I have wet AMD in my right eye (dry in left). I am about to start Lucentis jabs. Is it ok to go a few days over the date for 2nd injection?

[Raemar]

My 1st injection is on the 8th of this month. I am due to fly out on holiday on the 9th, returning on the 10th April. The hospital say it it MUST be 1 month Or it may not work? I have offered to delay my flight out but they want me to return early, which is impractical for me. It would mean cancelling the family holliday altogether.

[Larch]

I am sorry to hear about your wet MD. The Lucentis injections are working well for me. However hard this may sound, I think I would wonder about the long-term. In two or three years time would you want to have good eye-sight or the memory of a happy holiday. I think you need 3 injections initially to build up enough Lucentis to start working, and research has led to the optimum time spacing. But I'm not an expert.

Whatever you decide I hope it works for you and wish you all the best.

[andy1955 Macular Society]

Hi Raemar,

Sorry to hear about your wet AMD. It is very important that you have your injections as near to one month apart as possible, particularly for the first three which are called the 'loading dose'. Larch is actually right with his comments. That said, if the hospital could arrange an injection for you within a day or so of getting back from your holiday, this would still be more or less one month. I have to say that many hospitals are actually struggling to meet the treatment regime timescales exactly.

Best wishes

Helpline

Macular Society

[Kimkar001]

Hi raemar I had similar when I was having injections my third injection fell on my 50th birthday and my doctor told me to go have a nice birthday (I was going away) and it was done two weeks later and I never had any problems. Now I know all eyes are different but I'm sure I would have been told not to go if it was going to make a difference. It's up to you but I would say have a nice holiday and worry about it when you get back. Good luck. Hope I have helped Kimkar2011

[AlinaL]

Hi, I had a similar situation so i rang the hospital and they actually made my appointment a little earlier becuase you need to use eye drops for 5 days following the injection and they should be kept in the fridge ( a little difficult on the plane and in a hotel room depending on the facilities)

So ring and get some more advice... as for the 'it must be 1 month... my view is that a day or 2 will make NO difference... I was told that they try to do the loading dose 4 weeks apart (28 days) and when I needed to change the day of the week, there was no problem at my hospital - i think they're being over cautious... so ring back and check.

[JKS44]

I've been lucky & Lucentis has worked well for me so far (I've had 2 lots of 3 injections so far & am being monitored every 6 weeks but I'm being treated for pathologic myopia following AMD guidelines as there are no guidelines for PM).

It is a horrible situation to be in & I feel for you - it's bad enough having such a diagnosis without the potential upset of cancelling the holiday. Is it really not possible to rearrange the dates?

I think I might ask myself how I'd feel if I went on the holiday & then the treatment didn't work? Of course it may that Lucentis wont work for you anyway (sorry to sound so blunt but that does happen occasionally - though the likelihood is that it will help to some extent).

The 4 weekly guidelines do seem to be set in stone at my hospital, unless they can't offer you an appointment for 4 weeks & then it becomes OK to offer you 5 weeks according to the receptionists...

I'd get in touch with your consultant & be guided by him/her - they know your eyes best & have had experience of treating others with your condition. Best wishes.

[isherwoodjon]

Dear Raemar,

I'm glad you are being treated so promptly. Speed of the jabs was essential to cure my wet AMD in three injections. Personally, I would value the cure more than a holiday. This is easy for me to say but now my driving can continue and all the major 'inconveniencies' of sight loss likely avoided. No mean benefit ! Good luck with the treatment . And hoping for the same outcome the injections gave me.

John Isherwood, 68, Nottingham.

[dreene]

the four weeks injections are very important to get the very best from the treatment,I have been in similar situation and had to fly back in the middle of my spanish holiday to get 2nd injection,costly and upset my plans but it held my sight loss nothing is too much for that,I recommend you have the treatment,are you covered by insurance,hope all goes well.

[spanishtigress]

I was diagnosed with wet AMD in august 2013 and didn´t get the first injection until november. the 2nd injection was 6 weeks later and I was told that was ok to wait that long? the 3rd one was 5 weeks after that. don´t know if any of it has worked or not as I was in hospital with pneumonia when I was due to have the follow up one month later and was told it didn´t matter as it is ONLY a check up and the appointment has been re booked for may!

[angelapr]

I don't like to be negative. My injections were successful and after the first I could see the improvement very quickly. However I would not have wanted to travel the following day - I had a huge 'floater" like a lava lamp in my eye which made me dizzy, the only way I could walk was with an eye patch. It was frightening. I had booked to go to China to see my son but cancelled when I discovered the wet AMD- there was no problem with the insurance.

Good luck with it all. I'm so grateful for the treatment.