It’s official. My eye is leaking. Because of macular degeneration, fluid is leaking, which is causing the big blur in my right eye. Treatment starts in two days – injections that should keep me from going blind. Please rejoice with me. I can read no better than I did a week ago, but there is hope on the horizon. I’ve heard from several people that they are currently taking the injections that keep this condition from going wild.
An added bonus is that the retina specialist uses space in my eye doctor’s office once a week. Instead of driving 45 minutes to Asheville, we’ll go to the next town. Please rejoice with John on that.
Now for the fun. Besides reading, can you guess what routine thing is hardest for me? It’s loading my toothbrush! Depth perception is missing for close things right now. I may be walking around with bright, shiny fingers that smell minty.
My half-deaf friend called to check on me, and we had a few laughs. She said the two of us would make a good pair, one being able to see and one to hear. She is totally deaf in one ear, making conversation difficult. Perception is askew for both of us. She can’t tell where sounds are coming from, and I can’t judge distance easily.
We chatted about coping with the loss of senses. I have an app on my phone that is supposed to translate speech into words on the screen. I hear better than my phone does. She wants to learn to lip-read. You need sight for both of those things. My advice? Don’t lose more than one sense at a time.
I tried to read the title of an icon on my phone to her and had to say, “I can’t read it!”
She laughed and said mock-loudly, “I can’t hear you.”
Hopefully neither of us will get COVID and lose our sense of smell. I presume taste goes out the window with smell. We could feel food without tasting it. My advice? Hang onto your senses, since it’s hard to be without more than one.
Mehrling Muse 
Oh Anne….This aging thing is a challenge. I now have new teeth but haven’t learned to chew successfully and two new “ears” which has helped a lot. They , who ever they are, say we need to learn something new every day…..I;m trying…Prayers for your successful encounter.
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When my eyes settle down, I’m going to look for ears. Yes, keep learning new things, some of which we might not want to learn.
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I know a couple of people who have had the injections and they both had success! I will be praying for you! My hearing is deteriorating and Forrest’s is really bad. I find lip reading helps a lot. Keep us posted if you can!!
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Have you picked up lip-reading, or did you take a class? Thank you very much for your prayers. They do help.
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I just picked it up on my own. I’m not afraid to tell people I’m hard of hearing. People are mostly understanding.
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I learned to tell people I couldn’t hear them, too. It helps.
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I have some friends who get the injections and seem to be doing ok. I hope you will be one of them too. Keep your sense of humor and don’t worry about your teeth. We’ll tell you when you have parsley there.
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Thanks for the advice about teeth. I’m very thankful I can’t take any of my teeth out of my mouth.
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My mom always told me to not let anyone pull my teeth!
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I’m a dentist’s daughter and knew to hang onto my teeth. I’ve had only one pulled, and it was replaced with an implant that I’ve been very happy with.
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I am very happy with my implants. Its was costly, but worth every penny if ya ask me. As for eyes, vision is about the same as everu, although I do have runny eyes and some irritating collection in the corners. I took steroids for awhile, which helped the watering, but the trade off was I now need to walk with a cane because of tendonitis. I admit that I need some hearing instrument…
Yes, the sense of smell and the sense of taste do go together. It has seemed to me for years that nothing tastes as good as it did back in the day, so the food I enjoy the most are those with strong flavor.
When my late husband was in hospital before he died he most regretted the lack of taste and being confined to liquid diet. Once a food tray delivery person left his dinner tray, and it contained some Jello. My youngest daughter, who is a nurse, questioned the dessert, but among he, she, and a staff nurse they decided an exception was being made…so Carol fed him the Jello. He remarked that it was the best food he had ever tasted, and well worth any dietary risk involved. 🙂 Soon after the Jello treat he went on tube-feeding, which he detested, and he removed the tube regularly. He finally motioned to me that if they didn’t take it out he would yank it out. When they told me they were going to re-insert the feeding tube, I told them not to, as it was not serving any purpose except torturing the poor man. He died within a week later of Pulmonary Fibrosis.
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I’m so glad he had Jell-o one last time! I was served it after surgery years ago, and it always tasted good in the hospital.
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I’m praying the injections help. I love your sense of humor, that one at least, hasn’t been affected! 🤗
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Brilliant, Kim! I hadn’t thought of the sense of humor!
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😁
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Betsy had this for about the last 10 years of her life, and she took the injections. The injections were a new thing then so her vision had deteriorated quite a bit when she started them, but the injections pretty much did halt the progress of the condition, which was good, so she didn’t lose her vision completely. Pete and I are definitely keeping you in our prayers.
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Thank you very much for your prayers. I did not realize Betsy had it. I’ll feel sorry for her in retrospect.
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Thinking of you. I do hope the injections help. Glad to see you still have your sense of humour. You and your friend make quite a team.
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Getting old can be quite amusing when it isn’t deadly. Family members laugh when I tell them what I heard them say. It often has no bearing on the conversation. They have been very kind to read things to me, especially on my phone.
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I hear some ridiculous versions of what people say myself. LOL I use the closed caption on the TV, as I can’t hear the sound clearly. The worst is when I’m in a group, family, whomever, and I can’t hear what is being said. I was at a party last week and although I was sitting within a few feet of the speaker I could not make out what she was saying, and the microphone didn’t help any.
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Not hearing can be frustrating, indeed.
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Yes, and I resent being amusing and/or obstinate.
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I have always assumed that sense and senses aren’t related since I lost my sense years ago. I know everything will go well for you nect week but I shall have my fingers crossed for you anyway.
Humongous Hugs
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Thank you, David, for the crossed fingers. If you lost your sense, I hope you come to your senses soon.
Wide-eyed Hugs
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You need to get one of those bionic eyes like the 6 Million Dollar man had Anne.
Hoping your condition improves!
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A bionic eye would be fun. I’ve already replaced two knees, two lenses, and one tooth.
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well there ya go…..your half way there…..the 3 Million Dollar woman!
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this is funny
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Anne, so sorry to hear about this. I hope you get well soon. Losing one of the senses is scary. I still haven’t recovered completely from my sense of hearing. Group discussions, videos and listening to music are still noisy to me.
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The injections should preserve my sight. I hope your hearing returns to normal.
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Sending thoughts and prayers
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Thank you, LA. I appreciate that.
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💗
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I hope the injections work to stave off any significant/lasting damage..
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They seem to think I won’t lose more vision.
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I’ll continue to keep you in my thoughts and prayers Anne. I’m glad you have not lost your “sense” of humor. Everything seems to be falling into place geography wise, so therefore I would look at your treatments and recovery in that same positive light.
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The first injection is tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m not concerned about the injection. It’s going to be interesting to see the outcome. Perhaps there will be no change for a long time. ???
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Hopefully the outcome is sooner, rather than later. Thank goodness you opted for cataract surgery as it enabled you to find the problem to get the “fix” in place now.
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I am so glad you caught this in time to be treated! My dad lost an eye to macular degeneration, it was so fast. Praise God you are in good hands, praying the treatments are completely successful.
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My dad went blind, too. This treatment was not available back then. Thank you very much for praying for me.
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Oh I’m sorry to hear about your eye! I can’t imagine having to get injections in the eye! I can’t even watch a friend out eye drops in
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I understand your feeling about eyes. Many people are that way. I’ve just had surgery on both eyes (cataracts), so I don’t think this is going to bother me.
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Oh I’m glad to hear that!
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Oh I am wishing you well Anne and that the injections work. I just got a fake hip 4 weeks ago and so am greatly impressed with the strides in the medical world. I hope you are pleasantly surprised too.
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Congratulations on your new hip! I was hoping everything was going smoothly for you. Had to laugh at your pun STRIDES in the medical world. Hope your walking stride has been greatly improved.
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Arghh, doesn’t sound like the loveliest way to spend time, but if it’ll help your eyes, then let’s hope for the best! 🤞
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Oh Anne!! I have been away from reading blogs for too long! My sister in law said I needed to get back and read of your troubles. She is loving the witness you are giving and the optimism you are using to deal with tough stuff.
I hope you do not get covid! Lar and I ended up with it a few weeks back after a wedding. Our sense of taste and smell is slowly coming back but it is just the craziest thing! On the upside….we are not overeating because nothing really tastes like anything anyway. So now my jeans fit much better! Praying for the treatment being amazingly successful Anne and for patience and humor in the recovery.
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Y’all got COVID!!! Were you able to take care of each other? We’ve been vaxed, and everyone around us has been, as well.
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We did about a month ago. A bunch of us got it after a wedding. It did not seem to matter if you had had it before, never had it, been vaxed or not. I have a feeling it was the variant as it moved pretty fast. The first two weeks were miserable but after that we are mainly just tired. We figure we are good to go now as we have some good antibodies that we have made!
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Which was worse, West Nile or COVID?
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West Nile hands down.
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I thought so.
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