Jim Kennedy – My story ……. still reading and rug making

“Two of my hobbies are reading and rug making, and both require being able to see clearly. For latch hook rug making I need to distinguish colours printed on the canvas and follow a graph with symbols representing different coloured yarns to produce the pattern. Five years ago, I started to notice changes in my vision.”

“The first sign something was wrong was lack of light, the room always seemed dim. Even on a bright sunny day I was finding it difficult to distinguish colours and book reading was becoming difficult. I started having difficulty recognising people and their faces seemed to be a blurry hole. Writing appeared as wavy lines. One time I was slicing vegetables and I was having trouble with co-ordination between the knife and the product, and judging distance was a problem. These symptoms all became apparent over a short time period of five or six weeks.

“As luck would have it, I had an appointment booked with my optometrist for a regular eye check. After checking my eyes, he told me I had macular degeneration. He rang the registrar of Dunedin Hospital’s eye department and I had an appointment within three weeks. Treatment with Avastin commenced straight away. Initially the problem was only in my left eye which stabilised after eighteen months when MD started in my right eye, so treatment was started and continues to this day. My wife and I moved to Canterbury early 2017 and the care from the staff and treatment from both the Canterbury and Southland DHB’s has been professional, caring and very efficient. I would highly commend the eye departments of both DHB’s.

“Macular degeneration is becoming more common especially in the older age group. One of the known causes is smoking, another could be hereditary. I was a smoker for a while. My mother also suffered from macular degeneration and went blind as in those days there was no treatment available.

“Macular degeneration can occur rapidly. I would encourage anyone who notices any small changes in their eyesight to visit an optometrist or their doctor and get their eyes checked or have regular eye checks with an optometrist. We are very lucky to have a treatment for the most common form of macular degeneration. The treatment usually involves an eye test, eye scan and an injection with Avastin, it is painless and easy. Personally, I am grateful that my macular degeneration was detected and treated quickly and that I can continue to read, make Latch-hook rugs, drive a car, go to the movies and live life to the full.”