Living With Myopic Macular Degeneration: New Year Reflections

Hard to believe that we are at the beginning of 2025. Just yesterday we were welcoming the new year in 2024. My mom always says the older you get, the faster time goes. The calendar pages are flipping by quickly.

The day I noticed vision changes

I think back to the year I was diagnosed with myopic macular degeneration (MMD). It was March of 2019, and I was trying to get my 10,000 steps completed. One day, I called a friend or family member in an attempt to accumulate these steps. I was doing laps around the house, conversing with a friend, exercising without really thinking about it. It was on this day that MMD made its presence known to me.

I was completing yet another circuit around the house. I noticed something peculiar. Approaching the inside front door of the house, somehow the doorframe seemed a bit odd. Typically, doorframes are straight and narrow, outlining the area of where the door is. Today, the doorframe was anything but straight.

My friend suggested I call my optometrist

I peered at it quite closely from across the room; my brain was definitely confused. This doorframe was not straight. It appeared to be wavy, like a cooked spaghetti noodle laid out in a wavy pattern. I shook my head, trying to clear this vision up. That did not help. The doorframe still appeared squiggly.

Continuing my conversation and my inside-the-house walk, I shared what I had just experienced. Hearing this revelation from me, my friend's reaction was, "That is not right." Adding to this thought, she strongly suggested I call my optometrist as soon as possible. As it was Saturday afternoon, the call needed to be made on Monday morning.

I wrapped up the call and really started accessing what I was truly seeing. Not only were items that need to be seen as straight in a line being seen as wavy, but a kaleidoscope-looking blob was partially blocking my field of vision. Thankfully, it was only my left eye. Something was definitely not right.

Receiving my MMD diagnosis

Monday could not come quickly enough. I made an appointment for that week with the optometrist. After their careful exam, I heard the words alerting me that this was serious. I needed to be seen by a retina specialist, unquestionably an indication that this was serious.

The appointment with the retina specialist was days later. I was thoroughly examined, my eyes were tested, and an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan was done.

I received the diagnosis of myopic macular degeneration.

The past 4 years have been a learning process

I would need injections to try and get this matter under some kind of control. Shockingly, the first injection occurred on that day. It took over 6 months of injections to finally stop the progression of this disease, for now.

The damage done could not be rectified. Thankfully, it has been almost 4 years since my last injection. I have rechecks every 6 months, and I am hoping to hold onto this course of events.

These past 4 years have been a learning process for me.