“Dr. Mojaddidi has just been incredible...”

An Optimistic View of Life

Some habits are hard to break, and Sonja Rockwell-Jackson will gladly attest to the truth of that adage. Sonja has more than 1,000 books, and rarely does a week go by without a new one being added to her personal library. When she is not buying a book, she is burying herself into one.

No one needs to tell the 47-year-old workforce development professional that it makes little sense for a person who is legally blind to buy books. Sonja can see how that appears to be a bit ridiculous.

In learning to live with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, Sonja is not willing to live without her books. Her visits to Malalai Mojaddidi, O.D., who oversees Low Vision Services at Sutter Medical Foundation, has equipped Sonja with the tools to make the most of her limited vision. "I love to read," says Sonja, who uses a specialized magnifying device provided by Sutter to read books on a laptop computer.

Sonja paid her first visit to Dr. Mojaddidi when her vision began to vanish. After learning her condition would only worsen with time, Sonja could not imagine having a limited view of life. She suddenly felt helpless.

"I did research on my own. I needed to know what was going on," Sonja says. "I’m the oldest of four girls in our family. I’m used to taking care of people, not having them take care of me." As she began to contemplate her future without sight, Sonja turned to Dr. Mojaddidi for a dose of optimism.

"Dr. Mojaddidi has just been incredible," Sonja says. "I think for two days I thought, 'Woe is me.' Then I thought, 'Are you kidding?' I had to kick myself in the butt. Occasionally, I need to remind myself about that."

One blessing for Sonja has been that her sense of sound has compensated for her loss of vision. "My hearing is ridiculously keen. It’s even more so since I started losing my vision," she says. "My husband, Steve, teases me that I could hear cotton dropping on the floor. I can hear you before I see you. You can’t sneak up on me."

Her work with Dr. Mojaddidi has inspired Sonja to help other people confronting vision problems. "Anything I can share, I will," she says. "I can be the messenger."

She could even write a book.