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Wet Eye Macular Degeneration - Looking for help

Discussion in 'Health' started by anthonynoriega, Mar 2, 2021.

  1. Mar 2, 2021 at 1:35 PM
    #1
    anthonynoriega

    anthonynoriega [OP] I just wanna disappear and find nothing.

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    Anthony
    Idaho
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    OV Tune 2.0, UpTop Rack, RTT, Total Chaos Bed Stiffeners, LED Grille Lights, Custom decals and pretty stickers.
    Anyone out there have experience with this disease or know of anyone who may have insight?

    The prognosis is pretty bleak for my grandmother who is already blind in one eye and losing her other.

    She maybe has a year most in the good eye and I am looking into all avenues, clinical trials, stem cell research, etc...

    A lot of the research is still pretty new so I'm throwing a line out to see if anyone has any leads to good doctors in the CA area, although we'd get her anywhere really, to look into treatments to a least stop or slow the progression.

    The doctor she has now is just giving her something to dry out the eye and essentially has given her a timeframe to total blindness and doesnt seem to be looking into potential treatments.

    thx all
     
  2. Jul 3, 2021 at 8:30 PM
    #2
    Sprig

    Sprig Well-Known Member

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    Ken
    N. Calif. The Twilight Zone
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    Sorry to be responding so late. Wet macular degeneration is an eye disease affecting mostly the elderly. It causes the growth of leaky blood vessels in the back of the eye on the macula. It is idiopathic meaning the cause is unknown. The abnormal blood vessel growth leaks fluid and blood in the back of the eye. This will cause blindness if untreated sometimes within months. The physicians who treat this are Retinal Specialists. They are highly trained ophthalmologists specializing in retinal disease and disorders. The disease is treatable but not curable. The treatment consists of injections of medication directly into the eye. In many cases they can preserve vision of many years , 20 or more. The medicine has only been around for about 20 years so we don’t know how long ultimately vision can be preserved. It is not successful in all cases. The protocol is an injection every 4 weeks for the first 3 months (this is called the loading doses) and then slowly increasing the interval between injections up to 8 weeks. There are different medications that can be used. They are all almost exactly the same chemically. For unknown reasons one may work better than another. These medications are about $2000 an injection except the med called Avastin which is a cancer drug used “off label “and that one is about $200. Avastin is no better or less effective than the other medications. Fortunately Medicare pays for all 4 of the medications at almost 100%. This area of medicine is not my personal area of expertise but I have some basic knowledge of it. The thing is if your grandmother is under the care of a retinal specialist then you can rest assured that they are doing everything known to medicine to treat and save her vision.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2021
    anthonynoriega[OP] likes this.

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