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Original Poster--I think Scooby Snacks' advice might be best. There is nothing you can do until you get a Dr's diagnosis. My wife had ARMD for many years (the "dry" type.) It progresses slowly. The "wet" kind moves rapidly, but, is treatable. There is a friend of mine who periodically gets a "shot" in the eye--the injection is made into a numbed eye--similar to when the eye dr checks the pressure on/in your eyeball, it is numbed. Sounds gruesome, but, really isn't!
Just take a few deep breaths and try to relax. Your Doctor probably knows more about the problem than I do.
This. Without an actual diagnosis you can't know your options. Of course it is easy to catastrophize...most of us do at one time or another. FWIW, I've known three people with macular degeneration...one wet, one dry, not sure about the third. For two of them they caught it early and with treatment their vision has remained relatively unimpaired. The third did nothing because he didn't believe or trust anyone. He always knew more than anyone else. He was legally blind for at least 20 years before he died.
Just today I realized for the first time that I almost certainly have macular degeneration in my right eye (a yellowish “floater” that doesn’t float down & a nearby blurry area — both smack dab in the center of my field of view. When I look only out of my right eye, straight lines appear bent, then broken at the blurry area, so, for example, street light poles look like two poles stacked vertically with the top “pole” floating above the bottom “pole.” I could go on, but long story short, I have 5 of the 6 symptoms of macular degeneration and no symptoms of other eye disorders (except my severe myopia).
I made an appointment with my eye doctor right away — first thing Tuesday morning. I spoke with her on the phone and she agreed that it sounded like macular degeneration and not, say, a retinal detachment. (She had me do some eye tests on myself over the phone).
So .. here I am feeling really kind of depressed about this. From what I have read there is no real treatment or cure. There is a recommended supplement (based on actual research which I read), so I ordered that. But it only seems to have any effect at all in just 20% of people who try it.
I am only 56. I feel so young to be losing my vision, well, at least the part of it I care about — being able to read, drive, recognize faces.
I am also so frustrated as to why I have had so many health problems over the past 10 years in spite of being proactive about having a healthy life style, having a relatively low-stress life, and supposedly having good genes (no one else in my family has so many problems so young).
In the past 10 years, I have had:
Recurrent diverticulitis (had surgery for this)
Recurrent UTIs (am very careful now/take supplements)
Onset of Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease (went legally deaf in one ear in 3 months and am now hearing impaired in my other ear)
Onset of idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (although I don’t drink).
Increasingly frequent episodes of cardiac arrhythmia (although it seems like I have found a fix for this)
Stage IIIb squamous cell lung cancer (although I have never smoked or lived with a smoker).
And now I am starting to lose my sight too.
Sigh, just sigh. So depressed ... Well, at least, if I die of lung cancer, I won’t have to worry about going both blind and deaf (or deafer than I am now).
Anyone else suffer from macular degeneration? I am guessing not, since anyone who has it bad probably wouldn’t be able to post to this forum ...
/end pity party
My significant other was diagnosed last year with macular degeneration. His doctor told him to take a vitamin called PreserVision. It is expensive but available on-line from Walmart.com or Amazon.com He is in the beginning stages but will have to take these for life. Or until another solution is found.
My significant other was diagnosed last year with macular degeneration. His doctor told him to take a vitamin called PreserVision. It is expensive but available on-line from Walmart.com or Amazon.com He is in the beginning stages but will have to take these for life. Or until another solution is found.
I know it can seem onerous to have to "do something for life". Things have to be kept in perspective, - it's a twice a day capsule...kinda big, but I take it myself just because there is macular degeneration in my family. If it can help your vision and even delay blindness, it's pretty easy to do.
I know it can seem onerous to have to "do something for life". Things have to be kept in perspective, - it's a twice a day capsule...kinda big, but I take it myself just because there is macular degeneration in my family. If it can help your vision and even delay blindness, it's pretty easy to do.
Actually, the vitamins I bought yesterday were”mini’s,” so easier to swallow!
There is a LOT of things that can effect your vision above and beyond the actual eye and
optic-nerve. Wait until the complete exam, testing and diagnosis process has been done before contemplating your next move in this area.
You can improve all aspects of your health, eye-health included.
About ten years ago, I was also convinced I might have Macular Degeneration or some other serious eye disease. I booked an appointment and it turns out I had a torn retina. They sent me straight over that afternoon to another doctor and I had laser surgery. So, you just don't know until a physician checks you out. When he told me I had a torn retina, I was totally shocked. I have no earthly idea how it was torn.
What were your symptoms? I am actually hoping that it turns out to be something like a torn retina (as ridiculous as this hope might seem).
First I would say go see a doctor asap to be sure. As noted above it can be many things.
But,...there is a doctor that believes it is due to "seed oils" in our diet. Canola Oil, Sunflower Oil, Soybean oil. Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAS) Here is his presentation. He is a real doctor ophthalmologist. PS he believes it can be cured.
Basically if you are sick, maybe you need to do the opposite of what the doctors are telling you.
Yeah, I used to do low carb, if not keto. Now, due to chronic pancreatitis, I don’t have much choice about my diet (it has to be extremely low fat and relatively low fiber, else I will be quite ill within a day or so.)
My significant other was diagnosed last year with macular degeneration. His doctor told him to take a vitamin called PreserVision. It is expensive but available on-line from Walmart.com or Amazon.com He is in the beginning stages but will have to take these for life. Or until another solution is found.
Thanks, I already ordered the AREDS 2 eye vitamins. They are only proven to be effective in the case of moderate to severe macular degeneration, but they didn’t cost that much, so I’m going to try them out.
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