Google "blindness organizations near (your city)" and contact them.


Doctors are useless. They think accepting your situation and learning to live with it is giving up. IGNORE THEM.


Hopefully, as your wife went blind very suddenly, your local organization will be able to fit her in with an O&M, an OT, Braille teacher, etc quite quickly.


I think the first priorities on her list should be:
\-Cane Training and getting around her community (her street, her neighbourhood, her favourite take out places, parks, shops, anywhere close that she'd like to go that is OUTSIDE OF HER HOUSE \[The faster you get her moving around outside, the less time she has to sit and wonder and be afraid of what will happen if she goes past the letterbox\]. Maybe there are places she'd already like to go, but has been avoiding-put them right at the top of that list-getting back a favourite place will go a long way to helping her feel comfortable getting out and about
\-Basic Independent Living Skills (Organizing clothes/dressing, hygiene, managing medications, getting around at home, to name the most basic important ones)
\-Psychological and/or emotional support (maybe there are good therapists and/or emotional support groups nearby). As soon as she learns to use a computer and smartphone again, the internet and all it's friends she hasn't met yet will be open to her again. This is especially important in a digital world.


There are so many more things to think about, but this list is already a LOT.


Don't forget to ask her what **her** priorities are and make sure they're on the shortlist, right at the front of all the things she will need to learn/relearn. The worst thing about disability is when you feel like you're losing control of your life and your autonomy. The best thing you can do for her is help her to keep as much of that as possible. You're off to a good start.

Not getting a concrete diagnosis is not great. If it helps I'm 20 years in and I've still never been absolutely told that it's permanent! When they are faced with a difficult case a lot of doctors sort of start covering their own backs by making very general statements. I don't know why they are so allergic to just saying "I don't know" but at least that means it's not personal to you.

Google for places that do cane training. Be prepared to trial them until you find someone you like. If she's like most people, your wife will not like doing it, I didn't, nobody does. That means finding someone you can stand is crucial. It is possible to learn it from other blind people if they have any training experience.

What other stuff is causing you problems? What's the situation? How long have you been in this situation?

Where do you live? We can suggest local blindness organizations.

Doctors not knowing about the practical aspects of blindness is very standard.

I would recommend getting in contact with the NFB (your state) and the individual chapters inside that state. They can help you get the things your wife needs and help give her some skills as a blind person as well. If you go to $1, you can find the nearest chapter to you.

If you're having trouble finding the right organization or even any organization at all (I don't know where you live or what disability support is like there) you can even google "Orientation and Mobility Specialists near (your city)" They can not only help your wife get out and about independently again, but they will probably be able to help you find other services and support, too.

We have a special needs son and have seen our fair share of professionals over the years. The reality is that if a medical issue is not obvious, there will be a bunch of guess work until resolution. That guesswork comes back to that doctors experience and training and if you are not making progress with diagnosis, it certainly makes sense at some point to find another doctor.

As an example, for our son's neurologists, one was 100% focused on prescription meds, the other wanted to investigate seizure focal points at a physical level that required a 3T MRI - Two very different approaches to seizure investigation and long term management, but at the same time from our perspective, we recognized the one doctors toolkit was essentially meds while the other had experience with surgical intervention. Another time we were having feeding issues and a new doctor we consulted said without looking at records said "Oh lets stick a button in him" since that was the tool he was most familiar with.

Doctors doctor and they are awful at knowing what community options are available for long term training and assistance.

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Doctors are some of the best and worst people in the world. When they take blindness as a personal failure, they often project that onto their patient and inhibit that patient's ability to lead a decent life with their new condition. It's very selfish.

If you live in the U.S you are in luck. I would highly suggest choosing a registered "structured discovery" center like the ones run by the NFB if you do.

They are very expensive, so look into "vocational Rehabilitation Services" in your state and they may be able to sponsor her, especially if their isn't much else near by.

Sadly if you are outside of the U.S, the weight to get into "structured discovery" centers can be years long. However some "traditional method" non structured discovery programs are still definitely worth going too VS getting no training what so ever... So maybe ask around at major "blind schools" for which adult programs they suggest most highly, and then double check with actual successful blind people if you can.