Brad Horn/Nevada Appeal
Every night after work, Don Lamb practices being blind by sitting in the dark and closing his eyes.
He's memorized where everything is in his small northwest Carson City apartment and can find it all by touch.
This solemn ritual is Lamb's way of preparing. He knows that at some point, sooner rather than later, the glaucoma that robbed him three years ago of sight in his right eye will make off with the waning vision in his left.
"I worry every morning when I open my eye, 'Am I going to see today?'" he said.
So far, he's been lucky. Although the frame of darkness through which he sees is closing in, Lamb can still see.
When he looks at someone's face, the glaucoma breaks up the features, but with a tilt of his head to the side or back, he can tell when a person is smiling.
The former entertainer turned sports book supervisor said his condition has made him realize he'd rather give up the ability to speak or hear than to never see again.
"I don't think anybody really honestly realizes how nice it is to have vision," he said Wednesday.
"Even though a lot of people think it's rotten and cruddy, I like the world. I like seeing the public."
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness, said Lamb's Ophthalmologist Dr. Robert Wolff of Carson City, but it's also the most treatable with surgery.
"It isn't a sure thing, there's no surgery that's really guaranteed, but with glaucoma surgery, 80 to 90 percent are pretty successful," he said.
Most people, including Lamb, don't realize they're developing glaucoma until it's too late, Wolff said.
"Early on there won't be anything that people notice," he said. "As it progresses and it becomes more advanced, people will start to lose their peripheral vision, then they'll get tunnel vision and finally, if it's not treated, they'll lose all their vision."
When Lamb lost the sight in his right eye, he was not immediately worried about his left.
"It was so strong, so I didn't think about it. But in the last three months, it's been going fast. It has decreased so bad to where I can't see in front of me when I'm walking," he said. "If there's a pole in front of me, I have to stop and stare at it to tell if it's a pole or
a person.
"I'm getting my feel for what a blind person goes through."
From his counter at the Leroy's Sportsbook in the Nugget Casino, Lamb faces the casino floor. If someone comes to the counter and their shape falls into his line of sight he can tell they are there. He recognizes most by their voice.
If he holds his head at just the right angle, he can still see what money someone hands him.
"It's tough not being able to see my customers," he said.
It's gotten so bad, and so undeniable, that Lamb's last day on the job will be Super Bowl Sunday.
"I'm going to miss work more than anything. Hell, if they'd let me work seven days a week I would," he said.
Yet almost as tragic as the inevitable progression of glaucoma is what stands in Lamb's way " $5,000 - the cost of the surgery.
It might as well be $1 million for a man whose savings are only $6,000, said Lamb.
As Wolff said, the surgery isn't guaranteed, and the state of Lamb's eye has shrunk his odds to 50/50 that surgery would help.
That's a gamble Lamb can't take because if the surgery fails, he'll have nothing to live on.
"Who knows what I'm going to get for disability or when it will kick in," he said. "If that surgery would work to what they said " that I could keep the vision I've got -- I would do it in an instant.
"I'm not one to ask for help, but I really need to do this."
Watching his friend struggle is tough for Roger Barber, who chokes back emotion as he imagines Lamb's suffering.
"I couldn't even begin to know what it will be like for him to be blind. The worst thing couldn't happen to a nicer guy," said Barber. "He always does the right thing with a lot of class. He just has a special feel for people."
On Thursday, Barber opened the Medical Fund for Don Lamb account at Bank of America in the hopes that people will help his friend.
"I'm really hopeful for a good outcome. If he could keep some part of his sight, that would be fantastic," he said. "Don deserves it."