Rodney Roe: third prize winner, ZoomNews contest

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the beginning of WWII, I was raised and attended public school, college, and medical school in Arkansas.  I was married in 1966 to Lynn Byars and we moved at the end of medical school to Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 where I had my internship and residency in the field of pathology.  My residency training was interrupted by two years of active duty in the U.S. Army, with one of those spent in Vietnam.  I worked as a hospital pathologist in various locations for the next 30 years, spending the last 17 in Shelby, North Carolina.

Physicians must use all of their senses in their work, and sight plays a large part in their lives since reading large volumes of material from texts and medical journals is a lifelong requirement.  In addition, a pathologist spends much of his day either observing biopsies and organs macroscopically for abnormalities, but microscopically, as well, to determine the nature of disease that may have affected the patient.

So, when I developed sudden vision loss in 2005 due to anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION), I had an abrupt change in my life.  Over a two week period I went from my usual good vision correctable with glasses to loss of almost all of my peripheral vision with patchy central vision with an area in one eye correctable to 20/40.  I was evaluated by my hometown physicians and went to Duke Eye Center where there was agreement by everyone that I had AION of the type that is not caused by inflammation of medium sized arteries.

I retired from the hospital, applied for disability income through insurance companies with which I had policies, and from the state of North Carolina.  Convincing everyone that I was not a malingerer and could no longer practice my specialty occupied a great deal of the time of my wife and I, and still does.  I knew that the Lions Club had something to do with the blind and I called a local representative who put me in touch with a social worker with the Department of Social Services.

Being a veteran proved to be a great help.  I became a patient in the Veterans Administration Hospital system and in the fall of 2006 I went to the Augusta Blind Rehab Center in Augusta, Georgia.  I was extensively evaluated, had training in various skills of daily living, and received, among other prosthetics, a computer loaded with ZoomText. 

Fortunately, I had worked with computers for a number of years in my work as a hospital pathologist, so my computer training went fairly quickly.  I communicate by email, compose various types of documents, and use my computer for converting CDs from the local library to MP3 files that I can then listen to on my iPod.  I have been an amateur photographer, and while composing a shot through the lens of a film camera is no longer possible, I still take photos with a digital camera by the “point and shoot” method that I later can look at on the computer, edit, and load into photo files to share with friends and family. 

I was fortunate to have had many hobbies, many of which I had to abandon upon becoming visually impaired. Shooting skeet and bird watching both required good vision and the ability to drive, but I continue to make pottery in our local studio.  Throwing a pot is largely a tactile process and I have been able to continue with this hobby.  I was always an active reader and thanks to the local library and North Carolina Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, I have books on tape which occupy a lot of my time.

I serve on the board of the Cleveland County Arts Council, and am on the board of the Cleveland County Healthcare System.  Special aids such as a CCTV and my computer have been invaluable to me.  Given good health I look forward to many more years of community activity and service.