My son, Darian, was just two years old when he was diagnosed with a rare eye condition called Coats disease.

I had central retinal artery occlusion on the 9th of December 2021, which took almost 90% percent of my vision in my right eye.

I was born with Microopthalmia, which just means “small eye”. As a baby, my left eye was much smaller than my right

Fast forward 10 years later, when my eye unexpectedly started giving me a lot of trouble.

I made the decision within a week to remove the eye because I could see that it was dying.

Luckily, we lived within an hour of one of the best eye hospitals in the country, Wills Eye Hospitial.

Long story short: Doctors said my eye was like a squished grape. They tried to repair it, but it was too far gone. It never worked again.

I was able to keep my left eye, but my vision forever changed.

"I get to see in half the dark and half the light" -- there cannot be light without darkness.

Hi!!! Since you last shared my story, some things have happened…

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He took one look at me and immediately diagnosed me with Bilateral Retinoblastoma Cancer in both my eyes.

HOWEVER! The point of sharing my story is I WILL NEVER GIVE UP! As many times a day as I want to, I will never.

Ten days and many tests and procedures later, it was determined that I had suffered a retinal occlusion.

Do you have your own dreams, visions, or goal so big they terrify you?

This was developing due to the small bone between my nose and eye being removed during my original operation.

However, when I show pictures of Maverick, I have gotten comments like, “what’s wrong with his eye?"

Thus, I learned to drive, and live with one eye. Both my balance and depth perception is off, which makes it more difficult.

"I often tell myself that the worst is behind me and that the best is yet to come, and I believe it! Despite everything, I keep smiling."

Many doctors tried to revive my eyesight, but it was beyond repair and became infected a few years later.