How Macular Degeneration Changed My Life

One of our readers has something to say about Macular Degeneration:

For the longest time, I’ve been very afraid of losing my eyesight. That is, well, until I started accepting it.

I have this friend who broke his leg once --- everyone was giving him pity looks, saying things like, “awww, you poor thing, stuck with that horrible crutch.” However, for him, the crutch was his means of getting around. He felt he was lucky to have the crutch, rather than not being able to go anywhere.

He was sincere about that though, which got me into thinking: am I lucky to have macular degeneration? It’s all a matter of perspective.

Of course, I feel that macular degeneration is a horrible, horrible thing that ruins the eye sight, and that there is no redeeming factor about it. Then again, we’ve heard of extraordinary people who go through their lives without their eye sight who are doing amazing things.

We have blind teachers, attorneys and what-have-you. Macular degeneration doesn’t sound like something that would bring these people down. The difference between them and me? They felt lucky. Lucky to be alive, lucky to get to wake up daily and get a chance to make something of their day.

While I was focusing on the negative things about macular degeneration, I was missing out on my caring family who tirelessly take me to take me to the physician to get my eyes checked, I was missing out on my children of whom, without question, would read aloud some fine print that I’m not able to read anymore.

Let’s just say --- I was lucky without knowing it. For now, me and the family are considering a surgical solution. Sometimes, I just wish people knew how lucky they actually are --- macular degeneration or not.

It’s all a matter of perspective, you see, and sometimes you can see, but you don’t have the insight.

Keeping Your Eyes Healthy

Don’t watch TV too close! Don’t read on with a dim light! Don’t do this, don’t do that. Does it remind you of your mother when you where young? Actually, for people who didn’t follow that, they might be suffering from poor eyesight now but, that’s not it. You don’t need a research to show you that one sign of ageing is having a deteriorating eyesight.

Sad but, we need all we can do to prevent our eyesight from deteriorating. The question is, how?

4 easy things to do to help you from having a poor eyesight.

1. Go to the doctor for regular check-up and follow their advice. Ask for 2^nd and 3^rd opinion if they suggest an open surgery. Laser treatment is another popular way to improve eyesight without having to wear those thick-as-a-vault lenses.

2. Eat veggies. Your mother would say, “Eat carrots! It has beta-carotene and vitamin A that improves your eyesight.” Although that is not the only determining factor for having good eyesight, eating vegetables actually helps in more than maintaining your eyesight.

3. Take in vitamins and minerals. It’s the fastest way if you hate eating vegetables like I do. Most kids also don’t love them but we force them to. You can always have them take in vitamins to help fill-in the lacking vitamins they need in their body. This also goes to us, older people. An ounce of prevention is better than cure. We don’t want to spend our savings in the hospital right? Start investing in those vitamins right now!

4. Reduce eye strain. Computers and big screen plasma LCD’s are in nowadays. Try decreasing the number of hours spent staring at those huge gadgets. Straining your eyes will of course just hasten your way to blurry-eye-ville.

So now, you understand why your mother nags you about those stuffs while you are watching your favorite tv show! Don’t wonder why now, your kids won’t listen to you. They won’t understand it unless they get to our age.

If you want to ask and discuss about your health, go to this forum: http://over40andfighting.com/theworld.asp