Scared and Thankful

I had made an appointment with my regular eye doctor because I noticed very blurry vision in my right eye and noticed "floaters". I have been nearsighted since childhood and have always worn glasses. My vision hadn't changed much over the years and my prescription stayed the same. She took an extra long time at the examination and said she wasn't sure what was going on and referred me to a retina specialist. Yikes, I thought and Googled a bunch of stuff when I got home which was NOT a good idea!

A visit to the eye specialist

Going to the specialist is a 2 hour drive each way from where I live. My sweet daughter-in-law gave me a ride there. The pressure test, the scan beforehand was a little intimidating. The doc came in and told me it was wet macular degeneration, explained the treatment, and said he could start that very day. Getting an injection was the last thing I desired and I was a little taken aback. He said I could think about it and come back at another time but after conferring with my daughter in law I decided to go ahead and get it done. If left to my own devices I would have worried and fretted for days and probably talked myself out of it.

Post-injection thoughts

The injection wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The thought of getting a shot in the eye is way worse than the actual procedure. My eye was a little irritated for a couple of hours after but it was back to normal the next day and the treatments since then have become routine. At first, I was worried I was going to lose vision in that eye and that was scary because I watched how his AMD affected his life.

Medical coverage

The great thing about all this is that the clinic had a program for low-income folks like me so I had a year of the medication covered and only had to pay for the office visits. This situation got me on the ball to finally apply for Medicare. So now I have both Medicaid and Medicare which cover my treatments.

Grateful for this community

It is scary to think of losing my vision and I probably will not gain the vision I have lost, but at least I can keep my eye from getting worse. It helps to understand AMD and it is wonderful to have websites such as this to learn and also to share with others. Thank you so much.