Yes you can have cataract surgery. Sometimes your consultant Ophthalmologist will be reluctant to do this surgery as there is a risk of making the Macular degeneration worse.
Cataract surgery involves removing the lens in your eye and is replaced with a clear artificial lens. Things will seen much brighter but as you have macular degeneration it may not help you to see things in the center of your vision.

Cataracts are generally seen more with age but other medical conditions such as Diabetes can accelerate them.
Cataracts make with vision ‘milky’ or ‘cloudy’ especially when the lighting is low.

Street lights can have a ‘halo’ around them. You find you need to add more light when reading and it is still difficult.

If you need a good light check out this one

For a start a good reputable manufacturer should be chosen for sunglasses.
They should have a lens which has the statement that they are UV400 which means they have been coated with an anti-ultraviolet treatment which covers up to 400 nm.

The colour or tint of the lens isn’t specific to the sunglass and to some degree it depends on the eye condition that you have as to which coloured tint helps.
An amber coloured lens would generally reduce the ‘blue’ in the light entering the lens. Blue light is known to cause more glare than other colours and as such this type of lens would be known as a warm tint.

A grey coloured lens will reduce all colours of light to the same amount.

A yellow coloured lens is known to increase contrast , making dark things darker and light things lighter – it is often preferred by people with Macular degeneration and cataracts.

Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is a condition that some people get when they lose some or all of their vision. It causes them to have hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t really there)

There isn’t a treatment for Charles Bonnet but reassurance that is is a normal part of sight loss is a comfort and confiding in family or friends may be of help.

We often have people asking about articles for the blind – this is a service provided by the Royal Mail in the UK.

Here is a link to their online article about the Articles for the Blind

To send items under the scheme, simply write ‘ARTICLES FOR THE BLIND’ on the front of the envelope and the sender’s name and address clearly on the reverse of the envelope. Leave your mail open or make sure it’s easy to open for inspection. If the contents are fragile, you can get permission from us to seal your package, please call us on 0345 607 6140 to confirm.

There are some items that you cannot send and there is information in the link above.

NO . If you have low vision or an eye condition that affects your vision it is often a good thing to sit either closer to the TV or the TV closer to you. 
By being closer to the TV you make the TV larger, and this is like magnifying the TV

If you no longer see an eye specialist and have been discharged, it may be useful to visit an Optometrist (Opticians) they may be able to signpost you to a local service which specialise in helping people with low vision. 
A good low vision service will have a wide range of equipment including handheld magnifiers and digital magnifiers along with practical advice for your day-to-day living. 

 
I have been asked to go to a Low Vision assessment at my local hospital – what will this involve? 
One of the members of staff will have a broad knowledge of how to assess what vision remains and try to find, by trying out, devices which can help you improve your level of vision. This will usually involve trying suitable handheld or stand magnifiers. Hospitals generally cannot supply digital magnifiers or ones that have to be plugged in as they need to be tested regularly and this would be almost impossible.  
There are alternative services such as the Partially Sighted Society where the low vision service can sight post you to get extra help. 

Yes we made a short video about this topic of how to put your artificial tears , eyedrops or glaucoma medication.

Check out the video here

When your eyecare practitioner talks about dry eyes they are talking about the surface of your eye drying out and when this happens then the lids rub against the conjunctiva and white of you eye and it is irritating. The eye then reacts by making more tears to wash out what it thinks is causing the irritation. These tears lack oils which would help to lubricate the eye… the tears evaporate and make the surface dry out even more.

When your eyecare professional says you have dry eyes they are talking the surface of your eyes has dry spots on it. When you then blink the lid will drag across your eye  – this leads to the eye becoming irritated and it’s reaction is to tear up more….. The downside of this type of tear is that it has a lot less oil in it and therefore doesn’t lubricate. The artificial tears have the perfect combination of oils / lubricants and surface conditioners to help rehydrate those patches and leads to less watering.  

Yes you can have cataract surgery. Sometimes your consultant Ophthalmologist will be reluctant to do this surgery as there is a risk of making the Macular degeneration worse.
Cataract surgery involves removing the lens in your eye and is replaced with a clear artificial lens. Things will seen much brighter but as you have macular degeneration it may not help you to see things in the center of your vision.

When your eyecare professional says you have dry eyes they are talking the surface of your eyes has dry spots on it. When you then blink the lid will drag across your eye  – this leads to the eye becoming irritated and it’s reaction is to tear up more….. The downside of this type of tear is that it has a lot less oil in it and therefore doesn’t lubricate. The artificial tears have the perfect combination of oils / lubricants and surface conditioners to help rehydrate those patches and leads to less watering.  

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum or PXE (pronounced ‘pixie’) is a disease affecting many parts of the body. It causes calcium and other minerals to build up in various body tissues, especially those which are usually elastic, such as the skin on the neck, armpits and knees. Affected skin develops a yellow, waxy, ‘cobblestone’ appearance and forms loose folds.

PXE can also affect blood vessels and the digestive system. In the eyes, it causes cracks to form in a tissue called Bruch’s membrane. Leaky blood vessels grow through these cracks, which can lead to sight loss.

How is it inherited?

Most cases are caused by a mutation in a gene called ABCC6. As PXE is an autosomal recessive condition, only someone who inherits a faulty copy of the gene from both parents will develop it.

Children who have one parent with PXE will be carriers, but will not develop it unless their other parent is also a carrier.

If both parents are carriers, there is around a 25 per cent chance that a child will develop PXE, and a 50 per cent chance that they will carry the faulty gene without any symptoms.

People with one carrier parent have a 25 per cent chance of being a carrier, but will not develop PXE.

Symptoms

The ‘cobblestone’ skin lesions, which can appear in childhood or much later, are often the first sign of PXE, before any noticeable sight loss.

Examining the retina will then show up an ‘orange peel’ effect or wiggly cracks called angioid streaks. Neither of these will cause sight loss in themselves.

Later, usually in middle age, blood vessels can grow through the cracks (similarly to wet age-related macular degeneration ) and leak. This scars the macula, leading to distortion and central vision loss. In most people, the peripheral vision is not affected.

Symptoms vary between people, even within the same family, but can include bleeding in the stomach, skin lesions, sight loss and cramp when walking. Women are around twice as likely to be diagnosed with PXE than men, but it’s not yet clear why.

Treatments

At the moment, there is no way to prevent PXE affecting various body tissues – instead, each symptom is treated as and when it appears.

Injections of anti vegf (like those used in wet AMD) are effective at slowing the growth of damaging blood vessels in the eye. Laser treatment is not usually used as it can cause further sight loss

Many different issues can cause visual impairment. Not all of these are related just to the eyes. Many can be related to the pathway between the eye and brain or the part of the brain responsible for processing sight.

If you have noticed a sudden onset of black threadlike artifacts in your vision in one eye it could be a sign of a serious eye condition especially if it comes with flashes of light in your vision – you should see you Optometrist however if you have gradually seen more floaters in your vision, it is usually a normal thing. The floaters are created from cells at the retina coming away and floating into the gel of the eye (known as the vitreous) you are not actually seeing the floater but a shadow of them. Therefore, they are rarely seen in very low light  

If you no longer see an eye specialist and have been discharged, it may be useful to visit an Optometrist (Opticians) they may be able to signpost you to a local service which specialise in helping people with low vision. 
A good low vision service will have a wide range of equipment including handheld magnifiers and digital magnifiers along with practical advice for your day-to-day living. 

 
I have been asked to go to a Low Vision assessment at my local hospital – what will this involve? 
One of the members of staff will have a broad knowledge of how to assess what vision remains and try to find, by trying out, devices which can help you improve your level of vision. This will usually involve trying suitable handheld or stand magnifiers. Hospitals generally cannot supply digital magnifiers or ones that have to be plugged in as they need to be tested regularly and this would be almost impossible.  
There are alternative services such as the Partially Sighted Society where the low vision service can sight post you to get extra help. 

Generally we would recommend a fluorescent task light. These lamps give a very white light and do not get hot like conventional anglepoise lamps. These are best positioned from the side of the person (not over ones shoulder)

Larger print books are available from the library.

Increase the light on the page – it is better to have a small light close to the page (6 inch is ideal) than to have a light behind you.

This Beryl’s story about her diagnosis of macular degeneration and what The Partially Sighted Society means to her.

This is a good example of how the Partially sighted help people with visual impairment.

Yes you can have cataract surgery. Sometimes your consultant Ophthalmologist will be reluctant to do this surgery as there is a risk of making the Macular degeneration worse.
Cataract surgery involves removing the lens in your eye and is replaced with a clear artificial lens. Things will seen much brighter but as you have macular degeneration it may not help you to see things in the center of your vision.

Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is a condition that some people get when they lose some or all of their vision. It causes them to have hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t really there)

There isn’t a treatment for Charles Bonnet but reassurance that is is a normal part of sight loss is a comfort and confiding in family or friends may be of help.

For a start a good reputable manufacturer should be chosen for sunglasses.
They should have a lens which has the statement that they are UV400 which means they have been coated with an anti-ultraviolet treatment which covers up to 400 nm.

The colour or tint of the lens isn’t specific to the sunglass and to some degree it depends on the eye condition that you have as to which coloured tint helps.
An amber coloured lens would generally reduce the ‘blue’ in the light entering the lens. Blue light is known to cause more glare than other colours and as such this type of lens would be known as a warm tint.

A grey coloured lens will reduce all colours of light to the same amount.

A yellow coloured lens is known to increase contrast , making dark things darker and light things lighter – it is often preferred by people with Macular degeneration and cataracts.

Cataracts are generally seen more with age but other medical conditions such as Diabetes can accelerate them.
Cataracts make with vision ‘milky’ or ‘cloudy’ especially when the lighting is low.

Street lights can have a ‘halo’ around them. You find you need to add more light when reading and it is still difficult.

If you need a good light check out this one

Generally we would recommend a fluorescent task light. These lamps give a very white light and do not get hot like conventional anglepoise lamps. These are best positioned from the side of the person (not over ones shoulder)

A stroke occurs when there is a leak or blockage to the blood vessels in the brain. This can lead to quite a characteristic vision loss of half the field of vision in each eye. The loss of vision is called hemianopia and means half vision. If you have had a right hemianopia you may have difficulty in reading along a line of print but easily find your way back to the start of the next line.
If you have had a left hemianopia you will find it easy in following a line of print but struggle to find your way back to the start of the next line of print.

Larger print books are available from the library.

Increase the light on the page – it is better to have a small light close to the page (6 inch is ideal) than to have a light behind you.

A stroke occurs when there is a leak or blockage to the blood vessels in the brain. This can lead to quite a characteristic vision loss of half the field of vision in each eye. The loss of vision is called hemianopia and means half vision. If you have had a right hemianopia you may have difficulty in reading along a line of print but easily find your way back to the start of the next line.
If you have had a left hemianopia you will find it easy in following a line of print but struggle to find your way back to the start of the next line of print.

Prisms in spectacles work like gentle tilts, redirecting light rays to the correct spot on the retina. This helps misaligned eyes see a single, clear image.

Correcting misalignment of the eyes: When the eyes are misaligned, the light rays from an object strike different spots on the retinas of each eye. This can cause double vision, blurred vision, and headaches, making it difficult to read comfortably. Prisms bend the light rays so that they fall on the same spot on each retina, allowing the brain to fuse the two images into a single, clear image. This can significantly improve reading comfort and clarity.

How do prisms help with strokes?

Yoke prisms are a type of prism used in vision therapy to help stroke patients with visual impairments, such as homonymous hemianopia (loss of vision in one half of the visual field) and unilateral spatial neglect (difficulty paying attention to one side of the body or environment).

Think of yoke prisms as special glasses that create a slight shift in the visual field. When stroke patients wear yoke prisms, they gradually adapt to this shift, causing the brain to rewire its visual processing pathways. This rewiring can help expand the visual field, improve attention to the neglected side, and enhance overall visual perception.

Imagine a patient with homonymous hemianopia who struggles to see objects on their left side. Yoke prisms can gently nudge the visual field to the right, allowing the patient to perceive objects they previously missed. This expansion of the visual field can significantly improve their daily activities, such as walking, eating, and dressing.

Similarly, for patients with unilateral spatial neglect, yoke prisms can help them recognize and attend to the neglected side. By shifting the visual field, they become more aware of their surroundings and can better navigate their environment.

Yoke prism therapy is typically prescribed by an optometrist or neuro-ophthalmologist and involves wearing the prisms for several hours each day. The therapy may continue for several weeks or months, depending on the patient’s progress.

In summary, yoke prisms help stroke patients by:

1. Expanding the visual field for those with homonymous hemianopia
2. Improving attention to the neglected side for those with unilateral spatial neglect
3. Enhancing overall visual perception and spatial awareness
4. Promoting brain plasticity and rewiring of visual processing pathways