OT—-Eye Injection

Some of you know that I have an eye condition that requires frequent injections———OUCH.

Today I was one of the first to have a newly released drug that was just weeks ago FDA approved that might extend the time between injections by several months. It is one of the newer monoclonal antibiodies (MAB) with very small molecules to be more effective. As I write this my right eye is filled with several blood drops which is a challenge. They will dissipate in a few days. I estimate in the last eight years I have had between 70-80 injections. Hopefully this new drug will improve my vision and reduce the dependence on the injections. They are not any fun.

The real point is that we are in an environment of constant improvement of treatments for most every condition. Hopefully that will not only continue, but improve. We saw many new drugs for PCa a few years ago and hopefully there are more on the way.

Pasayten,

Great to hear of your success. I have had Lucentis many times and over the past few years the next such drug Eyelea. If Beovu is as good as the trials have shown it may become the dominant drug in this class. These injections are a multi-billion dollar business in the USA alone.

Before these drugs and injections people simply lost their sight. My older sister now has Wet AMD and is receiving monthly injections. My other sister had a similar situation to yours and it cleared after a year of the shots.

Do you expect your condition to improve enough to stop injections? Mine is not curable and I have suffered some degradation and little improvement. Basically we are trying to keep it from getting worse. Hopefully we some improvement with this new drug.

ouch! My father had to go through some of that.

Makes the post about DRE’s seem rather insignificant... My greatest fear used to be a catheter, now I have a new fear not related to PCa. Can’t wait until my next eye doctor appointment.

That is the most unhappy patient I have ever seen...

GoBucks said...
Thanks. My sciatica pain no longer hurts as much as it did before reading this.

Same for me GoBucks! And that video was worse than the man jumping after his first Trimix injection. Whoa!

GoBucks said...
Absolutely no way I'd click that link and watch.

My sentiments, exactly. When I was scheduled for open heart surgery, my wife watched a video of the procedure. I couldn't do it.

I'm OK to have it done. I just don't want to watch.

JNF,

Does your insurance pay for this drug or are you in a study.
My sister is on Lucentis and was receiving it for free via a study.
I also have dry macular degeneration and wonder if Medicare or G supplement covers the high price of these drugs if I ever need them.

Surprisingly, my sister does not think the shots are that bad and she has never impressed the family with health care bravery. She is terrified by dentists!

Thanks
Paul

Thanks Ken. Paul, I am not in any study, though my doc has been a principal investigator in several. The shots don’t bother my sister either. Women are a lot stronger than men.

I understand the price of the new drug is comparable to the two latest (Eyelea and Lucentis) at about $1,800 as set by Medicare. The older drug, Avastin is much less expensive, and is used off label since it was originally developed for colon cancer, but both Medicare and Medicaid will reimburse for it for wet AMD. My insurance experience in the past several years has been similar to that of pasayten, except my doc charges about $3,000 before the adjustments. The new drug is on label for Wet Adult Macular Degeneration. The other drugs on label include other similar conditions like retinal vein occlusions. Conditions with a different cause, but similar effects. As Beovu is used the label will probably be broadened to include these other conditions as has happened with the other drugs.

Paul, regarding your Dry form of AMD, these drugs are not used. Mayo Clinic has excellent information that I would direct you to. My father had Dry AMD and as I understand it is more of a prevention and maintenance. exercise with no drugs yet developed for treatment. Healthy diet, no smoking, etc. they have found that some antioxidant supplements like Ocuvite can help delay the effects and are generally encouraged by the docs. These include the vitamins ACDE and add things like zinc, lutein, copper and zeaxanthin.

Would you guys elaborate on your conditions? 3 weeks ago, I suddenly lost vision in my right eye (in a split second). Saw eye doctor and it was the retinal vein occlusion (a stroke in the eye, effectively). I was told it is permanent, but might get a little better or a little worse. Miraculously, it actually got about 95% better. For example, when it hit I could not see my big screen TV or read the top letter on an eye chart. I would just see colored clouds. But within a 30-minute period the next day, things cleared up tremendously. I can now see the screen equally well with both eyes. Subtitles are strange as about every 8th letter gets blurry, but all readable.

I go for a checkup Tuesday. He said that this degree of improvement is a very good sign. My gut feeling is he will watch it closely. Any issues I am supposed to contact him immediately. Or will he do the injections anyway as a preventative?

Mel

Mel,

I had Active Choroidal Neovascularization / Myoptic Degeneration Bilateral in the left eye... or as the doc said, I had some small blood vessels behind the retina grow thru it and cause a mound (mountain) right in the center of my vision that cause a donut hole distortion in my eyesight. They mapped the back retina of both my eyes...

Left eye: VIEW IMAGE

Right eye: VIEW IMAGE

Note the "mound" in the left eye and the normal dimple in the right eye.

After a few monthly shots of Lucentis, the vessels shrunk/disappeared, the mound went away, and the normal dimple returned along with normal vision restored...

pasayten

Post Edited (pasayten) : 12/16/2019 7:51:15 AM (GMT-7)

The eye shots are not painful to me... The eye is prepped and numbed... There is a little irritation post-shot due to the prepping agents... Kind of like you stayed up too late and your eye is tired and dry...

pasayten

Jack,

My shots are always the same place... Left eye... I always look up and to the right... shot is on the outside portion. Never the top or the bottom. Wonder if the new drug requires change of location each injection. Seems all the Lucentis injections they have a standard single location. Some of the videos, they even measure the location.

pasayten