Delighting in our senses

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I always love reading author Susan Hill’s blog and I was particularly taken with one of today’s posts, where she talks about her hearing and sight. I thought I would copy the comment I made about her post.

How interesting that you mentioned raindrops. My great uncle had very severe visual impairment from birth, and as a child attended a school for the blind. One day in his early twenties he was looking out of the window and realised that he could see raindrops trickling down the windowpane. No-one, including his doctors, was able to explain how his sight had returned (miraculously it seemed). He is in his seventies now, still with perfect sight – he doesn’t even need spectacles to wear when reading.

My late grandfather was also blind from birth having been given oxygen as a premature baby. He maintained he was always glad that he was blind not deaf as the sound of his grandchildren laughing and talking was one of his life’s greatest pleasures. A grumpy bugger otherwise, but on that point he was adamant.

I saw a new patient today, MrsJ - I’ve “inherited” her from DrM who retired this year. Firstly I was delighted with her opening gambit: she asked whether I was a whisky or a wine sort of doctor [wine, seeing as you ask]. I was further lifted by the appearance on my desk of a large box of Ferrero Rocher. This doesn’t happen as often as you’d think and always makes me smile.

MrsJ is blind with very little residual vision; she wears dark glasses outside and carries a white cane.  Embarrassingly she had to remind me during the consultation that she couldn’t see, as I passed her something to read. Oops. I felt a little humbled by my preconceptions when I realised why I’d forgotten. Partly I was distracted by her very stylish and brightly coloured outfit, which seemed at odds with my prejudice about what a blind person usually wears.  The other issue was that she came to see me about a rash on her forearms which hadn’t been settling – “It’s just so unsightly, doctor”. I think I deserve a dressing down for assuming that a blind person would be less bothered about cosmetic appearances, although I am reassured that even if I lose my sight one day, that my vanity about how I look is likely to remain.

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Tags: blindness, deafness