Failing Eyesight After 70 Wet Macular Degeneration

追加: 2026-06-01

[00:00:01]You know, your your eyesight is a strange thing.

[00:00:06]Most of us never really appreciate it.

[00:00:10]At least until it starts slipping away.

[00:00:13]I never really gave it a lot of thought.

[00:00:16]At least until I had to.

[00:00:19]In fact, I honestly didn't even know my eyes weren't perfect until I turned about 16 years old and went to take that eye test for my driver's license.

[00:00:31]Up until then, I thought everybody saw road signs a little blurry at a distance.

[00:00:37]I figured that was just normal.

[00:00:39]Then the lady at the DMV pointed at the eye chart and asked me to read the letters.

[00:00:47]Buddy, I had trouble seeing the chart.

[00:00:50]She pointed to the lines of the letter of the letters and I I couldn't read half of them.

[00:00:56]That's how I got my first pair of glasses.

[00:00:59]And I'll tell you right now, I hated those damn things.

[00:01:04]Back then, glasses didn't exactly fit the image I had of myself.

[00:01:11]I was young, thought I was tough, cool, kind of thought of myself as a young John Wayne.

[00:01:20]And somehow those thick glasses, they just didn't go with the cowboy image I had of myself.

[00:01:27]So, like a lot of folks back then, few years later, I was able to get some contact lenses. And over the years, I think I wore just about every kind that they ever made.

[00:01:40]Those old hard lenses that felt like two potato chips stuck to your eyeballs, the soft ones, the disposable ones, even those contacts that you could sleep in.

[00:01:54]I probably wore contacts for, I don't know, 50, 40, 50 years.

[00:02:00]And then one day the doctor told me I had cataracts in both eyes.

[00:02:05]I'd never heard of a cataract.

[00:02:08]Sounded kind of scary when I first heard him talk about them.

[00:02:13]But honestly, I mean it really was no big deal.

[00:02:18]They scheduled me for surgery and and I had the surgery and pretty amazing.

[00:02:25]More amazing than anything else was the first time in my entire life I had 20/20 vision.

[00:02:33]I think I was 65 years old.

[00:02:37]I didn't I didn't need glasses to drive or contacts.

[00:02:42]There was no blurry highway signs. I couldn't believe the difference.

[00:02:48]I could see clearly without glasses or contacts for the first time in my entire life.

[00:02:57]Well, at least I thought I could.

[00:03:00]Cuz not long after that I was diagnosed with dry macular degeneration in both eyes.

[00:03:10]Now again, I'll be honest, I'd never heard of dry macular degeneration.

[00:03:16]And at the time I didn't fully understand what it meant.

[00:03:20]The doctor took some time to explain it, used diagrams, some big medical words.

[00:03:26]But like most people, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention.

[00:03:30]I figured well, it probably won't affect me anyway.

[00:03:35]And it wasn't long after that while I was fishing, I noticed something really strange.

[00:03:42]I couldn't focus on my fishing line properly.

[00:03:48]I'd stare at the line and all I could see was a big dark fuzzy spot.

[00:03:55]And then I'd stare at the water and I'd hold my hand up over my right eye and my vision was so blurry.

[00:04:04]And there was this this dark area that was surrounded by light.

[00:04:10]Sometimes there'd be multiple black spots right where I was looking.

[00:04:15]And if you're a fisherman, you know how terrifying that can be.

[00:04:21]Because fishing is visual.

[00:04:24]You watch your line.

[00:04:26]You watch for movement.

[00:04:29]You watch for that tiny little twitch, that jump that tells you a bass just inhaled the bait.

[00:04:37]And suddenly, >> [clears throat] >> I couldn't trust what I was seeing anymore.

[00:04:42]That's when I made another trip back to see the doctor.

[00:04:47]Apparently, the dry macular degeneration in my left eye was now wet macular degeneration.

[00:04:57]They referred to it as age-related macular degeneration.

[00:05:03]Somehow or another, it seems like everything that's wrong with me is age-related.

[00:05:08]Let me tell you something.

[00:05:10]Those words hit me harder than I expected because I started doing a little research and what I what I discovered scared the hell out of me.

[00:05:21]Wet macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of severe vision loss in adults over 60.

[00:05:31]What happens is abnormal blood vessels begin growing underneath your retina.

[00:05:39]Then they leak blood or some other type of fluid.

[00:05:43]And if it's left untreated, scar tissue forms.

[00:05:48]And that damage can happen really fast.

[00:05:51]And once your central vision is lost, you don't get it back.

[00:05:57]Now, thankfully, it rarely causes complete blindness.

[00:06:03]But that almost makes it harder to explain to people.

[00:06:06]Because technically, you can still see.

[00:06:11]But reading becomes very difficult.

[00:06:14]Driving can become very difficult.

[00:06:18]Recognizing faces can become very difficult.

[00:06:23]People Even simple things can become frustrating. And fishing?

[00:06:28]Well, fishing becomes a challenge all its own.

[00:06:33]I was sent to a a WMD specialist and started treatment almost immediately.

[00:06:41]First thing they did was a complete exam of both eyes.

[00:06:46]Followed by monthly eye injections.

[00:06:52]Now, I don't know if any of you have ever had a needle stuck directly into your eyeball.

[00:06:58]But buddy, that'll get your attention real quick.

[00:07:04]There's something deeply unsettling about laying there, watching a needle slowly coming straight toward your eye.

[00:07:15]Every instinct in your body says, "Nope."

[00:07:19]But you hold still anyway.

[00:07:22]Then you feel that tiny little pressure.

[00:07:25]That slight penetration.

[00:07:28]And you realize just how fragile these old bodies really are.

[00:07:34]Now, I've been getting these injections every month for the last year.

[00:07:40]And thankfully, I don't think it's getting worse, at least not yet.

[00:07:46]But I worry constantly about the other eye.

[00:07:50]Cuz once you realize your eyesight can disappear, you never stop thinking about it.

[00:07:57]And I'll tell you something, honestly.

[00:08:00]I've had a heart attack. I got eight or nine stents.

[00:08:04]I've had an abdominal aortic aneurysm, total knee replacement.

[00:08:11]I've had hand surgery, wrist surgery, arm surgery, multiple skin cancers, arthritis, severe COPD.

[00:08:23]I've been through enough hospitals to probably qualify for my own parking space.

[00:08:29]But none of that scares me like the thought of losing my sight.

[00:08:33]Nothing.

[00:08:35]Because eyesight isn't just convenience.

[00:08:39]It's independence.

[00:08:41]It's freedom.

[00:08:44]It's your whole identity.

[00:08:47]Especially for somebody who's spent a lifetime outdoors.

[00:08:51]You start imagining all the little things you might never see again.

[00:08:56]Like watching a sunrise over the lake.

[00:09:00]Seeing your grandchildren smile.

[00:09:03]Driving your truck down a country road.

[00:09:07]Watching your fishing line jump beside a fallen tree.

[00:09:13]And that's when old age becomes real.

[00:09:16]Not when your knees hurt.

[00:09:18]Not when your back aches or your shoulder hurts.

[00:09:22]But when the when the world's itself starts fading in front of you.

[00:09:28]You know, there's an old saying, "Old age isn't for sissies." And buddy, whoever said that wasn't kidding.

[00:09:37]Cuz getting older means slowly learning that your body has expiration dates on parts that you never even thought about.

[00:09:48]Hands, shoulders, lungs, heart, and eyes.

[00:09:57]Especially eyes.

[00:10:00]But here's what I've learned through all this.

[00:10:03]Fear can either make you quit living or make you appreciate living more deeply.

[00:10:10]Now when I'm on the water, I notice things differently.

[00:10:15]The reflection of sunlight on the lake, color of the trees, the flight of a heron crossing the shoreline.

[00:10:24]Little things I used to rush right past.

[00:10:28]Because when you realize sight isn't guaranteed, you start treating every clear sunrise like a gift.

[00:10:37]Now I don't know how many more years I'll be able to fish.

[00:10:41]And honestly, I don't know how much more my eyes will allow me to see.

[00:10:47]But I do know this.

[00:10:49]As long as I can still watch that line, even a little, I'm going to keep casting.

[00:10:57]Because the day may come when I can't.

[00:11:00]And until then, I intend to enjoy every single sunrise the good Lord still lets me see.