I was born (40 some odd years back) with an underdeveloped optic nerve in my left eye. An early surgery for Amblyopia corrected my gaze, but those first years of wearing a patch over "my good eye" resulted in nothing more than a lot of stress for my folks. And while I attempted to explain what I could see (are they shadows?), I never really had an answer as to why I could count "how many fingers" someone was holding up. Curiously, it was only within the past few years that I realized my left eye renders what one perceives peripherally. Hold your hand to the side of your head -- it's there, but do you really _see_ it? I can't imagine putting blindness into words.
Wow, I think you might have a very similar vision issue as I do!
Left eye as well, although my eye is healthy, it was closed when I was a baby so my vision never developed properly. Eye patching was tried on me as a kid, but just resulted in a cranky toddler me. It took years and years for me being able to verbalize what I could see out of my left eye--I basically have some limited peripheral vision and no central vision. My eye doctor explained that part of the issue is that peripheral vision primarily detects motion while central vision is for detail--so while I can detect motion and light, it's hard for me to put an image together.
I have so many memories of trying to read that big stupid E with my left eye and not being able to explain what I saw. (Um, there's a light on, right?)
