The most common symptom of wet macular degeneration is distorted vision. This can be most easily appreciated when staring at objects that have a series of straight lines such as a windowpane, tiles, or the edge of a door. Another means of detecting this distortion is with an Amsler grid.
The area of the retina affected by wet macular degeneration will no longer have the proper orientation or smoothness to allow the brain to interpret the line as being straight. It will therefore be seen as a curved or bumpy line.
This visual distortion may be very subtle at first and hard to detect. In fact, the brain is quite capable of ignoring such subtle symptoms. However, as the wet macular degeneration worsens (i.e., as more leakage or bleeding occurs), the distortion becomes readily apparent).
Additional symptoms include blurred or absent central vision. Bleeding can actually result in a dark or blind spot in the visual field and, depending upon the area of involvement, may entirely block a patient’s central vision.
Patients may realize these problems when staring at friends’ or family members’ faces and noting that parts of their faces can only be recognized by tilting or changing their eye position.
This symptom may also be detected due to difficulty reading the headlines or smaller print of a newspaper, or due to difficulty following the headlines or small tickertape print at the bottom of a TV. If patients recognize these symptoms, they should contact their eye care provider immediately.
Comment:
After being diagnosed with wet AMD, I continued to repeatedly watch the horizontal lines on my neighbor’s house for a wavy effect. I continued this for some time after receiving Lucentis. In this way, I was able to mentally track my improvement.
Also the Amsler grid was amazingly effective for me. I live on the ocean and chose a permanent large nautical harbor buoy with a blinking red light. This helped me to determine clearly my levels of vision. I still watch it today.