach his goal I know he would appreciate it! Thanks for taking out the time and if you aren’t able to donate please share his story!