Community Chat

[chessylady]

Showme, I misspelled it, it's drusen. Drusen are yellow deposits under the retina. Drusen are made up of lipids, a fatty protein. While drusen likely do not cause AMD, their presence increases a person's risk of developing AMD.

[jubilant]

Thanks once again, Marp. This is great news! Macular Degeneration is trying to take my mothers eyesight in one eye and Diabetes is trying to take it in the other. This gives me hope that maybe they can keep her sight the remaining part of her life. She is 85 now.

[Mominohio]

On 11/20/2014 happy housewife said:

If you can block inflammatory processes in the body then you could help MANY diseases that start out as inflammation. Arthritis come most immediately to mind.

In reading the OP, this was the first thing that came to my mind. Inflammation is involved with so many diseases we see on the increase today, and if science could find a way to block the unwanted inflammatory responses we could see some real promise for relief for lots of diseases.

[Mominohio]

This is great news! Macular Degeneration has had a profound effect on my family. My grandfather, and all his siblings lived into their late 80's and early 90's but all four of them suffered with the disease. It is now showing up in the next generation, with at least one diagnosis there as well.

[Marp2]

On 11/21/2014 jubilant said:

Thanks once again, Marp. This is great news! Macular Degeneration is trying to take my mothers eyesight in one eye and Diabetes is trying to take it in the other. This gives me hope that maybe they can keep her sight the remaining part of her life. She is 85 now.

My mom has the dry kind of macular degeneration and has repeatedly been told that she will always have residual peripheral vision. She was diagnosed more than 25 years ago and at 92 can still see a bit. She has no central vision and when looking at someone she needs to turn her head a bit to see them. It is not true vision in the way you and I would define it but it is not total blindness either. Hopefully your mother will be able to quickly learn how to position her head to take the most advantage of the sight she does have. It is a devastating and frustrating disease.

For yourself please research everything you can about preventing/slowing macular degeneration as there is strong evidence of predisposition to it running in families. There is a genetic component.

[jubilant]

On 11/21/2014 Marp2 said:

On 11/21/2014 jubilant said:

Thanks once again, Marp. This is great news! Macular Degeneration is trying to take my mothers eyesight in one eye and Diabetes is trying to take it in the other. This gives me hope that maybe they can keep her sight the remaining part of her life. She is 85 now.

My mom has the dry kind of macular degeneration and has repeatedly been told that she will always have residual peripheral vision. She was diagnosed more than 25 years ago and at 92 can still see a bit. She has no central vision and when looking at someone she needs to turn her head a bit to see them. It is not true vision in the way you and I would define it but it is not total blindness either. Hopefully your mother will be able to quickly learn how to position her head to take the most advantage of the sight she does have. It is a devastating and frustrating disease.

For yourself please research everything you can about preventing/slowing macular degeneration as there is strong evidence of predisposition to it running in families. There is a genetic component.

Thanks, I will. My sister has been the one taking her to her eye appointments and she has never mentioned that we could be predisposed to this. I will look these things up for sure. I am anxious to get the info on the latest to my mom. We just had an episode and she could not read any of the letters on the chart so they did more laser and are giving her shots in that eye. Hopefully her next eye test will be better. This will be some positive news for her. I have had to look up so much for my dad with all his ailments and copy things for mom that I have neglected to do much research on this.....I'm a little brain dead these days but this has encouraged me to get "back at it".

[sophiamarie]

I was diagnosed with the dry form of AMD in 2012. After having surgery to remove both my cataracts about 2 months ago, I also had a follow-up appt. with my retina specialist, who noticed some retinal leakage in my right eye. He gave me some drops to use for one week. When I went back the next week, the drops had not stopped the leakage. They take pictures after giving an injection of blue (or green) dye. It was "fluid" not blood.

He then gave me the injection and again, told me to come back in one week. When I went back, the leak was gone and the pictures showed him that I now have the "wet" form in the right eye.

So, now I have the "dry" in my left eye and the "wet" in my right eye. I was given another injection 4 weeks later. We are waiting 6 weeks for the next one and he will determine how often to give me the injections.

We are injected with a chemotherapy drug called "Avastin". My retina specialist was trained under the doctor who "pioneered" the use of Avastin - at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. I am fortunate to have the best of the best in my area of the country.

So far, my vision is 20/20 and I don't wear glasses at all, which is making everyone very happy......

The Office Mgr. in my Cardio's office, was telling me that her husband also has the "wet" form in both eyes and was diagnosed about 2 years ago and is getting the injections every 4-6 wks.... She also said he has had absolutely no changes in his vision at all, so that's a good sign so far.

Good luck to all who have people in their lives with this disease. It's certainly not a pleasant thing to look forward to but with good care and treatment, I wish for nothing but the best.

ETA - When I was first diagnosed, I was given samples of vitamins by Bausch & Lomb - Preservision AREDS with Lutein. Lutein is the main ingredient and I take it twice a day.

FOCUS is a name brand and as long as it has Lutein, I guess any brand will do. We order it from Amazon.