Highland Center, in Southeast Iowa | steadyman - 5/22/2018 13:50 I have macular degeneration and it is progressing in my right eye. The doctor wants to start injections in that eye. Has any of you had this done? What can I expect? Is it painful?
My mother has done this for about 5 years now. I'm her transportation and second set of ears in the Drs' offices, so maybe I can add something. Mom has vision in only one eye after a blood clot following dosage with Tamoxiphen after breast cancer treatment took her vision in that eye. So we're very protective of her other eye. Her macular degeneration began as the dry form, as most do, I understand. As she aged, it progressed to the wet form, and about 4-5 years ago, she had a major leakage of blood and fluid in her "good" eye that sent us to a retina specialist in Des Moines. Thus began the regimen of shots into her "good" eye to try to stop the leakage and remove/reduce the fluid so that she could hopefully have some restored vision. This is one of the big risks with ARMD....these fluid leakages disrupt the vision so quickly and so severely that if treatment needs to be swift and consistent.
Mom's retina specialist is one of the top experts in the field, and has a personality to boot, so that's a huge help in the actual performance of the procedure and Mom's comfort level with it.
Each time, her eyes are both dilated and a 'picture' is taken of the back of her eyes with a special machine that maps out the contours of the retina and all the structures there and detects the presence of any fluid or blood. There's no treatment of her blind eye; the Dr just wants to be sure that there are no changes.
After the pictures are done and the determination is made that the shot is indeed needed this time, a numbing gel is put in the eye and left to sit long enough to work. Then the eye is rinsed out with normal saline and with ocular quality betadine solution, then a eye speculum is put on her eyelids to separate them and insure that she doesn't blink and disrupt the injection. The injection amount is very small, and it's a quick process once it begins.
The first material the Dr used for Mom was a very diluted form of a chemotherapy drug used for lung cancer. It worked very very well, and Mom's vision went from 20/400 to 20/70-20/60 over several months of injections........once every 4-6 weeks over those months. Mom eventually was able to qualify to keep her drivers license when her vision was consistently at 20/60.
Later on, they switched over to a newer, much more expensive drug and used that for about 3 rounds. Mom stabilized very quickly, and hasn't had a shot for over a year now.
The only thing I'd advise is to be sure you're with a physician who is experienced and skilled with the procedure. It isn't exactly the highlight of Mom's week, but the confidence in her Dr makes it so much easier.
Good luck to you.
Edited by Mrs B 5/22/2018 15:28
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Has anyone on here had an eye injection?
