macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Four Letter Words – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Four Letter Words

Back from the medical center. I saw my general practitioner and my local ophthalmologist/ retina specialist.

The campaign is escalating! My ophthalmologist is going to write a letter to the research team!

Very glad he is putting his two cents in. Although I amazed myself on the ‘letter guessing game’ I am well aware my vision is deteriorating. This is a foot race and so far AMD is taking the lead.

Letter guessing game? You know…”the second one is tall and goes off to the right. An F? The third one is round. An O? No. It is a D!” Anyone else know that game?

I asked the good doctor about the insertion method for the stem cells in the new study. He is thinking the use a flexible catheter and going in behind the macula. He talked about the suprachoroidal space.

Here we go again. When I was diagnosed with AMD I never thought it would turn into continuous course of study. Still, better to know. Knowledge is power. Continuing on: Suprachoroidal space; you ask?

eye-profile
http://clearsidebio.com/suprachoroidal-spacescs/

According to E. Moisseiev and some other good folk at USC Davis and Tel Aviv University (2015) the suprachoroidal space is a space between the choroid and the sclera. It has been considered as a possible delivery pathway for drug therapy to the eye for some time. This space develops in 50% of people over 50. It is obviously more complicated but the theory is things get leaky in us older folks and the fluids other parts of the eye are dripping collect there.

According to the good folks writing the article, 20 to 50% of people with AMD have suprachoroidal spaces, fluid accumulating because the eye pipes leaked.

Sort of low odds. I have no idea how they check for leaky eye pipes but I might be happy to have them find some if it gets me into the study!

Another reason for thinking the suprachoroidal space would be available for drug delivery in AMD patients is that the chances of finding it increase in people with choroidal thinning. Don’t look now but people with AMD also have choroidal thinning! Is there any end to all of the good news?!?

On the positive side, injecting drugs into the suprachoroidal spaces that many of us have developed can avoid a lot of the problems we presently experience with current administration methods. Remember how I noticed the new study has no requirement for a vitrectomy, for example? No vitrectomy would mean greatly reduced chance of developing a cataract. Not to mention the chance of infection from going through the front of the eye. Better to keep the integrity of the inside of the eye as intact as possible.

Looking at the informed disclosure sheets, I noticed the research people intend to inject the stem cells into a bleb under the macula. Bleb?

According to Wikipedia, a bleb is a blister filled with fluid. OK? Who said we are too old to learn any new four-letter words?!??

So enough for one day. You will hear me screaming from the rooftops if anything actually happens on the research front. Until then, gotta keep on keeping on.

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