It was great having a long hiatus away from social media. The past few months have been quite depressing and I decided that having a break away from social media and spending quality time with myself and family will be the best thing to recover mentally. I don’t usually talk about my personal life here but I would like to share some life lessons.
During the past months, a loved one got diagnosed with a rare type of cancer and has gone through stem cell therapy. Everyone in the family supported him as he undergoes chemotherapy treatments. Thankfully, he is now recovering under our care. Then another bad news hit when I decided to pluck up my courage to visit a private eye specialist last month due to my bad vision as I was having difficulty seeing well especially at night. The tests came back with the doctor diagnosing me with a rare genetic eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).
I was quite thankful that le fiance was beside me, holding my hand reassuringly which gave me the strength not to break down and cry. As explained by doctor, RP will cause retinal degeneration, and I will experience a gradual decline in my vision because my photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) will slowly die. She showed the images of my retina interior where some black spots can be seen which means some of my photoreceptor cells are slowly dying.
The thought of losing eyesight slowly to an invisible enemy without any known treatment or cure, I felt really helpless. For someone who loves doing crafting and drawing, it was quite a severe blow for me. On top of that, she also spotted early sign of cataracts which she assured me that she will monitor to prevent it from getting worse.
Having went through depression before few years back, I knew it will not do any good to everyone if I go into a depression mood so I tried lifting my spirits up and joking with le fiance that he only has few weeks left to decide to marry me since our registry of marriage (ROM) is coming this Friday. He held my hand tighter and said that we can overcome this together. We will be going for genetic testing together in coming October to check if he has the RP gene so that the doctor can assess the possibility of our children having it. I am keeping my heart and fingers crossed that everything goes well for both of us.
It really helps when you have family or loved ones close by to stand by you because it gives you strength and courage to continue on. Having a positive attitude towards life irregardless of what you have been going through, will help you to cope better with the daily affairs of life. I was also thankful that my parents are the most optimistic people I know, telling me that I should start thinking about the bright side of life and not to dwell so much on my problems. Right now, I decided to focus my mind on our wedding preparation which will be coming next month, and till then, I will pick up my pen and brush again 🙂
One good thing out of this, my father bought me a new pair of spectacles with transition lens to protect my eyes from the sun! Quite in love with it at the moment because he chose the frame with lovely prints that really complement well when the lens turn dark. As I am first time user of transition lenses, I find it pretty cool!
I like this quote from Helen Keller who was my inspiration since young:
Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. -Helen Keller
Right now, I am walking this lonely dark path bravely, hand in hand with my best friend and partner, who will be my soon-to-be husband in two days’ time! <3
The best thing he said to me: “I will be your eyes, so don’t worry about it.”
