Season 3 episode 9: Navigating life with glaucoma related vision loss: Liz Holmes

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Vets First Podcast

Department of Veterans Affairs

33 episodes

4 months ago

The Vets First podcast is a research-based podcast that focuses on the VA healthcare system and its patients. Instead of being just another research podcast, the Vets First podcast was created with a primary focus on the Veterans and their stories. The hosts, Levi Sowers PhD, and Brandon Rea work to bridge the gap between the state-of-the-art research being performed at Veterans Affairs and the Veterans themselves in an easy-to-understand manner. Importantly, Levi and Brandon want to assist researchers around the country to better understand the needs of Veterans. In this podcast you will hear interviews from Veterans with specific conditions and then hear from VA funded researchers who are studying those very topics as well as other highlighted services the VA provides. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products or services they may provide.

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All content for Vets First Podcast is the property of Department of Veterans Affairs and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

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Season 3 episode 9: Navigating life with glaucoma related vision loss: Liz Holmes

Vets First Podcast

39 minutes

2 years ago

Season 3 episode 9: Navigating life with glaucoma related vision loss: Liz Holmes

In this episode of the Vets First Podcast Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Elizabeth Holmes. Elizabeth “Liz” Holmes is the Blinded Veterans Association National Secretary and is part of the Georgia regional group. She is an Army Veteran and during her career she attended both basic and advanced ordinance courses and airborne school. Liz was born and raised in the south side of Chicago about 15 minutes from Indiana. She went to DePaul University and didn’t initially have plans to join the military. However, seeing that the ROTC program there did not have any women and knowing she could do anything a man could, Liz decided to join the ROTC program in 1975 and received her training at Fort Riley, Kansas. Following college, she joined the service as a reserve officer and then went on active duty for 11 years where she traveled all over the states, Korea, and Germany. Liz served from 1976 to 1987, where in 1976 she was commissioned to be a Second Lieutenant in the ordinant specialty. Following her military service, Liz worked in the United States Postal Service serving in a variety of different ways until retirement in 2014 due to vision loss because of glaucoma. She had never noticed a change in her vision until she went to an eye exam where her glaucoma was diagnosed. Liz had surgery on her left eye but continued to experience issues. She began seeing a specialist that worked to save her right eye’s vision. Liz was referred to the VA for further care and joined other programs to help navigate life with vision loss. While in blind rehabilitation in Birmingham, Alabama, Liz joined the Blinded Veterans Association and became an active member. She shares about her experiences in the military, vision loss with glaucoma, and her involvement in the Blinded Veterans Association.

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.