Yesterday we had another appointment with my mom’s ophthalmologist. It was her second appointment after having lucentis injection for her AMD (Age-related Macular Degeneration) treatment last month. She took an OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) test yesterday and the doctor seemed pleased after seeing the result. He said the abnormal blood vessel that blocked her central vision (macula) was significantly reduced.

This is her OCT result before treatment (notice the abnormal blood vessel in the white circle):

This one is her OCT result after treatment:

We have to wait another 4 weeks to see the maximum effectiveness of the treatment. After that he will see if she needs another injection.

AMD is a degenerative condition of the Retina in which the central portion of the Retina, called the Macula, is damaged as a result of the hardening of the small arteries supplying oxygen and nutrients to the Retinal tissue. It is reported as the leading cause of blindness in people over 50 years of age.

When my mom was diagnosed with AMD last month, her ophthalmologist offered two types of drugs for her treatment, lucentis and avastin. Lucentis costs Rp 11 million (US$ 1100) while avastin costs Rp 2 million (US$ 200). The big cost difference between two drugs made us think twice before we decided which type of injection we should choose. The doctor said, “If money is not the problem, use lucentis as it’s already world-wide approved for AMD treatment.” Even though many eye-doctor use avastin as cheaper alternative for AMD treatment, the drug was initially developed (and later approved by FDA) for colon cancer, not for AMD. But he also reminded us that it’s going to be a long run treatment, and he couldn’t tell how many times my mom need the injection. It will depend on the each injection result that will be evaluated every two months.

My mom had an appointment with her ophthalmologist this morning, it was her routine check-up after having cataract and glaucoma surgery last year followed by capsulotomy procedure three months ago. She’s been worried because her vision becomes blurry lately.

After seeing her OCT (optical coherence tomography) test, the ophthalmologist said she had an AMD (Age-related Macular Degeneration) disease and had to be treated with avastin or lucentis injection. The difference? Avastin costs $200 while Lucentis costs $1100. I don’t have time to check further deep about those drugs yet, when I agreed to have a lucentis injection for my mom. Hopefully I will get more information before the procedure tomorrow.

I went to Jakarta Eye Center with my mom yesterday, she had a morning appointment with her ophthalmologist. It was supposed to be a routine 6 month post glaucoma and cataract surgery check up. However, during the check up my mom complained that she thought her cataract had come back again because her vision became blurry lately, but the doctor said cataract would never return after surgery. He said sometimes hazy vision happened to some patients after cataract surgery and he recommended a posterior capsulotomy procedure in order to make her vision clear again. He convinced us that it was a very simple procedure that could be done right that minute.

We didn’t have to think twice to agree with the doctor’s advise. Learning from our experience we surely didn’t want to repeat the mistakes we had done in the past. My mom’s right eye is now permanently damage due to glaucoma, her previous doctor at different hospital failed to diagnose it until it was too late. Thank God we still could save her left eye after we changed to another ophthalmologist. She had a glaucoma and cataract surgery all at once last year. Maybe later I will make a post about this.

So my mom took the YAG laser capsulotomy procedure yesterday. The entire procedure only took less than ten minutes. First the ophthalmologist gave dilating eye drops on the eye then told my mom to wait outside. About five minutes later he called her back in and asked her to sit still in front of the laser equipment (I don’t know how to call it and I wish I had my camera with me yesterday). One minute later he said it was done, so fast. It’s not expensive either, it costs her only about US$ 100.

The ophthalmologist said my mom’s vision should improve few hours after the procedure. He also gave prescription for the next five days. Let’s hope everything will be fine.