Wet Macular Degeneration - OK for Now

by Bill
(Wiesbaden, Germany)

About 11 years ago the drusen were spotted with dire predictions. Two doctors later, I pressed for an estimate and one doctor said "two or three years."

I started taking ICaps Vitamins and tried to put more greens in my diet.

Five years later horizontal lines on the computer were wavy, slightly, for the left eye only.

At the Frankfurt University hospital I was told they read nothing but scar tissue.

Another four years and the waviness developed into grey spots. The diagnosis was not macular degeneration but some sort of retinal problem, at the same hospital.

Doubting the validity of this I went to Johns Hopkins and they immediately diagnosed it as wet macular degeneration and recommended Avastin injections for the left eye.

The first injection in San Francisco was pretty horrible. Maybe it was the shock, but the anesthetic was not done in steps. It felt like a big jolt of electricity.

Later, in Germany, at a new clinic, I received two more, but they were painless. Sitting in the waiting room, I received the numbing drops in stages and felt nothing when they performed the injection.

The night before the 4th injection, the grey spot started looking red around the edges. It was a hemorrhage. The grey area grew and got darker. One more injection was performed, but nothing since. We are waiting and watching. They claimed my condition has "stabilized." Whether the injections did any good I have no idea.

At Johns Hopkins I was told that I had a 95 percent chance of preserving my vision, and that if one eye gets AMD there was a 25 percent chanced of it going to the next eye.

At the moment my left eye has 25 percent visual acuity. The right has 100 percent (corrected).

There seems to be a disagreement whether there are drusen in the right eye or not. The brain actually compensates for the bad left eye, so it is almost normal.

At this point I am used to the fact that the left eye is useless for any specific vision task. I couldn't possibly read with it alone, or watch films or TV and definitely could not drive.

With peripheral vision that remains at least I could know were I am and navigate around familiar places, maybe even walk around downtown.

However, right now, I can drive, read, write, and navigate well. Sometimes, a few feet in front of me, I misjudge such things as pouring wine. But not if I am careful. It's a little shaky driving at night, especially in the rain. It just means I have to concentrate and be careful.

The big change would be if my right eye went bad.

On the whole, as I am 74, I feel the pressure of time to get things done, especially writing. I'm writing a kind of novel/memoir, and I feel some pressure of time.

A few other medical issues are also at hand. Suddenly it seems more realistic to take mortality into account.

But, since I have stopped feeling sorry for myself, daily life seems a lot more interesting than to pay attention to my difficulties, which, really now, are fairly minor.

And, even if they get worse, I have my other senses. People who are totally blind function in life very well.

I would say, you can live with this reasonably well. Adjustments are possible and life can be good.

BK