by Joann Davis
Joann recently attended the seminar ‘Your Eye Sight Matters! 2018’, an awareness program organized by the Macular Degeneration Association. These seminars are held in various locations in the US. She’s generously sharing what she learned. For more information about the agenda for this program which was held in Skokie, IL, on July 28th, 2018, click here. The agendas for all of them are similar.
As the My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal cub reporter, I will first describe the overall conference agenda.
They held the conference in a hotel ballroom with a nice breakfast set up outside. Pre-registration was done over the phone. The conference is presented by the Macular Degeneration Association, which is a 501(c) (3) non-profit supporting research and education. The founder and chairman is Larry Hoffheimer, a former federal prosecutor with the US Dept of Justice and a practicing healthcare attorney. Larry kicked off the meeting and served as the MC. The executive director, Donna, was also in attendance.
The two main speakers were Rajiv Rathod, MD, MBA, a Retina Specialist with Orange County Retina in California and Greg Hines, President and CEO of ArcticDX. Greg is the former CEO of a pharmaceutical company and lives in Toronto, CA.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is the primary sponsor of the conferences. Other sponsors are providers of products and services for the low vision community. Locally, the Chicago Lighthouse was a sponsor and provided info on their many services including their Seniors Program for those over 55 with low vision or blindness.
I sat next to a cool lady with advanced wet AMD who runs a low vision group in Des Plaines, IL. Like Sue, she had to wait for the special bus to pick her up when we ended a bit early. I gave her info on our group, and she should be joining soon.
Rajiv presented two technical topics. The first was Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), which is the leading cause of blindness in working people in industrialized countries. DME is caused when high blood sugar damages the small blood vessels in the eyes and causes the leakage of fluid, swelling of the central retina and blurred vision.
Treatment includes laser, intravitreal injections, and surgery. They have stopped using lasers because the lasers burn the macula and create blind spots. Primary treatment is the same anti-VEGF injections that wet AMD patients receive. DME can also be treated by the injection of steroids. Vitrectomy Surgery is used to remove scar tissue and is only used in very severe cases.
Prevention includes controlling blood sugar and blood pressure and getting annual screening exams if you have diabetes.
Continued on page 2.
About Joann
Joann Davis is 70 and has recently been diagnosed with mild dry AMD in both eyes. Her mother and grandmother both had AMD and her son has the genes. Joann also has cataracts, floaters, and dry eyes. With glasses, her vision is 20/40. Joann spends most of the year in northern Illinois and the winters in Ft. Myers, Florida. Joann is retired but very busy with numerous board memberships. Joann exercises every day, beginning with yoga, crunches, planks, ‘boy’s pushups’, weights, and then a long walk. Joann wants to do as much traveling as she can while she can still see and is heading to Italy soon and plans to go to South Africa next year. Joann’s career was in technology and cybersecurity sales, and she still belongs to cybersecurity organizations where she gets to hang out with the FBI and Secret Service.
These are not her first pages. Check out her series Rookie in Training.