8.7 Million

There are over 320 million people in the United States.   Of them, 8.8 million are blind or visually impaired.   That’s 2.7% of the population has significant difficulty seeing.   It also means we’re not alone.  

That’s a lot of blind people.   We’ve met a few and I’ve seen people with canes every now and then but it doesn’t seem like there are that many around.  The school my daughter may go to next year is one of two in the entire county that specialized in visually impaired children.   But there are only four children at the whole elementary school and there won’t be any other blind children in my daughter’s kindergarten class.

We’ve been told it would be good to have my daughter spend time with other blind children but that may not happen if she goes to the public program school.   If we keep her at our Montessori school she won’t be with blind children either.  

So I don’t know.  I don’t know what to do to help her sometimes.  We’re trying to figure out the best option for her next year but there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer yet.

The Tiny Girl Injury Chronicles:  My daughter can see very little right now.    She knows she should use her hands by putting them out in front of her so she won’t run into things, but she forgets.   This morning she busted her lip on the rail going down the stairs, ran into the island and then a door frame.   She’s in a constant state of infirmary and we’re going through multiple ice packs each morning.    Hopefully the hematoma will drop the the bottom of her eye or resorb soon so she can see something again.   She slept propped up last night and is fine having steroid drops each hour.   Her little body needs a break from all the injuries.

The Big Boy Update: on the way down the hall yesterday morning I heard my son jump and land heavily.   He did it a second time saying, “I couldn’t get you, shadow.   I will beat you, shadow!”