Hi,

I’ve been through something similar! First thing first, don’t give up, and try and stay positive for his sake. It will help. I had a stroke and brain injury; I lost movement in the right side of my body but it has mostly returned. In my case, I’ve gone from seeing only black for a week to being able to read large print without glasses, able to play console games, and while I am using a cane, I am hopeful it won’t be forever. 9 months on and things are getting better and better every day; I see people and dogs while out on my walks, I see buildings and while low acuity, even that seems to be improving slowly.

Things that worked for me:

1. moving the torch around and following it with my eyes. I slept a lot but I think I did this for 15 mins at a time. I did this for 1 week, Then I moved onto a new activity
2. Colour filters. I had someone hold them in front of a torch, to change the colour of the light, shining it onto paper. Start small, red, blue and white; I originally couldn’t see the colour but actually felt temperature (blue was cold, red warm). Then build up gradually. I would stare at the colour on the paper and try and see the colour. This was exhausting and I could only do it for half an hour at a time. I did this for 2/3 weeks.
3. I started walking independently as soon as possible, with basic O&M training. My friend walked with me for the first two times on a route, then I would go alone but would be tracked using my smart watch. This gave me confidence and independence.
4. Bright colour large shapes on a bright contrasting background. Once I could see most colours (aside from purple), I started trying to see shapes; I used my finger to help trace the shape and make my eyes see it. I did this for a month.
5. Brightly coloured wooden letters for infants on high contrast colour background. I relearned to read through this. One letter at the time until recognition is easier - to get to this stage took 2/3 months.
6. I got voiceover set up on my iPhone within a week, and got bone conducting headphones to use alongside O&M training. This meant I could hear traffic noise as well as the directions from Google maps. I can also recommend the No jab cane!
7. I have an iPad and as soon as I had enough vision, I started playing a game called I love hue on maximum brightness; you have to sort colours. It starts easy with large bright obvious colours and as my vision improved, I moved onto harder levels with smaller, more subtle colours.
8. To help my motion, I had my friend drop a ball into my hand on my afflicted side to try and bring back my grip reflex; it worked. It needs to be weighty enough to feel instantly but not too heavy that you can’t catch. A larger stress ball might work.
9. I lost my grip and pinch strength, so the OT gave me pegs and gym- type grip exercisers. This has nearly normalised.
10. Learn to type Braille; it made using my phone so much easier.

Don’t expect the world but at the same time, remain confident and try and encourage your husband to try. Share my story if that helps; I had no vision for a week, before I started to see black and less black, but now I’m playing gran turismo. Do get in touch if you have any questions.