Last page I talked about how one of the symptoms of AMD is driving me crazy. I hate not being proficient at matching my clothes. A couple of years back I realized I had on plum (that color seems to be my nemesis!) slacks with a red sweater. On my way to my next appointment I stopped at the store and bought other slacks! Being poorly color coordinated can make me self-conscious all day.
According to my ‘personal profile’ on GuideMe – and according to just about every other source- seeing contrast also becomes a real problem with AMD. This is probably why I missed that last step several months ago and why sometimes things just disappear in plain sight!
It’s magic! Now you see it and now you don’t.
There are some online tests available but the one I saw requires registration. Since I am leery of the words ‘free’ and ‘register’ in the same sentence, I found an article that talked about the Pelli Robson chart. This chart is a series of letters of uniform size that you can read like the Snellen chart. The difference is the contrast between the letter and its background decreases from line to line.
www.psych.nyu.edu/pelli/pellirobson/ offers a link to a printable contrast chart for personal use. It is – here is one of my favorite words again – free. You can also get free scoring sheets online at https://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/59085894/F.
A study in Finland suggested an average score for 60 year olds would be 1.68. 1.84 was an average score for their subjects in their 20s. These scores make the most sense when you look at the scoring sheets.
Topic next: GuideMe was reassuring for me in one way. It says I only have a 15% chance of developing wet AMD.
Progression to wet AMD is not a guaranteed thing so if you have dry, you are allowed a sigh of relief at least on that point.
They still say dry AMD progresses so slowly 50% of sufferers die before experiencing significant loss.
Not a lot of comfort when you are the one ‘sometimes it happens’ to. However, the rest of you may have another sigh.
Of course, after reading dry AMD is so slow it doesn’t really negatively impact many people, I would like to know why, when I went to the self-help guide and clicked on writing, the first method mentioned was Braille! So sorry, but there is no way at 63 years old I am learning Braille.
Be that as it may, the self-examination of independent living skills has some really great suggestions. I would suggest looking at them!
Gonna end here. 5:45 came early this morning. Still trying to figure out why I got picked up at 6:56 when I wanted to be at work at 8:30. Life does have its mysteries. Catch up with you later!
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