Jun 02 2009
Ian Confirmed Colorblind
Okay, today’s visit to the family doctor confirms that Ian is red-green protanomalia colorblind.
Doctor agrees that we should let Ian knows early, and to let people close to us know, so to avoid being asked to do tasks with color challenges. I will inform the teacher next week.
The doctor is very nice. He told Ian that he has got a special gift, that he could see a different world of colours that none of us could see. He also shared with us about his ex-classmate who is a neuro-specialist now, also a colorblind! That story made Ian feel a lot better.
I told him (maybe a lie, maybe truth!) that most of the people with this special gift, are very smart people. I remembered an ex-schoolmate, a top student with flying colors in his exams, also a colorblind. Many colorblinds are genius!! 
Yes, my close friend, Liew, also color blind. But so what? He is doing so well in his career. He is now working with a very well known MNC in London.
sorry to read about Ian. But yeah, there is a silver lining somewhere in there. be strong for him.
sorry to hear that. But i guess Ian will be strong enough to go thru this with you supporting him all the way.
What you told Ian is correct
My husband is color blind and he is the most intelligent, kind, funny, generous and decent man I’ve ever met. He’s a meteorologist / physicist / data programmer-creator, so yes, he’s smart!
Peekabooh: Good to know that! LOL!
dsaint:
Thanks for this!!
Pei Wei: Ya, he keeps asking questions, but I think he slowly accepts it now.
Kath: Wow! Good to know more and more intelligent ones are colorblind. Maybe we ‘normal’ people are not ‘normal’ after all. LOL!
The doctor is good use t word “Special”. Maybe the word “Blind” make him scare. So use “special” is much more acceptable. DH’s colleague who is colour blind is a very kind, decent, generous man ,who is working as Project Manager of Nestle California, I like him. So, Ian will turn out to be a special one too. When come to choosing colour for clothing he needs some help like DH’s colleague. At this stage maybe we need to think of a better terms than use “Colourblind” for their age .
Yes, Piggy. We shall use the term “Daltonism” as Trooper suggested in another post!! Yes, when I tried using that, he seems happier! Who likes to be associated with ‘blindness’?!
Sorry to hear about that…but our of curiousity, how did you/ the doctor find out about Ian’s condition?
PepsiTwist: it is okay… Well, I first suspected because he showed confusion on colors. At first, we thought he was stupid or what, couldn’t grasp the concept of colours. Later, he was okay so I thought it was just different learning stage.
Then, he made mistakes again, like calling green as yellow, vice versa. My suspicion increased. I got a chance to get hold of 4 Ishihara plates, which I used to test on Ian. He couldn’t read them all. Then we thought he was stupid (again), not understanding what we wanted him to see. Finally, at doctor’s place, the full set of Ishihara plates showed conclusive and consistent findings…
Ishihara plate is the one that you usually test for colorblind – dots of colours, which form some hidden numbers in the center.
See, that’s why I think he should be informed early. Even me, there are moments I thought he was stupid. He would also doubt himself and feel frustrated for making mistakes. That’s why I wanted to tell the teachers early and also let him know.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I can now ‘save’ this piece of advice as future reference instead : )
I hope Ian didn’t get too upset with this when you told him that it is a ‘special’ gift. I think it must be hard on him too at first when keep on getting the colours mixed up…
Ya, I think so. It must be tough on him, especially being scolded by me and/or teachers, for mixing up the colors. There were moments I thought he did it on purpose, because most of the time he got the colors right, so naturally I thought he was being unreasonable (like asking for yellow forks where none of them are yellow). Now, I’m glad we know the truth, so from now on, we will all be nice to him on colors. LOL!