Probably.
Because Polly, who sells her fluid art at Echuca market, is incredibly visually impaired by the incredibly rare illness of MOGAD.
Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody disorder – yes, MOGAD is easier to manage – is, as Polly says, “a turbocharged, crappier version of MS”.
It started with what she thought was a migraine, but which rapidly spiralled out of control so by the time she reached Echuca Regional Health just a few days later, she had lost the sight in one eye.
“The pain got too bad for me to manage at home, so I woke my husband (on Father’s Day – and he’s never let me forget) to take me to the hospital,” Polly explains.
“Luckily I did, because after checking in and being triaged, I sat back down and went blind in my left eye,” she says.
“I actually thought I was imagining it. Then I tried to convince myself that I was imagining it because I couldn’t imagine anything worse.”
Wrong.
By mid-afternoon she was in the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, hooked up to her first steroid IV with a tentative diagnosis of optic neuritis while a battery of tests was carried out – “with a caveat of me not Googling any of it because most of it’s really rare and the chances of me having any were slim”.
Wrong.
On December 11, 2019, she was told she was MOGAD positive.
“For me, it’s affected my sight. While I regained most of it after that first episode, I quickly had more relapses,” Polly explains.
“By March 2020 I had permanently lost all vision in my left eye and along with it my depth perception,” she says.
“You really don’t know how important depth perception is until you don’t have it – I was walking into doorways instead of through them, if I tried to pour something in a cup, mostly I’d miss.
“Which can, obviously, make painting very tricky because while I can see colour and light and movement, I just can’t see where things are, or even guess where they’re going to end up.
“It also makes the ground look like an optical illusion, and I need a cane to navigate independently.
“MOGAD also affects my spinal cord, and I get hand spasms which cause me to either drop or throw whatever I’m holding – pretty messy when you’re painting.”
One of Polly’s coping mechanisms was watching paint pouring videos on the long nights when pain wouldn’t let her sleep.
When she got tired of just watching, that’s when she hit the craft shop for the painting supplies.
“Once I started, I was hooked. Then I discovered I could pour on vases.”
Polly creates one-of-a-kind hand-poured resin and acrylic art pieces, such as 26-30cm statement vases, planter pots, paintings, and jewellery.
She says she is doing as well as can be expected, and loves making her art and talking to customers about it.
And because MOGAD is so rare, it doesn’t even have a support organisation, so Polly donates 10 per cent of all her sales to MS Australia, which she says has been “an amazing support” for her.
