Dramatic Shift to Wet AMD

Hi All - I'm a 66-year-old retiree living in Pennsylvania with my wife. I've always had floating spots in my eyes since I was in my 30s but 20 years ago I noticed a spot in my right eye that did not float when I moved my head.

Drusen confirmed

I immediately went to a retina specialist since my father had been diagnosed with AMD in his early 50s. They confirmed that there appeared to be a Drusen body in my right eye but outside of diet suggestions and recommended follow ups nothing could really be done. Over the subsequent years I would have flare-ups of vision changes where a Drusen body would appear in a new area but would invariably break up over time, leaving web-likes debris that didn't impact my vision.

Bleeding had started

This past month I suddenly got hit with a significant almond-shaped shadow around the 8 o'clock portion of my right eye that diminished my vision more than at any other time since my diagnosis. I went to my optometrist, who had been taking pictures of the macula area to keep track of the AMD progression. He immediately noticed a red spot in my right eye, which indicated some bleeding had started.

Wet AMD confied

Off I went to Wills Eye, a highly regarded Ophthalmology center where they confirmed the wet AMD and began the Eylea shots, which I have to take monthly as needed. Needless to say this is very sobering - my father basically went blind by the time he was well into his 80s but he was a heavy smoker (which I'm not) and he had no medical treatment due to a lack of interest in seeing doctors.

Hoping to mitigate progression

I can only hope that starting this treatment will help mitigate the progression of this disease. I wonder if taking Eliquis, a blood thinner, for my afib condition could be a mitigating factor in the eye bleed. There's not a lot of data out there that I can see about this so that adds another element to the whole situation.