Hi guys. I have a disease called myopic macular degeneration. It is a degenerative disease that affects the eyes. It is very similar to age-related myopic degeneration that is common in the elderly. It started when I was 18 years old and will progress until I loose my entire central vision and eyesight. It happened because I was born with high myopia (short sightedness) which got worse as I aged because my eyes never received the signal to stop growing. So the tissue that covers the back of a normal eye is stretched across the back of my eye, which causes blood to break through cracks into my eye and blind spots in my vision are the result. I am not legally blind (thank geez !) but to give you idea of my vision- the common letter charts you read to check your vision, in my left eye I can only read the big letter at the top but in my right eye I can make it four lines down, which is the reason I able to still read !! There is no cure or prevention for this disease, there is however an injection that aged related suffers receive that sometimes recovers their vision called the Avastin injection. I received one of these (the worst experience ever, I take my hat of to the elderly people I see getting one every week) it didn’t improve my vision at all, which was sad. Because of my condition I am at increased risk of retinal detachment which means I have a large list of things I’m not aloud to do some of those include contact sports, ball sports, bungee jumping, scuba diving, skydiving, being inside fast vehicles, or be hit in the head with anything at anytime. That last one as you can image is quite difficult and every time I whack my head against something is the scariest moment, sometimes I even see the big bright flash they talk about but then my vision slowly returns to how it was, phew! The hardest thing, I found to deal with was when I lost my license. I got my license when I was 18 and slowly my vision got worse and worse until I could no longer read far enough down the chart to be able to legal drive. I lost my independence that day and am now destined to a life of public transport. Boo! I am currently studying at uni. Which can sometimes get very difficult. I can’t see the bored but thankfully Apple have a whole range of handy electronics that help me out with everything (some of you think my text size on my phone is hilarious lol). The biggest problem is the constant headaches from eyestrain. I am struggling as I write this to remember a day that I didn’t have a headache. I also suffer migraines that were quite common but I haven’t had one for ages which is fantastic. Nightclubs and restaurants are sometimes a nightmare if I don’t have Sam with me. I cannot read menus especially in darker restaurants and navigating a dark nightclub is a nightmare. As soon as I need to go to the toilet I get a little anxious because I don’t trust myself to find it or find the people I was with when I come back. My aim of this post isn’t to get sympathy or anything like that! There are billions of people worse of then me! I have an awesome life and fantastic supports trust me ☺ ! My aim is to try and find someone around my age who is going through the same thing. I know it’s unlikely that you will know someone but I honestly have run out of ideas everyone I find is a lot older! I know I’m not the only one! So if you think you know anyone with this condition please please please give them my number or tell them to facebook with me. Just sick of feeling like im alone.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 03:28:17 +0000
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