Goodbye Sudoku!

I have had many inquiries about my eyesight. I thank you all for your concern and any prayers you may have said on my behalf. My eyesight has not returned to where it was before the babies were born. As you probably know, I lost my eyesight after delivery, due, I believe, in part to the magnesium sulfate that was given to me to keep me from progressing to full-blown eclampsia (this is what my ob doctors told me) and in part to damage to the blood vessels that go to my eyes caused by the massive blood loss I suffered (this is what my eye doctors told me).

What I am left with is blind spots in each eye. Well, they are really more like splotches since they are not nice, solid, uniform circles. The blind splotch in my left eye is significantly larger than the one in my right eye. It is also right in the middle of my field of vision, unlike the right one which is sort of off to the side. The last time I went to the eye doctor, I tested at 20/400 in my left eye and 20/20 in my right. That's with my glasses on, by the way. 20/400 is really bad. In fact, the only letter I could identify while looking directly at it was the giant E at the top, and I only knew it was an E because I could see the outside edges of it and knew no other letters looked like that. I could identify other letters, but only by getting them into my peripheral vision.

Happily, my right eye is 20/20, and I am also 20/20 when using both eyes. So for the most part, the blind splotches do not affect me. I can see to drive day and night and have done both successfully many times. I can do pretty much anything I need to do. I often don't even notice it anymore, just every now and then when I'm looking at small things. Where the two blind splotches overlap, I have true blind spots, but these places are very small, so they only affect me when I'm looking at something tiny. For example, when I'm trying to sweep up Cheerios on the kitchen floor or follow the mouse arrow as it moves about the computer screen, these tiny things often move into a blind spot and I lose them until I can move my eyes around and get them back into my vision. Still, this problem has not stopped me from sweeping the floor or using the computer. I persevere!

So far, the ONLY thing in my whole life that I find I must give up on totally is Sudoku puzzles. It's just impossible to get the numbers in the right places when other numbers are hiding in my blind spots. I've tried and tried and it's just too frustrating, so I have given them up. Alas!

And I have to say, it's a small price to pay for my four beautiful children and the life to enjoy them.