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Sunday, 09 November 2014 00:00

Young and Living with Usher Syndrome

Written by  Jodie Voller
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Hey my name is Jodie, and I am any normal eighteen year old except having to cope with this cruel condition too!
So here’s my story.. I had no clue what RP or Usher syndrome was until I joined secondary school, and had a friend in my year who was diagnosed with it, I learnt bits from her just by asking her questions about how she coped and what it was like. I knew she struggled in the dark a lot because she always asked someone to guide her around the school. I always thought to myself how brave she was coping this condition at such a young age and that I was the ‘lucky’ one that I didn’t have it. She sadly left by the end of year seven and then forgotten about Usher as I got on with my life. The Halloween night came by and I was out trick or treating with my friends and my sister, then there was a low brick wall with a street lamp above it, I just happened to walk straight into it and tripped over and bumped my head, of course my friends laughed and my mum got bit concerned about it because anybody would have seen that. Weeks went by, I began to bump into things or trip over the objects and I chose to ignore it and thought I was just being clumsy child. My mum wasn’t having it so she took me to opticians to have my eye tested, I didn’t really know what was going on and just thought I needed glasses. But until the lady said that I could be diagnosed with Usher syndrome and needed to transfer me to the hospital for further tests. I just sat on the chair froze and thought to myself this is impossible? I was only 13 years old .. My mum went hysterical and burst into tears, so we both walked out the opticians and told my dad and my sister the news, my dad fought back his tears and tried to stay strong for me while my sister started to cry. They already knew little bit about the ushers because I told them about my old friend I had in my school. 
When we got home, my mum researched more on the computer about the ushers, and I used to get really angry at her and telling her to stop looking it up and that I ‘don’t’ have it, I guess I was in denial at that time believing that the lady at the opticians had got it wrong. Then it was the day I had to go to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, my hands was shaking and my thoughts were all over the place but I had to stay strong for my parents. When we saw the doctor, she tested my eyes with field vision tests and I remember the first time I had eye drops in, I hated it! Then the consultant came in and started explaining about the Usher syndrome and gave my parents books and leaflets. I just sat on that chair just blanking everything out and thinking this must be a terrible dream. I went home later on that day, and I knew I had to tell my friends at school, so I started to tell my close friends that I have Ushers syndrome and they were very supportive and already knew little about the condition. So I was little more relaxed around them because they treated me like normal and only ask if I needed help to get about in the dark. I used to be so stubborn and say ‘No’ I can cope with this all by myself and pushed my friends away when they asked if I needed help to get around in the dark, as I walked in the dark by myself, I struggled so much and got so terrified because I didn’t want to walk into something and get hurt. So I ended up telling my friends to help me get around in the dark and they understood that I wanted to be independent teenager but only needed extra help. 
Now my family and friends are all aware of my condition and learnt that they don’t need to go over the top about it and just take one day at a time, I still go to hospital appointments and yet I still moan about going or I didn’t want to do the tests and I still get frustrated when I trip over things and bump into something but that’s something I have to live with I guess? I had no one to talk to about my usher similar to my age until I met this lovely girl Molly who also had the condition. I just remember the first time inboxing her on Facebook and asking how to open up to people about my worries and I kept bottling things up inside me because I didn’t want to upset anybody and wanted them to think that I coped fine. She replied back and she was so calm and reassured me that it wasn’t good holding things in and it’s better to let people know how you’re really feeling. So I took that advice and opened my worries to my close friends and boyfriend and they were really supportive, especially my boyfriend took his time to research the condition and try to understand that I needed little support at night times and not to wave the sides when I can’t see very well, he even goes to the hospital appointments and coped my complaining about the eye tests that I had to do. He was there all along just by holding my hand and making sure everything is ok alongside by my family too.
You should never let usher stop you doing things you want to do in life, even though it may be hard but try and achieve it with extra support, I am very glad that Molly had set up the website and blogs where I can happily read people’s stories and feel a lot better about it when I know I’m not alone in this cruel condition. So I would like to say great big thank you to Molly and her family for taking their time to do this amazing website/charity to get more people to be aware of the condition. Lastly I like to say big thank you to my family for being so supportive and being there when I need it.

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