Hi! I'm Sue

Hi! I’m Sue. I am a 65-year old, white female. I have high blood pressure and I don’t eat my vegetables. My father and I suspect his father had the same type of vision problems I have. Heck, if I had blue eyes, had let myself become overweight and smoked, I could be a poster child for age-related macular degeneration. I could be rich and famous! ...or not.

My AMD risk factors

What is she talking about, you ask? Risk factors. I am talking about risk factors for AMD. I have a ton of them. Genetics and lifestyle managed to paint a big, old bullseye on my forehead. The question was never, “Why me?” The question actually was, “Why not me?”

I didn't cause my macular degeneration

I am a good person...most of the time. My father and my grandfather before me were basically very good people. They did not “deserve” to have vision loss. It just happened based on the risk factors. I don’t “deserve” to have vision loss either. The gun was cocked and loaded. I may have pulled the trigger a little sooner than it might have happened. I ignored my high blood pressure (THAT was a little “gift” from my mother’s side of the family) longer than I should have. I made carbs and salt a basic food group. Other than that? There was pretty much nothing I did to cause this. Your Honor, I plead innocent!

The universe isn't fair

Poop happens. (This is a G rated website. I need to watch my language!) Bad things really do happen to good people. As much as we would like to believe the universe is fair, it is not. We tell our children that all of the time, but we still harbor a little hope that, somehow, it will be fair to ME. Nope.

So what happens when the universe does not recognize what good and deserving people we really are? We try to cope.

Out of nowhere

Three years ago right about this time I “lost” my second eye. It just went. Within a week I had become legally blind. That was not supposed to happen. Dry AMD is slow. It happened anyway. When it does happen, it happens to the very old. I was 62.

A medical anomoly

So there I was, a medical anomaly, and legally blind. My world went sideways but I am pleased to say it did not stay there. I may not be “standing” as totally upright as I used to, but I am standing. I am actually doing a lot of things you would never think a visually impaired old lady would be doing.

My toys

As I have said before in another forum: this is not my father’s AMD. Daddy and Grandpa before him had handheld magnifying lenses. Period. The end. I have “toys”. Oh, my, but do I have toys! Hopefully, I will be able to write about my toys a bit down the line.

Baby boomers: Too many to ignore

We are also on the brink of some exciting new discoveries. Remember we are baby boomers and, with apologies to our Jewish brethren, we are the chosen. If you look back 70 years, much of what has happened in America has happened in response to us. There have been too dang many of us to ignore!

Research in defense

With age-related macular degeneration being the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, “they” have to do something. If we all apply for attendant care, we will break the bank! I half think all of the exciting research being done is being done in self-defense. (The other half I’d say is because we baby boomers control a rather large chunk of money in America, but that is my cynical nature!)

Be that as it may, they are working on treatment and eventually a cure. Stay tuned for more on that, too.

Hope this piqued your curiosity and you will come back and visit with me again. My partner in crime, Linda, and and I have been at this for a few years and we have lots to talk about! Bye!