THE MACULAR DEGENERATION COMMUNITY

Camille

Name: Camille Guy

Born: 10/14/44

Home: Auckland, New Zealand

Diagnosis: myopic wet MD

Eyes Affected: Left

Eye Color: Green

Age at Diagnosis: 54

Visual Acuity: No central vision in left eye, fair corrected vision in right eye.

Treatment: PDTx3, submacular surgery to remove scar tissue following PDT (with no positive outcome).

Prognosis or Current State of Vision: Some "events" in good eye, but so far holding. Visual correction now a challenge to optometrist, reading difficult, deterioration steady over past 18 months.

Family History: Five younger siblings all myopic, but no history of MD to my knowledge.

Impact on My Life: Severe. Interfering with my work as journalist, daily activities like cooking & shopping now more difficult, but have two new pairs of spectacles on order which I hope will improve matters.

Positive Effects: Forced to re-evaluate my life & become less cerebral, more conscious of others with disabilities.

Adaptations: Use 20 pt font on screen, use halogen lamps and indirect overhead lighting, always wear fitover sunglasses outdoors, avid MD list reader.

Working: Freelance journalist, now considering other options.

More About Me: Married, son and daughter both students living at home, keen on gardening and cooking (was a food writer), and on hiking and camping. Interested in the politics of food (especially the introduction of soybean into our foodchain and associated problems), and used to be interested in media studies and post- structuralism.