Juvenile MD

I’m a 26 year old teacher who developed MD in her left eye at 15 years old. As of now, I lost most of the central vision in my left eye.

Developing macular degeneration

I just developed MD in my “good” eye on June 1st, 2022. I say “good” because it was never perfect, I had a very high prescription and astigmatism, but my right eye let me legally drive and read books with very few setbacks.

Driving troubles

I drove for 8 years consistently with very few limitations and 0 accidents or fender benders. I just needed to be closer than most to be able to read street signs. When I read books, they were just closer to my face.

I’m struggling with experiencing it in both eyes now. I can’t legally drive anymore and reading is doable but harder. It’s also such a central part of my profession.

It’s scary knowing I have my whole life ahead of me, and it just seems dark (literally and figuratively). I’ve never met anyone like me, especially someone my age with vision loss similar to mine.

My glasses

Everyone in my life is supportive but it’s lonely because people say and do things that show they don’t understand what I go through on a daily basis. Nobody knows I’ll probably be legally blind by the time I’m 40. What contributes to this is that I don’t wear my glasses (which have thick lenses and distort my face and eyes a lot from the outside) I wear contact lenses because I see better with the lenses on my eye. When I wear my glasses I constantly find myself pushing them closer to my face to see. Because of the fact that I don’t wear my glasses, if someone were to look at me, they’d never guess that I struggle to see.

Receiving eye injections

I do have some hope because I am receiving injections monthly for my right eye at the moment. This was something that was not offered to me at 15 for my left eye which was why most of the central vision deteriorated there.

It has put a shift in the way I view my future and the things I had planned for myself. The way I cope with it is I just forget it and try my best to function so that nobody knows about it. I feel as though I have to do this so that I can live and see as much as I can now while I’m young and still can. I feel like there is a ticking clock looming over my head everyday, month, and year that passes.

I know it’s possible to live a beautiful and successful life with vision loss and MD. It just makes me anxious thinking about it.