Tomorrow I go for another OCT scan. That is optical coherence tomography. It is the one you look at the cross and the machine goes click, click, click vertically and takes pretty pictures of your retina.
I think I told you I think the scotoma in my left eye is more opaque. I think it is called density but I cannot find any information on it.
I am not understanding why they don’t publish this stuff somewhere. How are you supposed to understand what is happening to you if there is no information?
I have been told AMD vision looks like gazing through glasses with Vaseline smeared on them. Nowhere have I heard things go black in the middle. However, my scotoma is darker and things are not ‘bleeding through’ as well. Is this natural progression of the disease?
I feel like a mushroom. Keep me in the dark and feed me bullshit.
Did a fair amount of research trying to find something on scotomata. That is the plural. Like stigma and stigmata; you know. Scotoma is Greek for darkness so that is not very encouraging.
There are several different types of scotomata. The one we with AMD have is a central scotoma but there are also ones that obliterate half the central visual field, hemianopic scotomata, and peripheral scotomata. Pareacentral scotomata are near the central vision. Bilateral scotomata occur as the result of a tumor impinging on the optic chiasm. This is all info from primehealthchannel.com.
medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com talks about absolute scotomata in which the light perception is totally lost. There are a number of articles online that come up when you google AMD and absolute scotomata. It is obviously possible, therefore, for an absolute scotoma to be the ‘end of the line’ for macular degeneration. How delightful.
On a positive note, many of the articles that mention absolute scotomata are about teaching people how to use eccentric viewing. They are generally pretty positive about their results. Once again there is hope for navigating around this mess.
If somebody actually TELLS me something about what is happening, I will let you know. I, for one, do not think you need to be treated like mushrooms. In return, if you know the answer, let me in on the secret!
And in other news, I am going to go to Mom Prom! The person who first offered to get me there apparently ‘thought better’ of it and never firmed up the arrangements, but I have another offer. Not really upset at the first person but I think people need to be honest with themselves before they open their mouths. If they are not going to follow through, don’t volunteer!
I also got the invitation to speak at the summer camp for blind and visually impaired high school kids. No clue what I am going to say. These kids have more experience with vision loss than I have. Any suggestions?
Getting late. Talk to you later.
- About the title: There’s a GREAT YouTube channel called The Blind Spot that we highly recommend. The title is not about that, it’s that scotomas are often called ‘blind spots’.
Next: The Blind Spot – Part 2
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