Wet Macular Degeneration at 51 Years Old

by Teresa
( Ohio)

I never missed my annual eye exam as I always kept a supply of contacts on hand.

How could my eye doctor have simply "dismissed" my complaints that something was wrong? During a casual conversation with my brother, I mentioned this and he strongly suggested I go to his eye doctor. So glad I listened to him and went to his ophthalmologist.

In April 2009 I was referred immediately to a retina specialist and was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration in both eyes.

What a shocker-I didn't even know what it meant. My left eye has the "twisting" with gray distortion in the center. My right eye has no distortion, thank goodness.

I am female born in 1958, have never smoked, not obese, and it's not in my family history. I'm in good health, take no medications and I exercise regularly.

Treatment started with Avastin injections,in both my eyes for maybe 5 months. It seemed to help shrink the hole but the results were inconsistent.

The doctor wasn't pleased with my results with Avastin. It seemed to work at the beginning but we seemed to be getting nowhere.

With a switch to Lucentis my eyes responded better. I know studies showed it to be the same as Avastin but not in my case. Lucentis helped shrink the sizable hole but it wouldn't totally seal the leak.

The injections continued in the left eye until September of 2010. The right eye was doing OK. No shots since June 2010.

The shots are indeed risky and results were inconsistent so the doctor suggested photodynamic therapy (PDT).

I agreed we needed a different approach. October of 2010 I received photo dynamic therapy (PDT) in both eyes. About a month after the PDT treatment I had a posteriour vitreous detachment (PVD) but thankfully not a detached retina.

It has left me with some rather large floaters. In late December 2010 I received a shot in the left (bad) eye.

February 2011 I saw the retina doc for my regular follow up and it was anything but typical. He said the leaks were closed! I am happy to report that 2011 has been a NO SHOT YEAR! I continue to see my retina specialist regularly.

I hope my experience can help someone else.