June 1, 2024 • 17 mins
George Noory and Coast listener John Potter discuss what the world is like since he unexpectedly lost his eyesight, how doctors have struggled to identify what caused his ailment, and how he has developed gratitude for what he has in life rather than dwell on what he's lost.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Let me tell you a little bit about John Parter.
Struggled through high school and graduated in nineteen seventy five
in Wisconsin. John had no desire to go to college,
so he worked for three years in the fast food
industry before he decided he did want to go to college.
John graduated from college in nineteen eighty two of the
degree in hotel management. Went on to have hotel management
(00:28):
positions in Chicago, Saint Louis, Melbourne, Florida, Milwaukee, and John
developed a very bad addiction to alcohol, went through an
alcohol treatment program in nineteen eighty eight. Has been sober
ever since. John became blind in August of twenty nineteen.
(00:50):
To this day, there is no conclusive evidence of why
he went blind. He has agreed to be interviewed this
hour on Coast to Coast John Welcome, Thank you, Hello George.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Great to be with you, and the listeners of Coast
to Coast they am George. Before we get to me,
I have two quick comments, please sure. I wanted to
wish you much success this weekend at your event in
the Desert with George Napp and all the other experts.
Sounds like it's going to be a wonderful educational opportunity
and I think everybody's going to have a great time.
And then, George, I wanted to give you a happy
birthday early. Your birthday is Tuesday, June fourth, and your mother,
(01:28):
who just turned ninety five, is amazing and my prayer
is that you would be blessed with that same longevity
of good health. George, So enjoy your birthday.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Thank you John very much. So let's talk a little
bit about you. And you have fascinated me since you
started calling the program with your wisdom, your intuitiveness, and
I got to tell you you were able to do
things that I'm not sure I would be able to do.
You're doing this without any vision. So you you were
(02:00):
you could see when you were born. You went blind
in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
What do you think happened, Well, George, what happened was
in January of twenty seventeen, I purchased a business. A
little over one year later, in March of twenty eighteenth,
the business failed. Now that's not unusual, that's not unique. Unfortunately,
that happens to a lot of people. But here's the
huge mistake I made. After my business failed in March
(02:24):
of twenty eighteen, I went into a seventeen month depression.
It was much stress, and the mistake I made was
I didn't seek any help, either medically, psychologically or otherwise,
and I was got depressed. I did get a new job,
was able to work, but I go home from work
at six or seven at night and want to go
to bed and had a difficult time getting out of
(02:45):
bed at six or seven the next morning. So by
not going to a doctor at all during those seventeen
months of stress and depression, one day I was driving
home from work and my right eye itched, just felt weird.
My hand over my good eye and I couldn't see
out of my right eye. So I got into the
doctor right away the next morning. And wonderful. By the way,
(03:09):
all the doctors I've seen in the Wisconsin and at
Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland, Ohio have been wonderful. But after
losing the one eye, the doctor says, well, John, I
really don't know what's the matter, but there's probably only
a twenty percent chance you would lose your other eye,
so carry on. So I carry it on. Well, A
couple of weeks later, we were driving home from my
(03:29):
mother's and father's home at the time in suburban Milwaukee,
and my wife and I lived in northern Wisconsin. Well,
my wife is also disabled and she can't drive, and
we had no problem driving down there, but driving home
I was struggling to keep the car on the road.
And this was August, so it was sunny and nice,
no problem with the weather. Thank god, we made it home.
The next morning I went into the doctor again. She said, John, unfortunately,
(03:53):
you're losing your other eye, so we need to get
you right down to the hospital and pump you full
of steroids and try to try to say he was
the other eye. Well, after four days of test, George
and I mean every test, a spinal tap, MRI, brain scan,
a bunch of tests I can't even pronounce, the main
doctor came to me and said, Jehan, you're an excellent
(04:13):
health you're going blind and we don't know why. We
recommend you get a second opinion. So then I did
eventually get into the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Wonderful people,
wonderful clinic, and met with their one of their top doctors,
and she basically had the same conclusion. I said, is
there anything else I can do or see? And she said, well,
(04:35):
we have three neural ophtalmologists, once on maternity to leave
and the other are booked up for a year. So
get an appointment to come back.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I came back a year later. I met with this
wonderful doctor and they came up with a theory, George,
which is probably correct. During those seventeenth months that I
did not seek medical or psychological help, most likely my
blood pressure elevated and caused optic nerve to clamp. Now,
the optic nerve runs from the brain to the eyes
(05:04):
and furnishes the eyes with blood. When that clamped, it
killed my eyes. But the unusual thing, George, I'll wrap
it up on this. The unusual thing is it rarely
happens to both eyes, and in Cleveland they couldn't believe it.
They never had anybody there before that happened in both eyes.
That you lose both eyes from the optic nerve. So
that's what happened. And I went completely blind in August
(05:25):
of twenty nineteen. And here I am today, thankful to
be alive and well and talking to you.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I was going to mention the optic nerve. It sounds
like that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Well, the eyes are very, very sensitive, and they're sensitive
to stress. So what I do now, George, and what
I've done over the last four and a half years,
is I try to share my story with others. I
was sixty two when it happened, so I could couech
social security and a little bit extra disability. So we're
(05:56):
prop along find there. But it's important that people know that,
whether you have stress or depression, don't be too proud
to seek help because it cost me my eyesight.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Can you rejuvenate the optic nerve?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Not? Now? There's nothing available. Probably I'm sixty seven, George.
I don't know if it will be in my lifetime,
but I think eventually they'll be able to do some
type of an implant to start the optic nerve again.
And that's doctors told me they're just not there yet.
They're doing some experimental work, but they're just not there yet.
And I offered to, you know, be a patient that
(06:32):
they could experiment on or whatever. But you know, I'm
doing I'm doing okay, George. I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Are you totally blind? I mean, can you images or anything.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, here's what I can see, George. If I'm in
a completely dark room and you flick the light on,
I can see the light flick And to me that's
huge because it's, you know, just my wife and I
living in the home, and we have a dog and
a cat. And when I can see that light flick
on and off, I kind of know where I am
in the house. But I couldn't tell you what the
light looks like. I couldn't tell you what anybody looks like.
So I'm virtually blind, with the exception of that light flicker.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
When I closed my eyes and move my hand across
my eyelids, I can see that. Is that a little
bit like what you can see with the light exactly?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
And in fact, I was just my wife and I
moved the suburban Milwaukee where I'm originally from. We moved
here in January to my parents house. They book passed away. Well, anyway,
I've got new doctors down here now, and that one
of the exercises was to wave my hand in front
of my eyes, and I can see something go by.
I couldn't tell you it's a hand, but I can
(07:38):
see the motion and I said to the doctor, to me,
that's a great sign. And maybe one day, I say,
we'll come back. Who knows, George. But I'm just just
thankful that the rest of me is in good health
and I'm just fine.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
When you wake up in the morning, How do you
know you're awake.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That's a great question. I guess just psychologically you do, George. Now,
my schedule is a little different than most people. I'm
on what you call a coast to Coast AM schedule.
When I discovered Coast to Coast AM in August, I'm sorry,
in November of twenty nineteen, I believe it was. I've
probably only missed two shows because I enjoy Coast to
(08:20):
Coast AM so much. I learned so much. So I
get up at ten PM at night, listen to the
local news. And I'm in Wisconsin, so we're in the
Central time zone, so Coast to Coast AM comes out
at midnight, and my body, in my mind just knows
what time it's waked up. I don't even have to
set an alarm anymore. I just automatically wake up. So
that's what it is for me, George, and I don't
(08:41):
have to get up and go to work because I'm retired.
You know, for people that are blind that have to
work are considerably younger. You know, they have more challenges
than I do.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But when you wake up, you know you're awake. It's
not like you're in a dream.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Correct. Yeah, I know I'm awake, And it's interesting. I
was just talking to one of your dream experts a
few weeks ago on Coast to Coast AM was on
a Saturday or sunn I think it was with Connie Willis,
and I explained to her that when I went blind,
I had nightmares almost every night for probably the first
three and a half four years, and they were the
(09:13):
same kind of nightmares wherever somebody was chasing me, or
I was late for work, I was missing appointments. Well,
then in January of this past year, I inherited my parents'
beautiful home in suburban Milwaukee. My wife and I moved here,
and all of a sudden, I started to get more
peace in my life because of that, and our finances
stabled and my nightmares turned into dreams, and so now
(09:36):
it's so much better in that regard.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
George, how do you get around? You? Do you remember things?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I have a blind cane. And fortunately the house we
live in with my parents' house, they've had it for
forty six years. I'm familiar with the house. The toughest
thing for a blind person, George, it's to put them
in an area they've never been to before, because you
don't know where you're going. You don't know what you're doing.
When a friend of mine takes me, and I do
all the grocery shopping because I just enjoy that. A
(10:04):
friend of mine takes me grocery shopping and I hang
out of the back of the cart, he hangs out
of the front of the cart, and I get around
just fine, just fine. And people are respectful. They see
the big white cane. You know, they give us plenty
of latitude, so you know, it goes a lot better
than you think it probably would. But my heart leads
for the younger people that go blind or never did see.
(10:26):
I mean, I'm very fortunate, George. I had sixty two
years where I had eyesights.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So you know, colors, when we talk about red, you
know what red.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Was exactly, you know what red was. I mean, I
remember what you know, George, Norri looked like because I
saw your picture actually before I went blind.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So the point is I was going to say that
probably made you go blind.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
George. You're a very good looking man, and I told
you that the other night on the air. And you know,
the key is for you to stay healthy, and you're
doing a great job of that.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
If you had your vision back for two minutes, what
would you want to see?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Well, I'd wife. I'd walk up to my wife and
give her a big kiss because I haven't seen her
in almost five years. Then I would hug my Newfoundland dog,
who I absolutely love. That I hug my big fat cat,
who I absolutely love. And then I would go to
church and thank the Good Lord for giving me a
couple of minutes of eyesight.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now do you go? Do you shower? Do you do?
You do?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I take care of myself very well, George. There's no
problem in the shower, there's no problem getting dressed. I do.
I make my own coffee. You know the three things
I cannot do, George, is I cannot drive a car,
I cannot open the mail, and I cannot read everything else.
And pretty self sufficient?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
How do you?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
How do I eat well? My wife and I were
kind of heat and serve people and we just you know,
she's not disabled to the point where she can't turn
the oven on stuff. My wife had a stroke twelve
years ago and it was more of a cognitive stroke
and she's doing quite well. It wasn't a serious stroke.
But between the two of us, George, we make it work.
(12:06):
Anybody could make it work. I mean, if you become blind,
or if you become disabled, you know you have two choices.
You know, you can go down a further rabbit hole
or you can make the best of it. And you
know what I like to tell people, especially young people
at George, is in life, it's not what happens to
you that is important. It's how you handle what happens
(12:27):
to you that is important. And I've had many setbacks
in my life through poor decisions, and I've learned from
from them, and as I've gotten older, I've made, you know,
easier decisions. So you know, when you look at me, George,
my eyes look perfect. You wouldn't even think I'm blind,
because my problem is behind the eyes. They were hazel,
(12:49):
and my wife said, they're still a pretty hazel color.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
When you are awake and you see in the darting
past you no, you don't see that no, no.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I can't. I can't see anything except when my hand
is right in front of my eyes and I go
back and forth. I can see a motion in their movement.
I couldn't even tell you it with a hand or
the flicker of the light. That's that's it, George. And
I asked all the doctors. I said, you know, since
I'm such a unique case by losing both eyes sights
from the optic nerve clamping, is there a chance that
(13:26):
some of them may come back? And they were not
very optimistic, and I was, I'm okay with that. And
what brings me peace and enjoying now George is sharing
my story like I am with the wonderful listeners of
Coast to Coast AM and making sure that they do
everything they can to prevent what happened to me, because
my blindness was preventable.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I told Tom a couple of months ago. I said, Tom,
one thing I've always wanted to do on the program
was to interview someone who is blind, because I've got
to tell you, John, I don't have your guts you
with George, you would I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Oh, you would you would have if you went blind?
You would be self sufficient like I am, and most
people would as well, because you have to you have
to persevere, you have to carry on, and it's maybe
not as difficult as it sounds. It really doesn't, but
you would do. Just find George. I don't wish this
upon anybody, And again I just feel bad for the
younger people that won't get to have me.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
If you're ever going to lose a sense, another sense,
and you had all of them back, but you had
to give up one, what would it be.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Well, I would never want to lose my hearing, okay never,
and I would never want to lose my sense of smell.
So if I had to lose one of the senses.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It would be the eyesight.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Because I can do everything else, George enjoy life. I
can listen to great shows like Coast to Coast I am,
and I'm a classic rocker. I can listen to my music.
I can hear the minister preach at church. So I
think it'd be devastating to lose your hearing and your
sense of smell.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You came out to our Pat Boon luncheon months ago.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yes it was fabulous, And you know, whenever there's a
Coast to Coast am event like there is this weekend
in the desert with you and your colleagues. I just
encouraged the listeners to take advantage of it. The event
in Burbank, which was a year ago in February, was fabulous.
First of all, the people were wonderful. You and Tommy
were great, Pat Booin was fabulous. You know, Gina and
(15:24):
the rest of the staff are so nice and just
good people. So I'm looking forward to attending a future event.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
We're going to open up the phone line soon with
John Potter to give you a chance to talk to him,
a coast listener who has battled himself back and has
done a marvelous job. And we've got open lines next
hour and you're still able to call it. Call in
on that truly remarkable John.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well, you know, George, here's how I look at it too.
So I've had some stepbacks in my life, all self induced,
and I could, you know, feel sorry for myself or whatever.
But I remember what I was taught many years ago,
and it's a quick phrase. You may have heard it before,
but it goes like this. I used to complain about
(16:09):
the only pair of shoes I owned until I saw
the man with no feet.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
My mother used to tell me that poem.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yes, and that just sums everything up. You know, everybody
has setbacks, everybody has you know, unfortunate things happen, and
usually most people have it worse than you do. And
in my case, yes, I'm blind, I can't do a
lot of things, but I can do a lot of things.
So I'm just trying to make the best of the
time I have left by sharing my story and enjoying life.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
She used to say, I cried because I had no
shoes until I saw someone with no feet.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, and that's actually probably a better way to put it,
a better way to put it. So if we remember that,
no matter what happens to us, if we remember that,
you know, be thankful for what you have and the
things you can't control. You can't control that, so why
make it by, you know, letting that pull you down.
And George, trust me, if something negative happened to you,
(17:05):
you would do just fine.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You would.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
You can't imagine it now, but you would, and others
do as well.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Well. I would tap into people like you for assistance
and help, That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I'd be available listen to more. Coast to coast AM
every weeknight at one a m. Eastern and go to
Coast to coastam dot com for more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Let me tell you a little bit about John Parter.
Struggled through high school and graduated in nineteen seventy five
in Wisconsin. John had no desire to go to college,
so he worked for three years in the fast food
industry before he decided he did want to go to college.
John graduated from college in nineteen eighty two of the
degree in hotel management. Went on to have hotel management
(00:28):
positions in Chicago, Saint Louis, Melbourne, Florida, Milwaukee, and John
developed a very bad addiction to alcohol, went through an
alcohol treatment program in nineteen eighty eight. Has been sober
ever since. John became blind in August of twenty nineteen.
(00:50):
To this day, there is no conclusive evidence of why
he went blind. He has agreed to be interviewed this
hour on Coast to Coast John Welcome, Thank you, Hello George.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Great to be with you, and the listeners of Coast
to Coast they am George. Before we get to me,
I have two quick comments, please sure. I wanted to
wish you much success this weekend at your event in
the Desert with George Napp and all the other experts.
Sounds like it's going to be a wonderful educational opportunity
and I think everybody's going to have a great time.
And then, George, I wanted to give you a happy
birthday early. Your birthday is Tuesday, June fourth, and your mother,
(01:28):
who just turned ninety five, is amazing and my prayer
is that you would be blessed with that same longevity
of good health. George, So enjoy your birthday.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Thank you John very much. So let's talk a little
bit about you. And you have fascinated me since you
started calling the program with your wisdom, your intuitiveness, and
I got to tell you you were able to do
things that I'm not sure I would be able to do.
You're doing this without any vision. So you you were
(02:00):
you could see when you were born. You went blind
in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
What do you think happened, Well, George, what happened was
in January of twenty seventeen, I purchased a business. A
little over one year later, in March of twenty eighteenth,
the business failed. Now that's not unusual, that's not unique. Unfortunately,
that happens to a lot of people. But here's the
huge mistake I made. After my business failed in March
(02:24):
of twenty eighteen, I went into a seventeen month depression.
It was much stress, and the mistake I made was
I didn't seek any help, either medically, psychologically or otherwise,
and I was got depressed. I did get a new job,
was able to work, but I go home from work
at six or seven at night and want to go
to bed and had a difficult time getting out of
(02:45):
bed at six or seven the next morning. So by
not going to a doctor at all during those seventeen
months of stress and depression, one day I was driving
home from work and my right eye itched, just felt weird.
My hand over my good eye and I couldn't see
out of my right eye. So I got into the
doctor right away the next morning. And wonderful. By the way,
(03:09):
all the doctors I've seen in the Wisconsin and at
Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland, Ohio have been wonderful. But after
losing the one eye, the doctor says, well, John, I
really don't know what's the matter, but there's probably only
a twenty percent chance you would lose your other eye,
so carry on. So I carry it on. Well, A
couple of weeks later, we were driving home from my
(03:29):
mother's and father's home at the time in suburban Milwaukee,
and my wife and I lived in northern Wisconsin. Well,
my wife is also disabled and she can't drive, and
we had no problem driving down there, but driving home
I was struggling to keep the car on the road.
And this was August, so it was sunny and nice,
no problem with the weather. Thank god, we made it home.
The next morning I went into the doctor again. She said, John, unfortunately,
(03:53):
you're losing your other eye, so we need to get
you right down to the hospital and pump you full
of steroids and try to try to say he was
the other eye. Well, after four days of test, George
and I mean every test, a spinal tap, MRI, brain scan,
a bunch of tests I can't even pronounce, the main
doctor came to me and said, Jehan, you're an excellent
(04:13):
health you're going blind and we don't know why. We
recommend you get a second opinion. So then I did
eventually get into the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Wonderful people,
wonderful clinic, and met with their one of their top doctors,
and she basically had the same conclusion. I said, is
there anything else I can do or see? And she said, well,
(04:35):
we have three neural ophtalmologists, once on maternity to leave
and the other are booked up for a year. So
get an appointment to come back.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I came back a year later. I met with this
wonderful doctor and they came up with a theory, George,
which is probably correct. During those seventeenth months that I
did not seek medical or psychological help, most likely my
blood pressure elevated and caused optic nerve to clamp. Now,
the optic nerve runs from the brain to the eyes
(05:04):
and furnishes the eyes with blood. When that clamped, it
killed my eyes. But the unusual thing, George, I'll wrap
it up on this. The unusual thing is it rarely
happens to both eyes, and in Cleveland they couldn't believe it.
They never had anybody there before that happened in both eyes.
That you lose both eyes from the optic nerve. So
that's what happened. And I went completely blind in August
(05:25):
of twenty nineteen. And here I am today, thankful to
be alive and well and talking to you.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I was going to mention the optic nerve. It sounds
like that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Well, the eyes are very, very sensitive, and they're sensitive
to stress. So what I do now, George, and what
I've done over the last four and a half years,
is I try to share my story with others. I
was sixty two when it happened, so I could couech
social security and a little bit extra disability. So we're
(05:56):
prop along find there. But it's important that people know that,
whether you have stress or depression, don't be too proud
to seek help because it cost me my eyesight.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Can you rejuvenate the optic nerve?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Not? Now? There's nothing available. Probably I'm sixty seven, George.
I don't know if it will be in my lifetime,
but I think eventually they'll be able to do some
type of an implant to start the optic nerve again.
And that's doctors told me they're just not there yet.
They're doing some experimental work, but they're just not there yet.
And I offered to, you know, be a patient that
(06:32):
they could experiment on or whatever. But you know, I'm
doing I'm doing okay, George. I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Are you totally blind? I mean, can you images or anything.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, here's what I can see, George. If I'm in
a completely dark room and you flick the light on,
I can see the light flick And to me that's
huge because it's, you know, just my wife and I
living in the home, and we have a dog and
a cat. And when I can see that light flick
on and off, I kind of know where I am
in the house. But I couldn't tell you what the
light looks like. I couldn't tell you what anybody looks like.
So I'm virtually blind, with the exception of that light flicker.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
When I closed my eyes and move my hand across
my eyelids, I can see that. Is that a little
bit like what you can see with the light exactly?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
And in fact, I was just my wife and I
moved the suburban Milwaukee where I'm originally from. We moved
here in January to my parents house. They book passed away. Well, anyway,
I've got new doctors down here now, and that one
of the exercises was to wave my hand in front
of my eyes, and I can see something go by.
I couldn't tell you it's a hand, but I can
(07:38):
see the motion and I said to the doctor, to me,
that's a great sign. And maybe one day, I say,
we'll come back. Who knows, George. But I'm just just
thankful that the rest of me is in good health
and I'm just fine.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
When you wake up in the morning, How do you
know you're awake.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That's a great question. I guess just psychologically you do, George. Now,
my schedule is a little different than most people. I'm
on what you call a coast to Coast AM schedule.
When I discovered Coast to Coast AM in August, I'm sorry,
in November of twenty nineteen, I believe it was. I've
probably only missed two shows because I enjoy Coast to
(08:20):
Coast AM so much. I learned so much. So I
get up at ten PM at night, listen to the
local news. And I'm in Wisconsin, so we're in the
Central time zone, so Coast to Coast AM comes out
at midnight, and my body, in my mind just knows
what time it's waked up. I don't even have to
set an alarm anymore. I just automatically wake up. So
that's what it is for me, George, and I don't
(08:41):
have to get up and go to work because I'm retired.
You know, for people that are blind that have to
work are considerably younger. You know, they have more challenges
than I do.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But when you wake up, you know you're awake. It's
not like you're in a dream.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Correct. Yeah, I know I'm awake, And it's interesting. I
was just talking to one of your dream experts a
few weeks ago on Coast to Coast AM was on
a Saturday or sunn I think it was with Connie Willis,
and I explained to her that when I went blind,
I had nightmares almost every night for probably the first
three and a half four years, and they were the
(09:13):
same kind of nightmares wherever somebody was chasing me, or
I was late for work, I was missing appointments. Well,
then in January of this past year, I inherited my parents'
beautiful home in suburban Milwaukee. My wife and I moved here,
and all of a sudden, I started to get more
peace in my life because of that, and our finances
stabled and my nightmares turned into dreams, and so now
(09:36):
it's so much better in that regard.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
George, how do you get around? You? Do you remember things?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I have a blind cane. And fortunately the house we
live in with my parents' house, they've had it for
forty six years. I'm familiar with the house. The toughest
thing for a blind person, George, it's to put them
in an area they've never been to before, because you
don't know where you're going. You don't know what you're doing.
When a friend of mine takes me, and I do
all the grocery shopping because I just enjoy that. A
(10:04):
friend of mine takes me grocery shopping and I hang
out of the back of the cart, he hangs out
of the front of the cart, and I get around
just fine, just fine. And people are respectful. They see
the big white cane. You know, they give us plenty
of latitude, so you know, it goes a lot better
than you think it probably would. But my heart leads
for the younger people that go blind or never did see.
(10:26):
I mean, I'm very fortunate, George. I had sixty two
years where I had eyesights.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So you know, colors, when we talk about red, you
know what red.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Was exactly, you know what red was. I mean, I
remember what you know, George, Norri looked like because I
saw your picture actually before I went blind.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So the point is I was going to say that
probably made you go blind.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
George. You're a very good looking man, and I told
you that the other night on the air. And you know,
the key is for you to stay healthy, and you're
doing a great job of that.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
If you had your vision back for two minutes, what
would you want to see?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Well, I'd wife. I'd walk up to my wife and
give her a big kiss because I haven't seen her
in almost five years. Then I would hug my Newfoundland dog,
who I absolutely love. That I hug my big fat cat,
who I absolutely love. And then I would go to
church and thank the Good Lord for giving me a
couple of minutes of eyesight.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now do you go? Do you shower? Do you do?
You do?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I take care of myself very well, George. There's no
problem in the shower, there's no problem getting dressed. I do.
I make my own coffee. You know the three things
I cannot do, George, is I cannot drive a car,
I cannot open the mail, and I cannot read everything else.
And pretty self sufficient?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
How do you?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
How do I eat well? My wife and I were
kind of heat and serve people and we just you know,
she's not disabled to the point where she can't turn
the oven on stuff. My wife had a stroke twelve
years ago and it was more of a cognitive stroke
and she's doing quite well. It wasn't a serious stroke.
But between the two of us, George, we make it work.
(12:06):
Anybody could make it work. I mean, if you become blind,
or if you become disabled, you know you have two choices.
You know, you can go down a further rabbit hole
or you can make the best of it. And you
know what I like to tell people, especially young people
at George, is in life, it's not what happens to
you that is important. It's how you handle what happens
(12:27):
to you that is important. And I've had many setbacks
in my life through poor decisions, and I've learned from
from them, and as I've gotten older, I've made, you know,
easier decisions. So you know, when you look at me, George,
my eyes look perfect. You wouldn't even think I'm blind,
because my problem is behind the eyes. They were hazel,
(12:49):
and my wife said, they're still a pretty hazel color.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
When you are awake and you see in the darting
past you no, you don't see that no, no.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I can't. I can't see anything except when my hand
is right in front of my eyes and I go
back and forth. I can see a motion in their movement.
I couldn't even tell you it with a hand or
the flicker of the light. That's that's it, George. And
I asked all the doctors. I said, you know, since
I'm such a unique case by losing both eyes sights
from the optic nerve clamping, is there a chance that
(13:26):
some of them may come back? And they were not
very optimistic, and I was, I'm okay with that. And
what brings me peace and enjoying now George is sharing
my story like I am with the wonderful listeners of
Coast to Coast AM and making sure that they do
everything they can to prevent what happened to me, because
my blindness was preventable.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I told Tom a couple of months ago. I said, Tom,
one thing I've always wanted to do on the program
was to interview someone who is blind, because I've got
to tell you, John, I don't have your guts you
with George, you would I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Oh, you would you would have if you went blind?
You would be self sufficient like I am, and most
people would as well, because you have to you have
to persevere, you have to carry on, and it's maybe
not as difficult as it sounds. It really doesn't, but
you would do. Just find George. I don't wish this
upon anybody, And again I just feel bad for the
younger people that won't get to have me.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
If you're ever going to lose a sense, another sense,
and you had all of them back, but you had
to give up one, what would it be.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Well, I would never want to lose my hearing, okay never,
and I would never want to lose my sense of smell.
So if I had to lose one of the senses.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It would be the eyesight.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Because I can do everything else, George enjoy life. I
can listen to great shows like Coast to Coast I am,
and I'm a classic rocker. I can listen to my music.
I can hear the minister preach at church. So I
think it'd be devastating to lose your hearing and your
sense of smell.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You came out to our Pat Boon luncheon months ago.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yes it was fabulous, And you know, whenever there's a
Coast to Coast am event like there is this weekend
in the desert with you and your colleagues. I just
encouraged the listeners to take advantage of it. The event
in Burbank, which was a year ago in February, was fabulous.
First of all, the people were wonderful. You and Tommy
were great, Pat Booin was fabulous. You know, Gina and
(15:24):
the rest of the staff are so nice and just
good people. So I'm looking forward to attending a future event.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
We're going to open up the phone line soon with
John Potter to give you a chance to talk to him,
a coast listener who has battled himself back and has
done a marvelous job. And we've got open lines next
hour and you're still able to call it. Call in
on that truly remarkable John.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well, you know, George, here's how I look at it too.
So I've had some stepbacks in my life, all self induced,
and I could, you know, feel sorry for myself or whatever.
But I remember what I was taught many years ago,
and it's a quick phrase. You may have heard it before,
but it goes like this. I used to complain about
(16:09):
the only pair of shoes I owned until I saw
the man with no feet.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
My mother used to tell me that poem.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yes, and that just sums everything up. You know, everybody
has setbacks, everybody has you know, unfortunate things happen, and
usually most people have it worse than you do. And
in my case, yes, I'm blind, I can't do a
lot of things, but I can do a lot of things.
So I'm just trying to make the best of the
time I have left by sharing my story and enjoying life.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
She used to say, I cried because I had no
shoes until I saw someone with no feet.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, and that's actually probably a better way to put it,
a better way to put it. So if we remember that,
no matter what happens to us, if we remember that,
you know, be thankful for what you have and the
things you can't control. You can't control that, so why
make it by, you know, letting that pull you down.
And George, trust me, if something negative happened to you,
(17:05):
you would do just fine.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You would.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
You can't imagine it now, but you would, and others
do as well.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Well. I would tap into people like you for assistance
and help, That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I'd be available listen to more. Coast to coast AM
every weeknight at one a m. Eastern and go to
Coast to coastam dot com for more
The Best of Coast to Coast AM News
Host
George Noory
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