A New Diagnosis, Where to Start?

In the world of macular degeneration, there are so many 'new things’ to learn about that it can start to feel really confusing. New words, new phrases, new doctors, new items added to our to-do lists (and not-to-do lists as well)???

We quickly find ourselves wondering where to start with our research.

Navigating our new normal

In this novel world we are adjusting to, a world where macular degeneration and vision loss seem to take over our entire lives, we are trying to navigate our new ‘normal.' But there’s just so much to know.

We read about vitamins we should or shouldn’t take, foods we should and shouldn’t eat, and practices we should and shouldn’t do. We struggle to grasp difficult feelings that accompany our diagnosis... and truthfully it can all feel very overwhelming.

Where to start

In my opinion, one of the best parts of being in our online community is that we have many outstanding patient advocates here at MacularDegeneration.net with different ideas and experiences to help each of our readers along this journey.

Welcome to the community

If you are new to our community, I’d like to send you a huge yahoooo! And welcome!

Just being here is a huge step in the right direction for anyone who has been diagnosed with macular degeneration or anyone who helps care for someone with it. Two of the most important things we can do for ourselves with a new and oftentimes scary diagnosis is to find others who are experiencing similar things as we are, and learn as much as we can about our symptoms and healing.

Congratulations! If you’re here, you're well on your way!

Who are we?

Those of us here at MacularDegeneration.net are people who have been diagnosed with some sort of vision impairment. Whether it’s age-related macular degeneration, myopic macular degeneration, Stargardt’s Disease, or other eye-related issues, we are all experiencing similar difficulties. We write the articles you read, and we moderate the site, commenting on posts and answering questions our community members have.

Meet Andrea

My name is Andrea Junge. I have been an author and moderator for Health Union and MacularDegeneration.net since our site launched in March of 2019. I am 38 years old and was diagnosed with myopic macular degeneration at the age of 26 while pregnant with my first child. My articles focus on the dietary, lifestyle, and mental health aspects of macular degeneration. You can check out all of my articles here.

Where can more information be found?

If you’re looking for specifics on any one aspect of macular degeneration or vision loss, you can easily search by word or phrase using the magnifying glass tool on our website. For example, if you want to know more about vitamin supplementation, simply type ‘vitamins’ into the search engine on our website. A long list of published articles will pop up for you to scroll through and read.

Our Facebook page will post all of our newest articles and offers a great place to chat with each other about the ins and outs of macular degeneration. If you comment on an article, either on our website or Facebook page, rest assured you will hear back from an actual advocate from our site. However, you may also hear from other community members like yourself. Our site moderators will make it clear that they are Team Members in their comments.

Refresher courses

I recently realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve written about some of the aspects of macular degeneration that I find extremely important to members with a new diagnosis (and to anyone like me who needs refresher courses from time to time). In my upcoming articles, I will write refresher courses on an array of topics. Stay tuned!

Andrea Junge