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• Dry vs. wet
• Posted: 2007-09-30 17:26:12 By Ann C
• I was at an event last night when someone asked me how my eye was doing. I gave them the abrieviated version since I have discovered that people don't really want to know. They then told me that their mother and 5 other people in their family had wet amd and now it has changed back to dry. I started to tell them that wet does not go back to dry it does stop leaking hopefully. They told me that I was wrong and it can go back to being dry macular degeneration. Am I wrong? I was under the impression that once it goes to wet it is wet period. The leaking stops and starts but you stay with a diagnosis of wet amd. Correct me if I am wrong and I need to apologize to this person for arguing with her,
  Ann

• Re: Dry vs. wet
• Posted: 2007-10-01 16:44:06 By Andrew V
• Hello Ann,
  
  You are right that people don't want to know. Your adversary probably didn't listen to her mother carefully or to the other five family members either. Its not that people don't want to know; don't want to listen. For "outsiders" its like reading a book without llustrations. "Outsiders" includes loved ones, friends, doctors and doctor's assistants. Its not that they don't mean well, its simply that they cannot conceive of what we are trying to explain to them combined with the difficulty we have in explaning what it is like seeing through damaged eyes. Doctors see the photos and recognize the degree of damage, but have no idea what it is like seeing out of a "wet" or "dry" eye. Some websites show simulations of seeing through a macular cloud. I don't know about others, but what I see is not so neat and clean. I have a small cluster of scintillating lights in the center of one eye (can't tell which one as it comes and goes with eyes open or shut). The lights blink at a speed like the wings of a hummingbird. Then there are slow motion flashes of white light that zoom in and disappear. And there are swirling, swishing patterns like gallexies at the beginning of a science fiction movie.
  
  Both my parents had MD when it was called senile maculitis. I couldn't understand how my mother could not recognize me, but see that I put on weight --central versus periferal. My father couldn't read or see anything directly before him, yet when I showed him a photograph of his grandfather, he immediately recognized. He recognized his grandfather's long white beard shaped into two horns through his perifery vision. We can recognize but we cannot cognize with a wet eye.
  
  I have told my wife and daughters about a zillion times not to hold things up in front of me to cognize. They always forget. No malace, only the absolute inability to comprehend what I can see and what I cannot see. How I can recognize things I have seen before, but have to swilr my eyes around a word or picture like taking sequence photographs in 360 degrees in hopes of cognicizing the object in the middle.
  
  My left eye is wet and has the cloud in the middle; not round and aesthetic like the ones you see on the internet, but shapeless with a Baja California like peninsula jutting out from the upper left corner. My right eye is advanced dry and from years ago has been a slowly growing white spot. Now its big enough to block out the entire face of someone sitting accross from me at the dinning room table, but it is white and not dark. Its like two different diseases. The Right continues on its slow progression while the left hit me by surprise and went from miminum distortion to clear but dreadful distortion and then to the ugly dark cloud in a few weeks. Too fast for the doctors to catch it if it was catchable.
  
  It is hard talking to "outsiders". Every time I read a message on this forum I learn something but participation is sparce. I wish more people would post messages. There is great theraputic value in a support group.
  
  Andrew
  
  

• Re: Dry vs. wet
• Posted: 2007-10-02 22:53:13 By Ann C
• Andrew, thank you for your reply. My heart really goes out to you. May I ask you how old you are? Are you still working? I am 57 and will continue to work till I can't any more. Your story moved me to tears. From what I gathered, wet mac stays that way is the correct reaponse that she has wet but it is not leaking at the present time? A co working told me that her father in law has wet in both eyes and she said I really think he puts on an act most of the time. I really think that he sees a lot better than he pretends. She also said that he uses a cane but a lot of the time just swings it around. I almost fell over. I really almost decided that I will not discuss this condition with anyone other than others who are there with me.
  Ann

• Re: Dry vs. wet
• Posted: 2007-10-02 22:53:23 By Ann C
• Andrew, thank you for your reply. My heart really goes out to you. May I ask you how old you are? Are you still working? I am 57 and will continue to work till I can't any more. Your story moved me to tears. From what I gathered, wet mac stays that way is the correct reaponse that she has wet but it is not leaking at the present time? A co working told me that her father in law has wet in both eyes and she said I really think he puts on an act most of the time. I really think that he sees a lot better than he pretends. She also said that he uses a cane but a lot of the time just swings it around. I almost fell over. I really almost decided that I will not discuss this condition with anyone other than others who are there with me.
  Ann

• Re: Re: Dry vs. wet
• Posted: 2007-10-03 14:51:30 By Andrew V
• Hello Ann,
  I should have mentioned in my message that I am 63 and retired from my primary profession for several years. I gave up driving in 2003 when I was diagnosed with Dry MD in both eyes. I ran a Fine Art Stone Lithographic Printing and Publishing establishment, which, as you can imagine, requires a person with keen vision, or vision made keen with glasses or contact lenses. More than 30 years of this visually demanding work added uncanny training to my vision. My father also a visual artist and also with MD explained to me that he saw more with his intelligence than with his eyes.
  
  Seeing with intelligence causes us to cheat on the vision exams. They show you the same chart every visit and we memorize and/or recognize the letters and the E facing right, up, left or down. It is hard to explain this to the technicians or the Doctor as they feel that they know what they are doing.
  
  Since I worked many years with many internationally recognized painters and sculptors making limited edition lithographs, I now dedicate full time to writing my memoirs. I can see better on the computer screen than many real life situations. I purchased a 24" Dell Monitor with DVI rather than VGA connection and I have Zoom Text for really super amplification when I need it.
  
  Regarding your friend's father in law, I wouold give him the benifit of the doubt. When people (I take into my confidence)forget I have MD its usually because I show no signs of having it. Move about in controlled lighting conditions - no light bulbs glaring in my eyes, lots of LED lamps strategically placed that I can turn on and off as needs be. Outdoors I use the wraparound UV/Blue Ray shades. both indoors and outdoors hurrah for the baseball cap!!!
  
  I too weild a cane. An Irish shillelagh I bought on eBay. I swing it rhythmically with my stride, but when I come to curbs, steps or ramps or things I don't recognize (puddles or other) my dear Irish friend is there to help me through or around it. Also, having totally lost the central vision in my left eye I have become clumbsy with things handed to me from the left. Sometimes I begin to lose my balance and my Shillelagh comes to my rescue.
  
  I think what they mean by Wet turning to dry is that the treatments available (I had 4 Avistan shots, the last one two weeks ago) stop the leakage from the bolld vessels; dry them up. But from numerous Doctors have told me, once the cloud (membrane, scar, discoform)has formed it is my understanding that it is there to stay. Mine, at least did not diminish from the Avistan treatment, although the leakage ceased and some flashes of light in the extreme left edge of my periferal vision in my left eye ceased immediatly.
  
  I repeat that the light flashes ans swirls are what bother me the most. As they come and go my vision improves and diminishes accordingly. Not only that but struggling to see through them leaves me on the brink of exhaustion.
  
  Does anybody else have these flashing and swirling, swishing light formations? could it be that I have "Active Wet" and others have "Passive Wet"? Are there such things?
  
  Knowing how people become uncomfortable when we tell them of our problem, I came up with an ice-breaking sort of schtick: "You know, if close my right eye and look at you only through my left eye your head completely disappears. Now let me tell you about the negative side of the disease!!"
  
  Andrew

• Re: Re: Re: Dry vs. wet
• Posted: 2007-10-10 15:40:08 By Florence F
• To Ann and Andrew,
  
  My name is Florence, I am sixty-three years old and I have wet MD in my right eye and dry in my left. This started a little over five years ago. My vision in my dry eye is still good. I work and I drive (carefully just to work and short trips to the stores). I often have to cover my wet eye while driving because of light flashing and shadows crossing over from my wet eye causing a double vision effect.
  
  I have been on this message board before and received some very comforting responses. At that time the white light flashing had started and it was very frightening. It's difficult to explain to anyone, even your doctor. I received responses that assured me that this problem, unfortunately, was shared by many or it seemed like most people with MD. To quote you Andrew "Then there are slow motion flashes of white light that zoom in and disappear. And there are swirling, swishing patterns like gallexies at the beginning of a science fiction movie." I do know what you mean. I have them, some days more than others.
  
  My wet eye has been lazered and I've also had PDT treatments. As of my last RS visit it was not leaking. I am due for my next visit this month.
  
  I appreciate your statement, Andrew, about more people posting messages. Even though I don't have an immediate problem I read the messages almost every day. I agree there is great therapeutic value in this support group. There are many questions asked by people who have just discovered that they or someone close to them has macular degeneration. That is a very scary time and I know I feel a lot better about my eye situation since I have people on this message board to talk to.
  
  Keep your sense of humor and good luck to you and to you too, Ann.
  
  Florence