Owning my future with macular degeneration - Harry's story

I had an eye test for glasses, and they said, “oh, by the way, you’ve got the start of macular degeneration in one eye”. In my right eye, I used to get little black floaters in my vision, and now they’ve all come together. The middle of my vision is black, and around the sides of my peripheral vision is out of focus, but it's there.

It started with my local optometrist. Here where I live, they’re great people. We sort of know each other now. They organised for me to go to the hospital to have some treatment, so that’s been very good. Now I’m having a series of eye injections once a month. It’s not going to get rid of it, but apparently it will slow down the process. There’s no cure for me at the moment. It’s just a matter of maintaining it, or slowing it down, and that’s what we’re doing. I take a couple of vitamins that may help. If I need to take injections, if I need to take vitamins, if I need to change my diet I’ll do it. I won’t be silly about it. I have to prepare for my future.

Over the last two years, as it has progressed, I think ‘it’s still ok’, but then two years goes by very quickly, and then five years goes by quickly, and in five years if it’s still headed in the same trajectory my vision will be a lot lower than it is now. So I just have to plan my life a little bit to take this into consideration.

Within five years my wife and I may have to make the decision if we should relocate, or move into a smaller house that would be easier to manoeuvre. I can drive at the moment, but eventually I may not be able to drive. There’s all these things to consider. It’s a reality. It’s something that I now have to think about.

When I was younger, I didn’t think about these things. When I was 60, I still felt 40 in my brain. But when a big thing affects me, like my vision, that’s when I realised, I could be quite vulnerable, and I’ve actually got to do something about it.

The fear thing is normal. It’s normal for people to be fearful of change. But this didn’t occur over night. It’s been a slow trajectory for me.

So if you have changes to your vision, you’ve got to plan and do whatever needs to be done in preparation for the future.

As I go about my day to day life, I notice some things I can’t do as easily, but my body adapts. You learn to live with it. Like any infliction you just learn to deal with it.

I have to prepare myself for the next part of my life. And I might have lower vision in that next part of my life. That’s all it comes down to for me. For now I have to be proactive. It’s my body. I can say ‘Poor me’, or I can do something about it.

Harry, 73yrs.