Radical!

Just received this lamp courtesy of the state dept for the vision impaired. Whee! That's a big lens! I'm so psyched.

Son currently has a visual acuity of 20/400 and therefore is considered legally blind. It's been a gradual deterioration, so that he's made his own adjustments over time without giving it a thought, and we didn't notice until his adjustments became really obvious to us. Then, after well over a year of hearing numerous "professional" asshats calling him a liar, we finally came across one (note: university hospital eye clinic) who came to the conclusion that it's most likely cone dystrophy.

So, there's the condensed background.

He's "typical", they say, in that he doesn't want to be "special" or "stand out" or overuse "scare quotes". (Okay, so I made up the last one.) Of course, I keep telling him that he won't know how much something helps, or even that something he's been doing has been causing him unnecessary strain, unless he just tries the stuff out. He likes the pocket magnifier because it's kinda cool in a gadety-way. Ditto for the monocular. But when they delivered those, they did not deliver the lamp also recommended at the low vision exam. So, I said "send it!", even though son was all like, "nah, it's no big deal".

But I think it is. It looks so basic, a lamp with a heavy base and big lens. But it means he can read hands-free, which I know he'd like because he doesn't use the pocket magnifier all the time, and instead squashes his face literally 2 inches from the page because for him, that's easier. And I'll bet that he'll find how much easier it is, how much less strain is in his neck, when he can put a book on the table, have two free hands, and not have to bend so damn far over to read the words. So simple, but I think it's freaking awesome.

And I'm so totally psyched that I've regressed into using 80s slang more than should be allowed in a just society. Fuckin-A, dude.