Our mom is 84 years old. Gets around ok. Diabetes type 2, some dementia, few hospital visits. She is still with dad, also 84yo. She started to receive a shot in one eye for macular degeneration. Do you think there's good reason to continue the shot?
My brother thinks no, and I yes.
As cwillie above had mentioned, if your Mom can handle the appointments, keep having those shots.
Wish those shots were available for my Mom when she was alive, but the shots were still in clinical trials. Mom had to stop reading as it was too tiring trying to read out of the corner of her eyes.
Second, my DH is 96 - so to me, 84 isn't old yet. I'd say continue it as long as Mom can handle it. She won't handle going blind either.
Third - I'm going to ask my doctor about it as I've never heard of it - but I'm 66 and I don't want to go blind either.
The brother has attended appointments with the OP's mother but the OP has not - what did the ophthalmologist actually say about these injections? The mother is diabetic. I don't know enough to have an opinion, but if the cause of sight loss is diabetic retinopathy and the injections would not do anything to alleviate that, then it's a different story isn't it?
I'm in no way suggesting any treatment but I always feel better armed with good info...
In my mom's family my grandmother... 3 maternal aunts ..2 great aunts all ended blind from AMD....only my mother and one of her sisters' was offered shots. In my mother's case we started about 10 years ago with ICAP vitamins ...started Avastin injections about 6 years ago. I want to make clear , really clear ( my mom doesn't get it) the injections will not fix the eyesight that's been lost in any way. It stops an active bleed. You need a macular specialist... Mom's is wonderful in that he gets her on the special eyeball xray machine and shows me where the bleed(s) are and if there is one she gets a shot. Hardest part to grasp( I can't say it enough) it is not going to give any sight back ... it breaks my heart every time to re explain it to my mom ...hard enough for me to accept let alone someone older ..frightened and confused.
In our case I feel the shots are helping ..at this age my mom's only joy is reading and over the years I've gotten her a kindle and she's still reading it ( biggest font setting ,I think it's 6 words per page.
If you have any layperson questions ( I'm no medical professional.. just a daughter and full time caregiver ) I'm happy to answer. Losing eyesight AND mobility is definitely a game changer.
I'm happy you and your brother are a team. I have siblings but they are not involved so any treatment convoy I have is with myself ...at least I'm always right that way !!! Lol...
Good night and God bless...
PS . I know the post is old but I saw it while scrolling and put in response just in case ...