macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Rick’s Story: Part 3 – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Rick’s Story: Part 3

Continued from Rick’s Story: Part 2

Our guest author is Rick, a friend of Sue’s friend.

I had an operation for macular pucker in August of 2016. It corrected the problem but within a week or two I began developing a cataract as the surgeon had predicted. In March of 2017 this very exceptional surgeon met me and said my cataract was ‘ripe’ to operate and that the retinal operation had been a success. He showed me pictures where the ruffles had gone away and become smooth thanks to his expertise. I was however unable to get an appointment with his colleague the cataract surgeon until later in the spring. By that time I was back to work and it would have been a problem to lose the week or so recovery time.

I was laid off before Thanksgiving and the cataract colleague met with me again for the normal series of appointments including a physical with my regular doctor. She operated on me in early December. She knew I was a runner and I ended up losing only one week of running but I did little other than walk slowly that week. No lifting or bending. She did an outstanding job with the operation and kept in regular contact with the retinal surgeon. I had my last appointment in early January and the tests showed a complete success although the right eye is not completely cured of the bends in the vision. I got a new glasses prescription which Medicare paid for a bare bones set of new glasses with no frills. My right eye sees so well that I sometimes wear a contact in the left eye and let the right eye uncorrected. I am still going thru some adjustment in my near and far vision.

The right eye no longer is good for reading but my left eye carries that load. The left eye now has a cataract which is not close to ‘ripe’ but will bear watching.

I hope this report is helpful. Choosing a good team of surgeons who work together and communicate is so important. Where I live there are people close by with fine qualifications. I am sorry this update took so long but the process took a long time and I wanted to report upon its completion.

Written Feb. 12th, 2018

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