Six Months Ago

Time is funny. Not in the slap-your-knee kind of funny — funny as in, "How is that even possible?" funny. One day you are marking days on the calendar, and in practically a blink of the eye (ha, see what I did there?), time has flown by.

Developing myopic macular degeneration

It was March 2019 when I started this time quest. The diagnosis really came as a surprise. I knew all my life my vision was not the best, never even thought of it as anything other than bad. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

It was after I experienced very peculiar views in one of my eyes that the diagnosis of myopic macular degeneration was given to me. Quite honestly, it was a "gift" I could have done without.

A history of vision changes and bleeds

The peculiar views? The doorframes in our home had somehow morphed into wildly wavy lines instead of their straight and narrow selves. Using the "bad" eye, my world suddenly had a filmy blob obscuring the center vision, definitely not normal. After all the appropriate tests, the retinal specialist informed me of what was going on.

Being severely myopic all my life, these big eyes of mine were being stretched beyond their means. In doing so, bleeds had started in the macula, thus causing the obscured views I was experiencing. To stop this from happening, an injection was started that very day. In time, the bleeds were stopped and, thankfully, have not returned.

The injections worked their magic

It has been 4 years since this started. During the first year, I was getting injections every 4 weeks, then every 6 weeks, and then eventually every 12 weeks. Slowly but surely, the injections worked their magic.

The damage had been done; regaining what I had lost was not going to happen. The upside? No further bleeds have been detected.

Increasing the time between my injections

Back to that time thing. The pages of the calendar keep flipping by. As I continued to be monitored over time, my visits with the retina specialist were spaced farther and farther apart. First it was the 12-week intervals, then 3 months, and then eventually, 6 months. Six months! It felt like a miracle. Nothing personal, Dr. Retinal Specialist, but honestly, it was quite nice not having to return so often.

So here we are, and the 6-month hiatus is coming to a close. Soon I will be returning to the retinal specialist’s office. I will be given the standard vision checkup, the dilation, and the scan of the eye. I will wait with baited breath as the specialist reads the scan. Will I hear, "You're good for another 6 months," or will a shot be necessary?

The wonder of medical advances for macular degeneration

No matter what the final words are, I cannot help but marvel at the wonders of modern medicine. Whoever originated this procedure is someone I think of often and thank every day. What an awesome time we live in, the strides that have been made just so I can see the world somewhat better than I did. I hope you share the same wonder as I do.