retinitis pigmentosa

Hadley is an angry girl: angry at her mother for embezzling money, angry at her estranged older sister, Beth, whom she has to live with while her mother is in jail, angry at having to move to Kentucky away from her friends, and angry at the world because she has retinitis pigmentosa and is slowly going blind; but then she meets Lila, a rescued pit bull who has not responded to anyone else--so if Hadley can train Lila, maybe the dog can get adopted into her forever home, and just maybe Lila can help Hadley deal with her own problems.

At nineteen years old, Nicole C. Kear's biggest concern was choosing a major--until she walked into a doctor's office in midtown Manhattan and got a life-changing diagnosis. She was going blind, courtesy of an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, and has only a decade or so before it happens. Kear decides to carpe diem (seize the day) and make the most of the vision she has left. She joins circus school, tears through boyfriends, travels the world, and keeps her vision loss a secret. When Kear becomes a mother, just a few years shy of her vision's expiration date, she amends her strategy, giving up recklessness in order to relish every moment with her kids. Her secret, though, is harder to surrender - and as her vision deteriorates one thing becomes clear: no matter how hard she fights, she won't win the battle against blindness. But if she comes clean with her secret, and comes to terms with the loss, she can still win her happy ending.

Rebecca Alexander, a psychotherapist, spin instructor, volunteer, and athlete who is almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing, shares the physical, psychological, and philosophical obstacles she faces and reflects on how her disabilities have led to her deep appreciation for the things she still has and life.

Thirty-four-year-old Rebecca Alexander is a psychotherapist, a spin instructor, a volunteer, and an athlete. She is also almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing. When Rebecca was twelve, her parents were told that she would be completely blind before she turned thirty. At eighteen, she fell through a window, shattering her body. In college, she found out that due to a rare genetic disorder-Usher Syndrome Type III-she was losing her hearing as well. Since then, she has earned two Master's degrees from Columbia University, ridden a six-hundred-mile bike race, hiked the Inca Trail, and established a thriving career-all while maintaining a vibrant social life. Rebecca makes the journey from a teenager who tried to hide her disabilities, to a woman who is able to face the world exactly as she is. Even though Rebecca inhabits a gradually darkening world, she refuses to let that stop her from living life with joy and enthusiasm.

Ryan Knighton chronicles his fifteen-year descent into blindness, discussing how he adjusted to the disease that stole his eyesight, what he has learned about the sighted world, and how his disease has influenced his life and choices.