I’m 19 years into recovery now and I’m coping very well with my prosthetic eye.

· How do most people adjust to getting a prosthetic eye early in life compared to people who are adults?

At the age of 21, after an accident with a knife, I lost all vision in my left eye.

I walked into a piece of unwinded chain link fence at the field’s entrance.

On my path to becoming an optometrist, some people told me I would not be able to excel due to my monocular status.

The life-saving measures performed to keep me alive conjointly caused retinal detachments in both my eyes.

Looking into a mirror and really observing our faces, our eyes, and our prosthetic eyes.

I was diagnosed with a form of cancer called Retinoblastoma.

I’ve had about 5 surgeries in the span of 2 years to try and save my left eye

I was walking down the sidewalk and a drunk driver drove up onto the sidewalk and hit me.

The tip of the machete accidentally sliced me across my face and cut my eyeball in half in the process.

My son, Darian, was just two years old when he was diagnosed with a rare eye condition called Coats disease.

I was born with Microopthalmia, which just means “small eye”. As a baby, my left eye was much smaller than my right

Fast forward 10 years later, when my eye unexpectedly started giving me a lot of trouble.

I made the decision within a week to remove the eye because I could see that it was dying.

Luckily, we lived within an hour of one of the best eye hospitals in the country, Wills Eye Hospitial.

Long story short: Doctors said my eye was like a squished grape. They tried to repair it, but it was too far gone. It never worked again.

"I get to see in half the dark and half the light" -- there cannot be light without darkness.

Eye Connect Virtual Conference is to create a safe space of connection, support, and healing for those impacted by visual impairment.

He took one look at me and immediately diagnosed me with Bilateral Retinoblastoma Cancer in both my eyes.