Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Description
Imagine how it would feel to one day wake up and find your vision descending swiftly into darkness.
Your fingertips are turning numb, and, as the world closes in around you, you realise there is nothing you can do to stop it.
This is what happened to Vanessa Potter. In the space of 72 hours, Vanessa went from juggling a high-flying career as a producer and caring for her two small children to being completely blind, unable to walk, and with her sense of touch completely gone.
Over the course of the next six months, Vanessa slowly began to recover. Opening her eyes onto a black-and-white world with mutating shapes and colours that crackled and fizzled, she encountered a visual landscape that was completely unrecognisable. As colour reappeared, Vanessa experienced a range of bizarre phenomena as her confused brain tried to make sense of the world around her, and she found herself touching and talking to inanimate objects in order to stimulate her vision – all part of her brain's mechanism for coping with the trauma of sensory loss.
Going blind led Vanessa to turn science sleuth, reinventing herself as Patient H69 to uncover the reality behind her unique condition. With the help of a team of psychologists and neuroscientists, we follow her story as she learns the science of herself, making discoveries that will positively change the course of her life.
Vanessa's account is raw and candid, but ultimately upbeat. It shows how this remarkable woman opened doors by transforming her terrifying experience into an inspirational and scientifically fascinating endeavour.
Your fingertips are turning numb, and, as the world closes in around you, you realise there is nothing you can do to stop it.
This is what happened to Vanessa Potter. In the space of 72 hours, Vanessa went from juggling a high-flying career as a producer and caring for her two small children to being completely blind, unable to walk, and with her sense of touch completely gone.
Over the course of the next six months, Vanessa slowly began to recover. Opening her eyes onto a black-and-white world with mutating shapes and colours that crackled and fizzled, she encountered a visual landscape that was completely unrecognisable. As colour reappeared, Vanessa experienced a range of bizarre phenomena as her confused brain tried to make sense of the world around her, and she found herself touching and talking to inanimate objects in order to stimulate her vision – all part of her brain's mechanism for coping with the trauma of sensory loss.
Going blind led Vanessa to turn science sleuth, reinventing herself as Patient H69 to uncover the reality behind her unique condition. With the help of a team of psychologists and neuroscientists, we follow her story as she learns the science of herself, making discoveries that will positively change the course of her life.
Vanessa's account is raw and candid, but ultimately upbeat. It shows how this remarkable woman opened doors by transforming her terrifying experience into an inspirational and scientifically fascinating endeavour.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
05/04/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781472936134
ASIN:
B01L2MWL06
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)
Vanessa Potter. (2017). Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Vanessa Potter. 2017. Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Vanessa Potter, Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.
MLA Citation (style guide)Vanessa Potter. Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.
Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
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|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 1 | 1 |
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Needs Update?:
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 17:00:08
Date Updated:
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Last Metadata Change:
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- bioText: Vanessa Potter spent 16 years as an award-winning broadcast producer in London's advertising industry, before one day fate conspired to turn the lights out on her. Suddenly losing then slowly regaining her sight led Vanessa to change direction, turning the camera upon herself to tell her story via immersive art and storytelling.
Vanessa's collaborations have led to some exciting partnerships, and she is currently working on developing an interactive EEG science-art project that allows the public to see and understand the effects of mindfulness on their brains. She is also involved in several other scientific research projects. Her speaking engagements include a June 2016 TEDx talk in Ghent, Belgium.
Vanessa's desire to find answers compelled her to narrate her gripping real-time account of suddenly going blind; her insight and scientific knowledge of neurological and autoimmune diseases is both educational and inspiring.
@PatientH69 - name: Vanessa Potter
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- fullDescription
- Imagine how it would feel to one day wake up and find your vision descending swiftly into darkness.
Your fingertips are turning numb, and, as the world closes in around you, you realise there is nothing you can do to stop it.
This is what happened to Vanessa Potter. In the space of 72 hours, Vanessa went from juggling a high-flying career as a producer and caring for her two small children to being completely blind, unable to walk, and with her sense of touch completely gone.
Over the course of the next six months, Vanessa slowly began to recover. Opening her eyes onto a black-and-white world with mutating shapes and colours that crackled and fizzled, she encountered a visual landscape that was completely unrecognisable. As colour reappeared, Vanessa experienced a range of bizarre phenomena as her confused brain tried to make sense of the world around her, and she found herself touching and talking to inanimate objects in order to stimulate her vision – all part of her brain's mechanism for coping with the trauma of sensory loss.
Going blind led Vanessa to turn science sleuth, reinventing herself as Patient H69 to uncover the reality behind her unique condition. With the help of a team of psychologists and neuroscientists, we follow her story as she learns the science of herself, making discoveries that will positively change the course of her life.
Vanessa's account is raw and candid, but ultimately upbeat. It shows how this remarkable woman opened doors by transforming her terrifying experience into an inspirational and scientifically fascinating endeavour. - reviews
- premium: False
- source: Times Higher Education Supplement
- content: For once, the adjectives slathered on a Dramatic First-Person Journey (raw, candid, tragic, inspiring) are warranted.
- premium: False
- source: The Times, Saturday Review
- content: Follows this indomitable woman's struggles to win back her sight.
- premium: False
- source: The Time, Saturday Review
- content: This book reminds us to treasure the gift of sight.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
May 15, 2017
Potter thought she was recovering from a simple flulike virus when, over a period of 72 hours, she lost her vision completely as well as her sense of touch (making it difficult to walk). Her world came crashing to a halt; she was no longer the competent television producer she had been the week before. Eventually diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder, an autoimmune neurological condition affecting the optic nerve, spinal cord, and brain, Potter had to relearn how to see, feel, and walk. Her intense desire to recover and her insatiable curiosity to understand what was happening to her propelled her to keep meticulous records of her months-long journey to recovery. Drawing on journal entries and audio recordings, Potter divides the book into two parts. The first is an enthralling personal chronicle of her illness, and the second is a more clinical yet immensely readable retelling of her discoveries as she talked with neurologists and psychologists in an attempt to comprehend the science behind her health issues. VERDICT A compelling firsthand medical account--it's as if an Oliver Sachs patient were to tell her own story--sure to appeal to memoir fans as well as those interested in the science of the brain.--Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
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April 10, 2017
Potter, a former U.K. television producer, recounts her frightening and sudden loss of vision in 2012—and the slow return to sight, albeit altered—after an episode of neuromyelitis optica, or optic neuritis. In meticulous detail, Potter chronicles the journey from a “black hole” to the point a year later when she realized “that life just normal again.” While keeping track of every slow step to regaining sight—and the loss of sensation in her hands and feet—she approached her sight loss like she used to do her television job, “except this time it was to be the biggest production of my life,” a replication of “my journey in a far more immersive and large-scale way.” Potter began writing a blog and created meditation tools that she used based on “the visualized mental sanctuary that I now call the beach.” She also constructed art installations and explored the science of the “blind sight” she experienced when she first began to “feel” colors. Potter’s work records an indomitable spirit that righted a world that had turned upside down. “How an illness changes you is actually your choice,” Potter writes. “The way I see it is that if those choices are not obvious, then you just have to carve them out for yourself.”
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- Imagine how it would feel to one day wake up and find your vision descending swiftly into darkness.
Your fingertips are turning numb, and, as the world closes in around you, you realise there is nothing you can do to stop it.
This is what happened to Vanessa Potter. In the space of 72 hours, Vanessa went from juggling a high-flying career as a producer and caring for her two small children to being completely blind, unable to walk, and with her sense of touch completely gone.
Over the course of the next six months, Vanessa slowly began to recover. Opening her eyes onto a black-and-white world with mutating shapes and colours that crackled and fizzled, she encountered a visual landscape that was completely unrecognisable. As colour reappeared, Vanessa experienced a range of bizarre phenomena as her confused brain tried to make sense of the world around her, and she found herself touching and talking to inanimate objects in order to... - sortTitle
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- tableOfContents
- Foreword
Introduction: The Story of Patient H69
Part 1: DIARY OF EVENTS
Chapter 1: MMXII
Chapter 2: Snake Bite
Chapter 3: The Pillow
Chapter 4: D-Day
Chapter 5: Home
Chapter 6: Mowbray Road
Chapter 7: Painting Project 1
Part 2: DIARY OF THE SCIENCE
Chapter 8: The Science of My Sight
Chapter 9: The Art of Seeing
Chapter 10: Synaesthesia
Chapter 11: Memory
Chapter 12: Making No Sense
Chapter 13: Cambridge Science Festival 2015
Chapter 14: 20/200
Chapter 15: Time Traveller
Appendix I: The beach: A visualised sanctuary
Appendix II: Visualisation guide
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Index - bisacCodes
- code: BIO017000
- description: Biography & Autobiography / Medical
- code: HEA037000
- description: Health & Fitness / Vision
- code: SCI089000
- description: Science / Life Sciences / Neuroscience
