Paul’s Story

My first name is Paul, last name is Singh and I’m in my sixties.

What’s most important for me to see? My family, my loved ones, my pickleball game, my ping pong game. My vision affects the quality of my life. Everything I do is dependent upon my vision.

When did I first learn about AMD? Actually, I was playing pickleball and I could not see my opponent who was serving to me. And all of a sudden, obviously, the ball was near me. And I was like, “what happened? How did that ball get here so fast?” So that’s when I realized there was a problem.

My vision is not as crisp like it used to be, and some of the colors are a little bit blue-ish. I can’t see in the dark, and also, like, from distance, I cannot make out faces. I have trouble reading from up close and I try not to spend too much time on my phone screen because it really hurts my eyes.

I started using a lot of other senses, like touch and feel. Like at night, I know exactly what my bearings are so when I have to look for the bathroom door, I know exactly how to feel my way through in dark and get there.

Once you pass 40, macular degeneration is a very real thing. I think the first step is to get an eye exam, to go see an ophthalmologist, to go see an eye doctor, even if you don’t feel like there’s a vision problem because sometimes it doesn’t become apparent because you don’t use your eyes that critically that you’d notice it.

Research is very crucial. We’ve come a long way. We’re able to solve problems now that we thought were impossible to solve. I had cataract surgery on my right eye, and it was a breeze. 20 years ago, that would have been a very major surgery.

What would I say to somebody who’s been recently diagnosed with macular degeneration? There’s a lot of things that you can do to slow down the degenerative process. I think if you go see an eye doctor, they will give you a lot of suggestions, a lot of solutions. There is hope for you.