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TIFU - Don’t do what I did

On Sunday morning Aug. 24th, I awoke to discover a large blind spot in my right eye, which turned out to be what is called wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It has resulted in a very significant, permanent loss of vision in that eye. Although I maintain good peripheral vision, whatever I focus on at best is very blurry, and mostly disappears. I can barely make out the large E at the top of the eye chart. If this happens to my left eye I’ll be unable to read or drive.

It turns out that I missed the opportunity that I had to prevent this from becoming a serious problem because I failed to report what appeared to be minor changes in my vision. In the weeks prior to August I had noticed that what I knew to be straight lines appeared to my right eye to have a little waviness. I also noticed that the color of my front lawn, which I could see through the window from my recliner,  was subdued, looked almost gray, in my right eye. So I scheduled an eye exam, which revealed the presence of secondary cataracts. And the optometrist referred  me for a laser treatment to deal with the problem. 

Now, here is where I screwed up, I assumed that secondary cataracts were the reason I was seeing the anomalies I had noticed, so I did not mention the waviness or reduced perception of colors. These are very significant early symptoms of AMD. If I had mentioned them it is very likely that much of my vision loss would have been prevented because treatments are available to reduce injury to the retina when caught early. It is easy to suggest that my optometrist should have asked if I, an octogenarian, had noticed any of the classic AMD symptoms, but in reality I should have been more pro-active and mentioned everything that I had noticed.

My advice to everyone is to not ignore any changes, no matter how minor they may seem. Losing a significant portion of your vision is no fun, but to learn that you could have prevented much of it is devastating. If you notice something, tell your optometrist. Don’t expect him or her to figure it out. Don’t do what I did. 

TL;DR Tell your doctor everything that might affect your health.

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