Legally Blind Ex-Con Get a Second Change

Leonard Fantroy started losing his vision in prison. He was worried about what he would do when he got out of prison. He wanted to take care of his family but didn't know-how with his loss of eyesight.  What he decided to do once he got out changed his life for the better. Keep reading to find out more!

Original article from US News

DETROIT (AP) — When Leonard Fantroy began going blind in prison in November 2014, he initially thought the sharp pain in his eyes was a migraine.

Then he stepped outside and saw what looked like a thick fog enveloping the prison yard — but other inmates couldn't see it.

After a series of neurological tests, doctors confirmed what Fantroy feared, that he was losing his vision.

"I'm sitting there crying because I'm like, I got all these plans when I go home to take care of my family because I don't want to go home and sell dope," Fantroy recalled to the Detroit Free Press.

Transporting and selling drugs in Detroit had landed him in prison three times. Legally blind when he was released for the last time in 2016, Fantroy said he found a new determination to not return.

He started a landscaping company in 2018, rounding up a crew made up of his teenage sons and guys from his neighborhood on the city's northeast side, some of whom also had criminal convictions. He dreamed up the idea after a month of sleeping on the floor because he couldn't afford furniture for his rental home.

Fantroy, 41, manages the business with help from a small team of supporters. There's a longtime friend who handles his paperwork and contributes her own money toward lawn mowers and landscaping tools. There's a man he met in prison who's seeking out entrepreneurship training for Fantroy.

Running a small business for the first time brings its challenges. Fantroy has wrestled with broken-down equipment and been targeted by thieves. He's hasn't been able to get a loan because of his credit score.

He pushes forward with urgency.

"My vision is fading. Every day I lose. So I have to be in a hurry," he said.

Fantroy's vision is 20/200 in one eye and 20/400 in the other. He can see objects, but he can't discern details.

"One of my biggest obstacles is not being able to do what I want to do. Somebody's gotta drive me around. That's my plight," he said.

Fantroy has optic neuritis, a condition that causes his immune system to attack his optic nerves. It's a common symptom of multiple sclerosis, but he doesn't have MS and said doctors haven't been able to pinpoint the underlying cause.

He gets an infusion every six weeks that slows down the degeneration of his nerves, a treatment he began in prison.

When running his business, Leonard Fantroy's Lawn Service LLC, he stands back and lets his crew handle the residential and commercial jobs. He gets his hands dirty when the gigs don't call for precise attention to detail, like boarding up windows and clearing yards for the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

"I can run every piece of equipment except ride on lawnmowers," he said.

Fantroy relies on his friend Latasha Lockett to keep his paperwork straight. The two met in 2003 and were roommates for a time before they lost touch. They reconnected after Fantroy got out of prison.

She bought him his first lawnmower and started picking up tools for him here and there. Lockett hasn't kept track of how much money she's invested.

In all the years of their friendship, she said she hadn't seen Fantroy as happy as he was when he got his business license and bought his first snowblower.

"I got faith in him," said Lockett, who works in adult home help care. "I believe he's come a long way."

On a recent morning, Fantroy watched from a curb as a few of his employees packed debris into a trailer outside a vacant home that they were readying for the Land Bank. Fantroy mentally calculated how much additional money they could bring in if he could afford a few dump trailers.

He calls this his "drug dealer mind," referring to how he says he used to rake in thousands of dollars in a matter of days on the streets.

Now his earnings are much more modest.

"I can go get a pound of weed or a kilo of cocaine right now quicker than I can get a loan," he said.

But he won't, he says, because selling drugs again after scraping his business together wouldn't feel the same. And he wants to be around for his children.

The criminal justice reform organization Michigan Liberation is trying to connect Fantroy with entrepreneurship training and financial assistance. Earl Burton, a justice fellow with the group, met Fantroy in prison and cheers on his work ethic.

"He's not sitting back like, 'Oh, poor me. I'm losing my sight,' " Burton said. "He's like an inspiration to me. If he can do it, anybody ought to be able to."

Fantroy said his father taught him to count drug money at a young age.

His dad also taught him how to mow lawns.

"Now I appreciate the struggle. I love being broke," he said. "I love being who I am."

___

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

An AP Member Exchange shared by the Detroit Free Press.

Cells Linked to Macular Degeneration

original article found on Science Daily

Age-related macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly, affecting more than 2 million people in the United States and leading to progressive loss of central vision. Genome wide studies have identified almost three dozen genes that play a role in the disease, but exactly where in the eye they inflict damage was not well known.

Researchers from Yale University, the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University report in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Nature Communications that glial cells (or support cells), and vasculature cells tasked with providing blood to the retina as well as cone cells contribute to degeneration of the macula, in the central part of the retina.

"This study helps pinpoint cell types that can be investigated closely to develop new types of therapeutics," said co-senior author Brian Hafler, assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual science and of pathology at Yale.

There are a limited number of effective long-term treatments available for the two forms of macular degeneration. The wet form is caused by growth of abnormal blood vessels underneath the macula, which can be mitigated by regular injections in the eye. Other than eye vitamin supplements, there is no treatment for the dry form of the disease, which is marked by accumulations of yellow deposits called drusen in the macula. While current treatments provide some benefits, over time there can be a continued, progressive loss of vision in both forms of the disease.

While genes associated with the risk of developing macular degeneration had been identified, the Yale/Harvard/MIT team used new single-cell sequencing to generate the first comprehensive human retinal atlas and employed data analysis technology to localize their effects to specific cell types associated with the disease.

While they found risk genes associated with cones, the cell type key to central vision, the researchers also found an association with glial and vascular cells -- providing possible targets for novel therapies to improve and restore vision.

Yale University. "Cells linked to leading cause of blindness in elderly." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 October 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191025075923.htm>.

Mental Health Tip of the Week

To Heal from Trauma, You Have to Feel Your Feelings

Feeling your feelings is one of the healthiest things you can do

By: Andrea Brandt Ph.D. M.F.T

At any age, in any life stage, you can change. Whether you’re 77 years old or 17, you can learn, grow, adopt new habits, and make new choices to create a life you truly love. It may not always feel that way, though.

When childhood emotional wounds tether you to the past, it can feel like you’re being swept away by a fast-moving current; although there are branches on either side of the riverbank to grab onto, something is mentally blocking you from reaching out. That “something” is a tether point, an invisible string holding you back.

Your tether points originated with emotional injuries or traumas in childhood—experiences that were hurtful and damaging to your sense of self. The same event or experience will affect people differently. Schoolyard teasing that stays with one person for decades may be brushed off easily by someone else.

Genetics, previous events, mindset, and beliefs can all affect which childhood events stay with you and hold you back, and which you shrug off. The social support you received in the wake of the trauma, the trauma’s duration, and the type of injury it is also can affect the tether-creation process.

Trauma generates emotions, and unless you process these emotions at the time they occur, they can become stuck in your system, negatively affecting you both psychologically and physically. The healthy flow and processing of distressing emotions like anger, sadness, grief, and fear are essential. You will never resolve underlying issues if you deny and run from your feelings.

Suppressed emotions don’t just go away; instead, they become toxic. They will keep showing up in your life, in some form of dysfunction or unhappiness, until you resolve them. Throughout life, feeling your feelings is one of the healthiest and most productive things you can do.

To reach out for that metaphorical branch and pull yourself from the current, you have to find what it is in your inner world that is tethering you to your traumas, restricting your movements, and limiting your choices. You must make conscious what is unconscious so that you can free yourself from your past and grab onto the life you want by making new, more empowering choices.

To find your tether points, you don’t have to go through every experience you’ve ever had and dredge up old sorrows. Instead, look at what isn’t working well in your life right now. What situations make you feel extra emotional—hair-trigger anger, deep despair, shame? Are there times where you think you should have an emotional reaction, but you feel numb?

What do these feelings or lack of feelings tell you about yourself? The act of self-exploration and understanding will help you get to know yourself on a deeper level. It will help you to process and let go of any beliefs, memories, judgments, and regrets that are keeping you bound to the past and unable to fully engage with life in the present.

To free yourself from what is limiting you and unconsciously driving your actions, you need to observe yourself non-judgmentally. You need to bring your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs into conscious awareness. In doing so, you shift from using the fight-flight-or-freeze part of your brain to the less reactive and more analytical one, which can explore, discover, and create.

The qualities you’ll need in your self-observation spell the acronym "COAL":

Curiosity

Openness

Acceptance

Love

By using COAL, you create a psychologically safe space where you can let your guard down to reveal the sensations, emotions, and thoughts trapped inside. When you focus on your inner world, you are practicing emotional mindfulness. Self-awareness is fundamental to understanding and being happy with yourself, forming close relationships, and recognizing your motivations so that you can build your life based on what is true for you now, and not in response to past trauma.

You must feel your feelings; your emotions are helpful companions on the journey of life. You need to make friends with them, learn from them, and interact with them in a loving, not fearful, way.