Category: AMD, Macular Degeneration

Just Giving – Cliff’s Blind Walk

Just Giving For the macula Society

I’m asking you to give to the macula Society because they help people come to terms with the aprtial or complete loss of their sight, they provide local support groups to work with them and to help them.

The society staff are supplemented by fourteen hundred volunteers.

In my personal opinion their most important task is sponsoring research into potential cures.

It appears that the best probabaility lies with stem cell research. There are several teams working on the problem One difficulty they are tackling is inserting the new cells in the right place and in doing it at a cost people can afford, whilst others are trying to grow the new cells in quantity.

Just Giving for the Macula Society

I couldn’t ask you to sponsor my recent climbing in Snowdonia because it could have meant putting people at risk so I ask you to sponsor me on a simple six mile walk but wearing the dreadful simulation glasses. I have spare ones if you want to join me!

Just Giving For the macula Society

The walk is planned for 10.30am on Saturday 19th october 2013 starting at Carats Cafe east of Shoreham Harbour entrance proceeding along the seafront along past Hove lagoon to Brighton Pier and then along Marine Parade to finish at Brighton Eye Hospital.

With your supprot we can solve this problem and find a cure.

Please help, thank you.
Just Giving

Age Related Macular Degeneration

Updated 28th August 2013 Still battling on. Suffered a couple of setbacks as the doctos gave me some rablets for High Blood Pressure and they may have been too successful as my eyes suffered. Nine months on my eyes may be recovering. Still I thought you might like this link to hear what an eyecare professional comment on the Macular society.

I also need to tell you taht I’m now taking 80mg Lutein each day and whether it’s actually working or whether it’s told my brain that this is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with i don’t know but it’s not as bad as when I initially had the HBP pills damage.

By the way my left eye developed Wet AMD.

Updated 02022011 Lutein. I read somewhere about positive effects of Lutein. The test cases used 20-39mg per day and got positive results. I’m fairly well built and I need to get a result so I’m taking 40mg per day. I need to clear my eyes fo the gunk if I can. It seems to be working as I’m back to reading the paper, in the right light of course and it’s easier to use the computer and the Kindle. I’m scheduled for another eye test in early July. I’ll report how we get on.

Posted 11012011 Age-related Macular Degeneration.

I found I was suffering from dry AMD about four months ago. I also have a slight void in the macular muscle which is distorting my vision.

My optician, well his lady assistant actually, picked it up and arranged a fast appointment with my optician / ophthalmologist, because he has an OCT (Optical coherence tomography) machine. Yes, there was the build-up of dry AMD. He arranged an appointment with the local eye hospital but the specialists there couldn’t see any build-up and sent me forth saying there was nothing there “I can’t see anything wrong.”

I assume that’s why they also have an OCT machine, because it can ‘see’ better than the human eye. However their machine is fairly old and can only take a photograph of three slices across the eye whereas my optician’s is the latest and takes 127 photographs – forty times more detailed.

Suffice to say I got a new appointment at a different eye hospital, with the same result even though their machine was slightly newer, but it only takes a photograph of seven slices across the eye, so my optician’s is still nearly twenty times more detailed.

I’ve told my optician that ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king’ and he’s the king, also that he has already seen more in his patients eyes than the ‘experts’ have done.

As far as treatment is concerned there’ is no treatment yet for Dry AMD, though possibly lutein may help. I’m taking 30mg per day in the hope that it’ll do some good. Also I’m hoping stem cell treatment may be possible at some stage.

Meantime I’ve turned down the brightness of my computer screen; bought a Kindle; rebalanced how much time I allocate to the various tasks I ask my eyes to do and I’ve bought a Blu-ray player.

But it’s not looking good.

No driving at night; no clear view of a person’s face; no recognising people across a room (except by listening); no newspapers;  no lip-reading;

As I said, it’s not looking good.

Cliff

For the Doctors

For the Doctors

I use my eyes to see the far horizon
I use my eyes to see the beautiful South Downs
I use my eyes to see a buzzard climbing a thermal
I use my eyes to see a kestrel diving on its prey
I use my eyes to see the sunlight on the waves,
I use my eyes to see a swan mothering its cygnets.

I use my eyes to follow a butterfly
and then to get a picture of it.
I use my eyes to marvel at the moon
and the lightening lightning,
I use my eyes to marvel at the blue sky,
the green grass, the yellow daffodils,
the pretty pinks, and the red roses,
I use my eyes to create new art from sunsets,
holiday huts, the blossom on a branch,
palm trees, even fresh fruit.

I use my eyes to write books,happy and
hopeful books
I use my eyes to write poetry and prose
I use my eyes to create story cards
for learning english
I use my eyes to create
a website for learning english
I use my eyes for on-line forums
and discussion groups,
I use my eyes to see people and
to focus on their eyes and their faces.

I use my eyes to spot weeds and to sow seeds
I use my eyes to enjoy sumptuous squashes,
the merry marigolds, crisp cucumbers,
bolshey brassicas, the Barlotti beans,
the cornucopia of courgettes, and
the pile of peppers, the pretty petunias,
the lines of leeks and the lovely lavender,

I use my eyes to harvest the bags of beans,
the bunches of onions, the gaggles of garlics,
the purple plums, the tons of tomatoes,
the armfuls of artichokes, the pots of potatoes,
the piles of pumpkins,
the baskets of strawberries.
the heaps of swedes and parsnips.
And now to read the menu

I use my eyes to cook and to wash up
I use my eyes before we cross the road
I use my eyes to see the road ahead
I use my eyes to see the path over the Downs
I use my eyes to see the boardwalk to the pier.
I use my eyes to enjoy dancing and the theatre

I hope to use my eyes for grandchildren,
I hope to use my eyes for my wife as we age.

My eyes I take seriously and personally,

Yours truly,
Cliff Jenkins,
3rd September 2010 (V 111110.)

AMD – getting better (?)

getting better (?)

I was appalled when I learned I had Dry AMD, but then at my age I had been using my computer a lot and the screen was bright.
Three actions:
– reduce brightness of screen
– reduce hours of computer use
– take 40mg of Luiein a day (2 X 20mg FSC, not ICAPS) The original tests were based on 20-30mg per day, but I’m a big lad so I reckoned 40mg would be handy.Results in six weeks: now reading the newspaper again; watching TV better; seeing oncoming traffic more easily; focusing on faces better; no longer adjusting font sizes on computer.

Cured, no, it’s ‘age-related’ so it’ll come back. Getting better probably. Due for another test in July when we can measure any improvement by comparing OCT images.

HISTORY: My optician decided I had a problem and referred me to the senior partner (an Ophthalmologist) for an OCT examine 31st July 2010; identified Dry AMD using latest OCT machine with 127 images per eye, producing classic pictures of the damage; four weeks later Eye Hospital found no AMD but they were using an old OCT machine with three images per eye; eight weeks later second opinion at different eye hospital, they found NO Dry AMD but again using an old OCT machine with seven images per eye. Followed up with research on Internet found about Lutein and started about six weeks ago.
QED

cliffjenkins

Re: getting better (?) EXTRA

Postby cliffjenkins » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:23 am

Since writing the previous post, I realise that I failed to adequately describe my white hot fury at the pompous ‘eye specialists’ who told me there was nothing wrong.
I then went on to write a piece of prose about the loss of my sight, that I was going to send to the press but I decided that it wouldn’t have any effect. I have since published it as part of ‘An Englishman’s Life’ available at the Kindle Store for 91p.In writing this piece of prose it is possible that I told my brain just how important my eyesight was, it suddenly realised that this was serious and itself kicked into gear to help out. Certainly the distortion I was also getting from right eye is getting less and I really don’t think that’s anything to do with Lutein.

I am very serious in my opinion about the power of our brains, I think we may be under-estimating its strength possibly by as much as a thousand fold.
http://tinyurl.com/Tomorrows-Tides

Cheers
Cliff
http://yoolaa.co.uk

PS I also forgot to mention that I got a Kindle so that I could read books and magazines more easily. Brilliant.

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