I think everyone at retirement age should know about the Amsler Grid. It is available online, with a Google, to look at to see if any of the lines are wavy or broken or blurry. If so, get to an eye doc as soon as possible.
The shots can have an amazingly positive effect. Avastin I think came out of Hopkins research - - not sure. Anyway, I read that it had been a colon cancer drug.
There are a whole lot of people who are very grateful that brilliant scientists figured out it was a very good idea to put that drug in a needle and stick it in people’s eyes.
Avastin has been used off-label for years to save vision. After Avastin’s off-label success was well documented, the company that held the patent then tweaked some molecules or whatever they do and brought out a very similar drug that they patented and branded. No generic exact match. $$$$
Avastin injections are widely used and cost around a hundred dollars. Branded costs 20 times as much.
There are now other companies with newer versions of eye injections, like Eyelea, that docs might use if they think a change from hundred-dollar Avastin is needed. The newer drugs are in the thousands per shot.
You can bet that certain types of insurance plans can get their greedy noses in any switch to branded though. But, I assume that retinal docs will be documenting the cases and the progress, or lack of it, in case they need to use one of the more expensive drugs. (I sure hope insurance companies leave it up to the doctors.)
There is also something called myopic degeneration which can affect highly nearsighted people. The injections work for that, too, and often reverse the vision loss in about a year and then no more injections. BUT sometimes myopic degeneration can show its symptoms again. In some cases it can show up within 5 years after stopping the injections — and then injections can begin again and can be successful again, maybe with one of the newer drugs or Avastin might work again, too. The doc will be aware of the differences in the drugs and will follow through accordingly — I hope so anyway.
Dry macular degeneration can be a lot slower than wet, but wet can mean that shots can work. I think there are now new drugs that maybe can help with certain kinds of dry.
We have a family member who many years ago did post-doc research on AMD, but did not get anywhere.
The changes since then have been truly encouraging and in many cases seemingly miraculous. A friend with myopic degeneration told me, after getting shots for a year, “It was like watching my vision being knit back together.”
OP, please do not give up on getting improvement in your vision after a number of the shots. You might be surprised. But if it does not come back like my nearsighted friend’s did, it should hold off getting worse. But I think you can hope for the best. It happens.
Your post is important because it will increase awareness for some readers
Boomer