Retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of a group of hereditary progressive retinal degenerations or dystrophies. There is considerable variation and overlap among the various forms of retinitis pigmentosa. Common to all of them is progressive degeneration of the retina, specifically of the light receptors, known as the rods and cones. The rods of the retina are involved earlier in the course of the disease, and cone deterioration occurs later. In this progressive degeneration of the retina, the peripheral vision slowly constricts and central vision is usually retained until late in the disease. Since retinitis pigmentosa begins as rod degeneration, the patient first notices increasing difficulty in night vision, followed by difficulty seeing in the periphery. Slowly progressive constriction of the visual field leads to tunnel vision. A small area of central vision in both eyes usually persists for years. Generally night precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Total blindness eventually ensues in most cases. The age of appearance of legal blindness ranges from as early as childhood to as late as the 40s.

"A lot of it is embarrassment. When you're out in public and you trip over a chair of fall down a couple of steps. I've been asked to leave a restaurant before for being drunk when I hadn't had anything to drink because I was bumping into stuff trying to get to the bathroom. So, it makes you clumsy and it's just really frustrating. You're slowly losing your vision and you don't know when. And that's the scary part. . . you don't know when. You're told you are going to go blind at some point in your life. Well, that's hard to deal with. How do you plan? Should I start looking for a new job? When will I stop driving? What do I do? It's difficult to deal with when you don't have a timetable"

"There's an old cliché that say you gotta play the hand you're dealt. When I was first dealt my hand, I looked at the one card, RP, and it was. . . a pretty bad card. And, for 15 years all I did was think about that card and what am I going to do and anger and all of the emotions. And as I have gotten older and hopefully a little bit wiser, I decided in poker you get five cards. I had one really bad card and gave up on the other ones. I looked at the other cards: I've got a wife that loves and supports me more than I could ever thank her for, I've got two healthy beautiful little girls, I've got a family that does and offers to support me, and I've got a set of friends that would do anything for me. So, I like my hand. . . I've got a pretty good hand. And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world and I'm very fortunate."