Tag: macular hole

News from Research

Hey, hey, how y’all doing? I did my Zumba class and half a yoga class and then walked up to the street fair to help with the Y’s demonstration class. Had a hamburger and fresh cut fries as well as an ice cream. I did mention I have a horrible diet; right? Then I waited nearly an hour for transportation. Geez.

If I did not have to walk along a busy road, I would consider walking the three or four miles it is to get home. I probably would get home faster.

Sometimes I actually consider just staying home because of the hassles with the damnable transportation. Then common sense grabs me – or I revert to my old, ornery self – and decide they are not going to break me!

Oh, forgot to mention, I begged, finagled, whatever a ride to Mom Prom tonight. I bought a ‘new’ prom gown at Sal Val. It was $7.50. Also silver high heels. $4.00. Very thrift store chic here! [Lin/Linda: if you are just joining us, the Mom Prom is a party for females over 21.  You buy a gown at the Salvation Army (Sal Val) thrift store.  And you don’t have to be a mom.]

Okay, enough of me. Let’s actually do some eye news.

One of those Healio articles from November, 2017, indicated they are now combining therapies for diabetic macular edema. They dosed people with Lucentis and then shot them with a focal laser. While they did not find any significant difference in the number of treatment required between the dose plus laser and the treat and extend groups or even differences in the visual acuity numbers of the groups, all treatments tried were effective.

So, in essence, they have started to ‘play around’ with treatments and may just find some combo treatments that give better results than singular ones. Personally, I am on two blood pressure medications. Either of them alone did not do a thing for me but together I have good control. There may be some people who will respond beautifully to the one, two punch of an anti-VEGF and laser combo just like I respond to my two, blood pressure medications. You never know.

Also in Healio last November – I did mention I got a bit behind; yes? – they reviewed trials of another anti-VEGF treatment. You wet people sure are popular with the researchers!

This new one is called brolucizumab and it is a “single chain antibody fragment VEGF inhibitor”. They were dosing every 12 weeks and the results were comparable to those obtained with Eylea. Also, side effects were less. In short, one more option for keeping your bleeds at bay. Pretty good.

And one more thing before I go, also back in November Healio ran a follow-up on a concept they reviewed in 2016. It appears about 100 people are now running around with macular hole repairs using transplanted autologous retina tissue. Cool.

Autologous means they get the tissue from the same person they are transplanting the tissue into. The tissue to be transplanted is taken from the superior peripheral retina.

Now, will the vision be as sharp? What are they doing to ensure the transplanted retina connects with the neural network? No clue. What I do know is they have started talking about using this technique to treat macular degeneration.

All told, ophthalmological research is speeding along on a number of different trajectories. Things are happening everyday and it really is the best time in history to be going blind! Hang in there.

Written April 27th, 2018

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I Promise

Greetings! Beautiful day. Sunny but cold. 37 degrees Fahrenheit. My friend who is ever concerned about my welfare knew my husband had pumped up my bike tires and thought today would be perfect for me to join her in a bike ride. Yes, I want to ride, but it is 37 degrees! Whoa.

New washer came bright and early this morning. I am actually very glad to be able to get some laundry done. Classic example of not appreciating something until it is no longer there.

Which brings me to our vision and a problem I heard about the other week. At least one member has retinal scarring. If one person has it, I suspect others do as well. I tried to look it up online and there was surprisingly little. Everything I found turned me around to macular puckers and holes. They are obviously all related, but what I was looking for was scarring in particular. If you find any good info, please share. Maybe write a page?.

According to WiseGeek, retinal scarring is exactly that, scar tissue on and under the retina. Small scars are not that big a deal. Our wonderful brains just sort of erase them. However, big ones make problems by giving us visual distortions and loss.

What types of distortions? According to WiseGeek the Amsler Grid may curve and/or parts of it may pull out of position. Reading can be just about impossible for people with large retinal scars.

Cause of retinal scarring can be pretty much anything that causes the retina to become inflamed. That would include injury, illness and wet AMD. Repeated inflammation leads to the potential of bigger scars and more vision loss.  [Lin/Linda here: I found an article that says “People can develop retinal scarring from severe myopia, ocular histoplasmosis syndrome, and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Scarring results from inflammation, caused by irritation of the retina. Severe occurrences  can cause swelling of the retina, wrinkling of the surface tissue, or even retinal detachment.” The article also talks about research into a compound that may prevent scarring in the first place.]

You hear the cautionary note there? For you folks with wet, very few things are more important than keeping up with your treatments and preventing irritation to your retinas.

Repeat after me: “I promise I will get my treatments in a timely fashion. So help me God.” Now spit in your hand and virtually shake….yuck. Who came up with that spit in your hand business? Obviously knew nothing about viruses and bacteria.

Treatments for retinal scarring appear to be limited at this time, of course. Because the available treatments are invasive, often the first ‘treatment’ is watch and wait. Other treatments are vitrectomy and something called a membrane peel.

We talked about vitrectomies in the past. In that procedure the gel like substance in your eye is drained. That substance, the vitreous, has string-like things in it that can adhere to the macula and tug. These ‘tugs’ create puckers, holes and scars.

Epiretinal membrane peeling is described in an article by Hampton Roy. The title is, aptly, Epiretinal Membrane Treatment Management. My interpretation is that in a peel, the surgeon teases off the upper layer of the retina. Maybe like trying to take off just one cell layer of an onion? Roy goes into explanations on a few different types of peels. My assumption is their assumption is the scar will be mostly in the top layer and can be removed this way.

So now you know everything I think I know about retinal scarring and its treatment. Remember, I am not a doctor and you should assume I know nothing when it comes to pretty much anything. The great majority of what I think I know has come off the web. Always check with your doctor. Continue reading “I Promise”

News: Sept. 9-10-11, 2016

These are the links shared in the Facebook group for these dates.

Wrinkles

As I said before, now that I am officially one of the visually impaired, I seem to have acquired ‘clearing house’ status. I hear about people with all sorts of vision related stuff. Sometimes I pass it along. Recently I heard of a new -to me – wrinkle in macular problems. And I literally mean a new wrinkle!

A friend of a friend is upset because his vision is all wavy. He thought he was developing Macular Degeneration. He is of “of a certain age” and the symptoms are similar.

Turns out he has something called macular pucker. I had never heard of it so I looked it up.

Disclaimer one more time: I am not a doctor. Reading two web articles and watching a nine-minute YouTube video does not equal a medical education.

Consult your eye health professional for information and treatment if you believe there is anything – ANYTHING – funky about your vision.

Here goes. My two article and one video info:

The goop that is in your eye and keeps you eye plump and round is called the vitreous. As it gets older the vitreous liquefies and clumps. I think of it as what happens to a bowl of chocolate (I love chocolate!) pudding that was forgotten and overstayed its welcome in the back of the fridge. You know how parts of it get watery and parts get hard and it separates from the bowl? That is apparently what happens in your eye.

The clumpy parts can become floater. Mine looks like a mosquito larva. (And who said you would never use the stuff you learned in tenth grade biology?) Anyway, if I turn my head just right my ‘larva’ swims across my field of vision. Cheap entertainment.

Back on track. As the vitreous separates from the retina (think pudding receding from the side of the bowl) it sometimes sticks. If the vitreous sticks and pulls on the macula, scar tissue forms. The scar tissue may warp and contract. This can cause the macula to distort and you get the aforementioned wrinkle in your vision.

Macular pucker is not Macular Degeneration.

My sources said it is often in one eye only and generally the condition of the eye does not degenerate. If the damage is too great and interferes with daily functioning, a vitrectomy will often be helpful.

I did describe a vitrectomy before. Basically they suck all of the goop out of your eye and replace it with gases or oil or salt water. Getting the vitreous out of your eye stops it from pulling on the retina. That should stop the wrinkle from getting worse and it might even bounce back a bit.

Macular pucker. Hope that was educational.

Continue reading “Wrinkles”

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