I recently found myself talking via ZOOM with a team of sixteen people at OKKO Health, all focused on the same thing— my eyes. It wasn’t a medical appointment. It was a conversation about how their app, still in development, is helping me monitor the progression of my macular degeneration.

It struck me then: if I’d been born at almost any other time in history, I might be blind by now.

Instead, I’m living in an age when vision loss doesn’t have to be a one-way road. It’s a challenge met with apps, advanced drugs, imaging technology, and even retinal implants. I’m not just getting treatment; I’m standing at the edge of science fiction turning real.

How It All Started

My eyesight didn’t begin to slip because of macular degeneration. It started with cataracts.

A decade ago in my 50s, I began to notice everything becoming doubled and blurry. Cataracts are one of the oldest and most common causes of vision loss worldwide. For most of human history, there wasn’t much to be done. But I was lucky enough to live in the 21st century with decent insurance.

In 2013, I had cataract surgery with lens implants in both eyes. Suddenly the world came into clearer focus, at least for medium and long distances. I still needed reading glasses for close work, but I could function, drive, and work normally again. It was like being handed back my vision.

But even then, something else was quietly waiting in the wings.

More Than Cataracts – Macular Degeneration

During routine exams, my optometrist noticed drusen at the back of my eyes. These are little yellowish deposits beneath the retina. Drusen are often the first sign of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that slowly eats away at central vision.

AMD comes in two main forms: dry and wet. The dry kind is more common and slower to progress. My brother had it too. He was older than me and flying planes into his seventies. I took that as a good sign. Maybe any vision degradation for me was a long way off.

To monitor things at home, I used an Amsler grid.  This is basically a piece of graph paper with a dot in the center. You hold it up, focus on the dot, and see if the lines look straight or warped. If they start to twist or bow, it can be an early warning that the disease is advancing.

For years, my grid stayed reassuringly straight.

When Things Started to Change

Then came 2025. I started noticing distortions when I looked at the grid. Lines wavered and tilted, especially in my left eye.

While I didn’t know it at the time, that was the beginning of the transition from dry AMD to wet AMD. Wet is a more aggressive stage caused by abnormal blood vessels growing under the retina. These vessels can leak or bleed, leading to rapid vision loss if not caught early.

My optometrist sent me to eyecare specialists. At first, they suspected something called a macular pucker, but soon enough the swelling and bleeding pointed to wet AMD. But even from the first visit, they introduced me to the OKKO app, a new eye monitoring software that can work from a smartphone or tablet.

The Power of an App

OKKO is simple to use. You play what’s essentially a short game on your phone or tablet: tapping distorted circles, finding the “off” dot in a ring pattern. Behind the scenes, the app tracks subtle changes in your visual field, often before you consciously notice them. This makes it a great early warning system to catch advancing deterioration.

I started using the app a few times a week. Not religiously at first. More like, “Well, the doctor wants me to do this.”

Then one day, it flagged a significant change in my left eye. I saw it too. The distortion had become so uncomfortable I bought an eye patch to cover that eye so I could read. My right eye was still fine, but the left was… disconcerting.

When I went in to see the doctor, they didn’t want to “schedule something for later.” They said, “We’re doing your first injection now.” Injection??

The Shot in the Eye

Yeah, I’ll admit it: that freaked me out. The words “needle in your eye” do not bring up warm, fuzzy feelings. I like a good long runway to worry about things, and this was right now.

But it wasn’t as bad as I feared. You don’t actually see the needle. There’s a numbing injection, and then the medication goes in. Honestly, it hurt less than a dental Novocain shot. Your eye feels scratchy afterward and is so watery it’s largely out of commission for the day, but that’s about it.

The drug I received is Eylea HD, one of the newest anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) medications. It’s only been available for a couple of years, and the results have been impressive. The injections stop the abnormal blood vessels from leaking, and in many cases—including mine—they actually improve vision.  Scans show the geography of my retina is returning to normal.

I noticed that improvement surprisingly fast. It’s not perfect, and probably never will be, but better is a word I didn’t expect to use after “wet AMD.”

The initial treatment involves three monthly “loading” shots. After that, I’ll likely go on a two- or three-month maintenance schedule.

A Front Row Seat to Innovation

Here’s the thing: I didn’t just benefit from the app and the drug; I became part of the feedback loop.

For one thing, the OKKO team noticed that my results didn’t look like the “typical” user’s. They were curious why. It turns out my background in game design (they think people with gaming experience react differently) and my particular distortion pattern were revealing areas where their algorithm wasn’t tracking closely enough.

The lead scientist invited me to talk to their team. Not just a developer or two, but a full meeting with sixteen people—coders, UX designers, project managers, even legal. We discussed how people actually use their phones during testing, how the interface works for real users, and how to make detection even more precise.

It was wild to realize that my condition was helping shape a tool that will help thousands of others down the line.

Living in the Right Century

I think about what would have happened to me a century ago, a decade ago, a few years ago. With cataracts and macular degeneration, I might have lost my central vision completely by now. Reading. Writing. Editing stories for DreamForge. All of that might have been impossible or much more difficult.

Instead, I’m using advanced drugs to stabilize and even improve my sight. I’m tracking my vision daily on my phone. I can get treated immediately when something changes.

And the story doesn’t end there.

The Next Frontier: Seeing Again

Today, I’m lucky enough to be living at the front edge of AMD treatment. But there are researchers pushing things even further.

One of the most exciting developments is the PRIMA subretinal implant, which uses a tiny photovoltaic chip placed beneath the retina. Patients wear glasses that capture video and beam it to the chip, which then stimulates the retina directly. In a recent global study, about 80% of participants with advanced AMD regained meaningful central vision

Other advances are coming fast—AI-driven vision monitoring, at-home retinal imaging, gene therapy, and regenerative medicine. We may be moving toward a time when blindness from macular degeneration isn’t just delayed but substantially reversed.

Gratitude and Hope

I know I’m privileged. I live in a developed country with access to good insurance and good doctors. Not everyone does, and that’s something we need to fix.

But I’m also deeply aware of how extraordinary this moment in history is. I have a progressive eye disease—and I can still read, write, and live my life. I can even play a small part in helping shape the future of treatment.

It’s easy to get lost in daily news cycles that make the world seem like it’s always teetering on the brink. But stories like this remind me (and I hopefully they remind you too) that we’re also living in an age of astonishing progress.

Once, macular degeneration was a slow march toward blindness. Now, it’s something we can fight, and sometimes, even push back.

As always, the human adventure is just beginning.