The Lion's Pride Lion's Pride Volume 12 (Spring 2019) | Page 9

By January of 2016, I made a pledge to myself to start fighting to get
my quality of life back. I challenged myself to do more and more tasks,
starting with just body movement exercises. I set goals for each day and
larger goals for the week. This was not easy because anything I did left
me in pain. I was doing Epsom Salt baths twice a week and marijuana to
take the edge off the pain. They told me not to do over-the-counter pain
relief, since it was hard on my damaged liver. There was no way I was
resorting to pain pills because they are too addicting and make you
lethargic, and I had too much work to do.
Being sighted in only one eye left me clumsy. I tipped over coffee
cups, ran into corners of walls, and had to retrain myself to do simple
up-close tasks. People sighted in only one eye see things differently
within twenty feet. Beyond twenty feet, we see like everyone else. If
your peripheral vision is normal in the one eye, you can drive. Fighting
through the muscle pain, I was able to slowly regain some normal
function. I was not going to give up. I was determined to learn how to
function with sight in only one eye, including practicing my computer
skills and driving.
I started going to physical therapy and massage therapy, lifting
weights, and walking. It took another six months of retraining and
working out to start to feel normal. Regaining my life was a slow
process. All the activity got me to a healthy state. Starting in July 2016, I
worked my way up to five miles a day walking. Pokémon Go deserves