For most of the last ten or more years I had been using cheap reading glasses. But when I reached the point where I was using two different strengths, one to watch television and one to use a computer or smartphone, I realized it was time for proper prescription glasses. So, last summer I went in to get some.
My eye exam did not go great. You know that big thing they make you look through to read the letters off the chart? (It’s called a “phoropter,” I Googled it.) Well, I was embarrassed by how many different lenses they had to try for my right eye to read more than a few letters. When they switched to my left eye, I experienced a new level of embarrassment. Nothing in that machine could bring the chart into focus for my left eye. The doc said I needed to see a specialist. He’d make me glasses that would help me see as well as possible, but I was looking at a serious condition.
So I went to see a specialist, a neurologist who is widely respected in town. After examining me, she had some grim news. I have macular degeneration. Both kinds of macular degeneration. The “dry” kind is not treatable, but usually progresses slowly. However, In my left eye I also have the “wet” kind. It can progress rapidly, but it might be treatable to the point that progression could stop.
So what is macular degeneration? (It’s often referred to as “age-related” macular degeneration, or AMD.) It’s a degenerative condition that causes vision loss in the center of your field of vision, or your “macula.” In the dry kind, the center of your retina just kind of fizzles out. In the wet kind, you develop leaky blood vessels under your retina that deteriorate your vision there.
So what do you do with this kind of diagnosis? First, they told me to take vitamins. You know the kind that are supposed to help with vision health? Take those, the doc said. Twice a day. It might slow the progression of your dry AMD. As for the wet AMD in my left eye, she wanted to try something that might or might not stop the progression. She said it would take six months to determine if it was helping.
I was fully on board with this idea. But when I found out more, I began to have…misgivings. You see, the treatment consists of coming in to the doctor’s office once a month for an injection. Into my eye. For some people maybe it stops right there and they say no thank you, I’ll grab a bulk bottle of PreserVision on my way home and take my chances. But I was still mulling it over, until I discovered that these injections would cost me well over $400 each.
So, I’m taking a wait and see approach for now. Hopefully my AMD will progress slowly. And if one day decades from now I find that I can no longer drive, I will consider myself lucky. If things go otherwise, I guess I’ll just deal with it the way others do. Probably I’ll learn a lot about the accessibility features of my computer and smartphone.