The top 10 concerns of senior citizens includes health issues. Judi Dench, the actress, and I have one in common. We have been diagnosed with macular degeneration. You may also be a part of that growing league of those who are beset by this incurable disease. The worst part is that ‘wet’ macular degeneration in particular can lead to blindness if not treated early. People who have ‘dry’ macular degeneration experience a decline in vision, but may not become altogether blind. Click on those links above to get more information from the Mayo Clinic.

As we grow older, we seem to be confronted by more and more health issues for which there is no cure, no reversal, no treatment. Drug companies work tirelessly to come up with means for addressing one or another of these threats, but often to no avail.

Wise counsel for senior citizens is ‘the one thing predictable for the elderly is change’. As we age, some body parts wear out from use… like our joints. We sit around more and exercise less and our muscles get weaker. Following retirement, we adjust to living on a fixed income and the constraints that come with that. Change. Predictable change.

The body parts wearing out has its own set of peculiar ramifications. I was diagnosed with dry age-related macular degeneration this week. It’s an eye condition in which the macula inside the eye deteriorates and causes change (that word again!) in vision. Change that makes vision deteriorate slowly and over a period of years.

I’ve already had three corneal transplants from an inherited condition known as keratoconus. That eye condition results in the