The diagnosis was not a mistake.
My worry and anxiety kicked into high gear after this. Ok, so clearly the diagnosis of macular degeneration was not a mistake. This is happening. For real. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get my mind off of it. I got a prescription for a low dose anti-depressant that I took for a year and weaned myself off of. I had two more bleeds in the next few years. One happened while I was loading the washing machine – all of a sudden, there was a dark spot in my field of vision! The other happened while I was driving home from lunch with a friend. Poof! A dark spot in my field of vision. One bleed & injection happened the day before my 40th birthday party which was planned at a bar – a smoky, loud, fun bar. I wore one contact lens (because I didn’t want to wear my ugly glasses to a bar) and went to my party anyway! You only turn 40 once!
Each time, the Avastin doses cleared up the problem and my vision went pretty much back to normal. The recovery after each injection was about 48 hours. I consulted with RS#3 after a few years with RS#2. I still thought maybe there is some mistake with this diagnosis. Maybe there is some treatment that was being overlooked. RS#3 gave me the same tests, and the same advice. His equipment seemed newer and less noisy. Do you know how hard it is to hold your eye open while they shine an extremely bright light into it, and not blink while a random loud shutter-closing noise makes you jump? It is pretty near impossible! Injections administered by this RS are not as painful as RS#2, and the recovery time seems like hours rather than days. I am staying with RS#3. And my trusted local optometrist Dr. Murphy.
Over the years, I have made some adjustments to my life. I have not had a bleed in 4 years. My night vision is horrible. I stopped driving at night about a year ago, only night-driving around my little town that I know like the back of my hand. A few weeks ago, I stopped night driving even here in town. Everything is getting blurrier in general. When I was at 20/30 corrected. I thought, oh man – if this is as bad as it gets, I can totally handle this! 20/30 is no big deal! Then, at 20/40 corrected , “meh it’s not so bad! I can handle this, it’s no big deal.”
Next: The Other Shoe, My Journey: Part 4
Our Guest Authors: Their Stories