For me, it was a frightening event that occurred overnight that led to a diagnosis of wet macular age-related degeneration (AMD). Because of my age, the diagnosis wasn’t unusual, but the suddenness was — and it took me by surprise. Apparently, blood vessels deep within my eye grew, then leaked or burst, causing a rapid loss of vision. For most, AMD is a slower, more easily tracked, gradual regression of sight.I woke up that morning, and it looked like it was raining, with heavy drops splashing against my window. But when I looked elsewhere, it was a sunny day. I rubbed my eyes and attributed it to not being quite awake, and I went about my day. The blurriness continued, that day and the next. By then I was frightened, upset, annoyed, and I called to make an appointment with my eye doctor. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was 5 weeks before I could get in to see anyone.In the meantime, at church, I noticed that where there used to be only four candles on a wreath near the altar, there were now eight. No, wait: There really were only four. But I didn’t know that until I closed my bad eye. The six candles at the back of the high altar looked like 12, and by the way, not one of them was straight. They all leaned considerably to the left. That scared me, as well.

The diagnosis Five weeks later, I saw my eye doctor and had the initial tests that showed that serious degeneration had already occurred. The diagnosis confirmed advanced wet AMD in my right eye and dry AMD (which fortunately isn’t as serious) in my left eye. The optometrist who did these tests immediately set up an appointment with the ophthalmologist and also explained that I’d need to immediately start getting injections in my eye to treat the wet AMD. The several days between receiving that information and my first appointment with the ophthalmologist were fraught with fear and anger. How could this happen to me, a healthy and active 84-year-old? How could it happen so quickly? How would I go on without being able to see out of one eye, and with dry AMD in the other? How much longer before I would be blind and not be able to see at all? I worried about writing first — my profession for 65 years. Driving. Going up the 16 outside steps to get into my apartment. Reading, a passion. Watching TV, a relaxation. I was angry that my life would change so much. And I was scared at the idea of getting needles directly into my eye.

My first shot The ophthalmologist allayed most of those fears during my first visit. He explained the problem, gently told me it could get worse, and while he probably couldn’t make it any better, it was worth a try. At least he felt confident he could halt or at least slow the advance of the degeneration. He jotted down the name AREDS2 and urged me to pick up a bottle at the pharmacy and take one capsule twice a day. In addition to my tears of fear and loss, this actually made me angry. If there was an over-the-counter medicine I could have been taking for years, why had my physician not told me about it? Why didn’t the optician, whom I saw regularly, tell me years before? I still live with that anger.But I agreed to the eye injection immediately. Any help would be a blessing. And it was. Putting aside the thought of a needle in my eye is all it took, since the procedure is quick, simple, painless, and apparently effective. First, the doctor covered my “good eye” to relax me, then numbed my right eye, and that was it. I didn’t feel the needle or medication being inserted. It’s a procedure which has recurred every month for the past 4 months now, but only after tests have been taken, measurements made, and results studied at each visit. Before the second injection, the doctor informed me there was no further damage and in fact, there was a very slight improvement.

New habits and routines I spent days studying what else I could do to help maintain my remaining eyesight in both eyes. My daughter ordered the American Macular Degeneration Foundation’s recipe book and told me to start trying a variety of recipes with vegetables and seafood that were new to me. My son sent me boxes of root vegetables, including beets, garlic, sweet potatoes, and squash, as well as tons of greens, all of which would be healthy changes to my diet and are known to be good for the eyes. I bought canned sardines (great with cream cheese on crackers as an hors d’oeuvres!), and I switched from the meat department to the seafood department in the market, with an accent on salmon and tuna fish. I learned I loved them all, and in fact, I eat so much seafood that now I’m beginning to believe I even swim better!I bought sunglasses, which help considerably whenever I am out in the sun, another suggestion from the ophthalmologist, and a new habit for me. I quit driving at night and discovered I had friends who were delighted to play Uber for me. I found that as long as I stayed really attentive, I could drive on roads that I am very familiar with during the day. I started watching TV programs on my computer, which was easier than the larger-but-more-distant TV screen in my living room. And because I can see up-close with my left eye, I’m fortunate to be able to continue my writing and research, as well as my reading, which are vitally important parts of my life. Those candles on the altar? They’re still crooked, but now I only see the actual number that are there. And I look at the candles as bowing down in thanks for being able to cope with the differences all of these changes have made in my life.

The takeaway I’ve adjusted to this new phase of my life. I have confidence in my ophthalmologist. I take AREDS2 twice a day. I’ve learned to wear sunglasses outdoors, which I suppose I should have always worn. Thanks to a combination of blurriness and the masks of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve become more attuned to people’s voices rather than facial features. I’ve even lost weight because of my new diet. And I swear, I definitely swim better.

If there is any benefit, at least for me, in having Aging Macular Degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in people over 65, it is the mandate to change a diet and look for new and different ways to prepare fruits and vegetables to keep them the most important part of your diet. The AMD Foundation’s Eat Right for Your Sight recipe book is full of terrific ideas for entrees, side dishes, soups and desserts as well as salads and healthy drinks. The book is available from the Foundation at Macular.org. Here’s a great recipe for Blueberry Frozen Yogurt full of those little blue marvels that are themselves filled with Vitamin C, fiber, manganese, and antioxidants that are all needed for healthy macula. Besides all that, it just tastes terrific. 3 Cups fresh blueberries 2 Cups plain Yogurt (Vanilla yogurt is even better) ½ Cup sugar ¼ t. vanilla Put them all together in a processor until smooth. Pour into 9X13 tray and freeze, stirring every hour about four hours, til it’s semi-firm in the middle. Pour it all in the processor again until smooth again. Serve and Enjoy.

One of the best things about eating an eye-healthy diet, and it shouldn’t come as any surprise, is how many other benefits there are when you change from lots of meats, potatoes, cheeses and the like, increase the greens and beans, and eat everything in moderation. Because of aging macular degeneration (AMD) and the fact I have to get monthly injections directly into my eye to keep it from getting worse, I have definitely changed my diet and found so many other benefits. Besides the ophthalmologist has seen slight improvement in my eye, when we were not expecting anything other than not having it get worse, over the past three months, I’ve lost weight, significantly lowered my cholesterol, and as a result, have even been taken off one prescription! All that in mind keeps me looking for great recipes in addition to the wonderful choices in Eat Right for Your Sight, the recipe book published by the American Macular Degeneration Foundation. On top of that, this week I saw Foodtown in Atlantic Highlands, on the shelf in its groceries department, now has plastic containers of chopped up mixed vegetables. They’ve always had the chopped onions, or onions and peppers, but now they’re also offering a mélange of chopped up cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, celery, peas, beans and maybe more, not sure. So, for $5.27, I tried one and experimented with easy things. Making salmon salad for a sandwich spread, I used a can of salmon and a cup of the mixed chopped vegetables, tossed in mayonnaise to keep it together, and added a few herbs including pepper, basil and garlic. Sensational! Then I took the other half a container of the chopped veggies and blended them with a can of drained garbanzo beans, a few of those same spices, and a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil! Makes a great side dish at dinner. If you’d prefer a real recipe, though, try these garlic-lime porkchops from the Eat Right recipe book mentioned earlier. Whisk together: 2 gloves minced garlic, ½ t. pepper flakes, 1/3 cup EVOO, ¼ t. salt (I omit this) 1/t. black pepper, 2 Tablespoons each of chopped cilantro and chopped basil, and 1 t. fresh or frozen ginger. Put in 4 ½ inch boneless pork chops (about 1/1/2 lbs.) and let them marinate in the refrigerator a few hours or better yet overnight.. When ready, bring to room temperature, and grill about six minutes on each side. If you want perfection and use a meat thermometer, it should be at 145 degrees. Serves four, or two, and two to freeze to be heated up another night.

So it is now five months since I first agreed to let an ophthalmologist stick not one, but two needles in my eye. And I’ve let him do it once a month ever since. At the very beginning, it was downright frightening if that’s worse than scary. I don ‘t wear glasses, I cannot put drops in my own eyes without getting physically sick and I certainly don’t let anything near or in my eyes. Heck, I even object to how close the face mask comes to my eyes and am convinced an irritation I had a couple of weeks ago was the direct result of wearing the mask and breathing. So the idea of appearing in this doctor’s office every month to let him stick a needle in my eye was at first simply beyond comprehension. But I sat and considered. I talked to my daughter and son. I cried, I screamed, I ran around the house like a madwoman. I got out a lot of anger and angst. So then I could think a little more reasonably. Of course there was an alternative. I could simply say thanks, but no thanks. But there was no doubt about it. The Aging Macular Degeneration I had in one eye was at a fierce level as it was. The doctor explained he would not be able to cure that. Though it happened literally overnight, unusual but not impossible, it was really bad and would only get worse. Worse. That means make me see even less. Blindness. In one eye. Unfixable. For the rest of my life. Nope, I couldn’t live with that either. OK, Doctor, I’ll be there, I’ll be praying to St. Lucy the whole time, the patron saint of eyes and persons who are blind, and I will be praying that you, Doctor, have steady eyes, great eyesight, and have had a good night’s sleep and feel relaxed. OK, I’ll do it and commit to doing it every month you tell me to. Armed with all those prayers, all the self-confidence I could muster up, offering it all up to make up for the bad things I’ve done in my life, I ventured into the office for my first shot! Technicians do so much before you even get to see the doctor. They take pictures, dilate your eyes so they can check for everything from cataracts to glaucoma and anything in between, take measurements, have me sign that I agree to the injection and off I go from their several offices to the doctor. Even then I had to admit they all gave me confidence. They were pleasant and friendly, they acted like they knew what they were doing and they really liked their jobs. They even explained every step of everything they were doing when I said I wanted to know what was going on as we went along. Everybody doesn’t, they explained, but so long as you asked, sure, we’ll explain. By the time I got into the doctor’s office, complete with his desk and computer so he could review everything that had been done, I was slightly less tense. Sitting talking to him for a few minutes made me even less tense. By the time we got to his saying, “so, are you ready?” Yes, I was really ready. It’s a quick procedure, though there is time between the time he numbed my eye…of course with a needle…to ensure the numbing took. He covered my left eye with a gauze pad, whether to keep me from seeing what he was doing or to keep him from seeing sheer terror, I’m not sure. But in a way, it was a comfort. Like his technicians, at my request, he explained everything along the way. And that was it! He wiped my eye, complimented me on staying calm and told me he’d see me in a month. I went home, laid down for a few minutes simply to reassess what had happened, and to get my sight back to my new normal with the wearing off of the dilating drops and that was it. By the next day, it was a thing of the past. The second month was even better. Same routine, same technicians, same confidence in an eye surgeon who certainly is not only adept at his work but seems thrilled to help people. It got even better when he told me there was a slight improvement, something he liked but had not expected. That’s all I needed to hear to be certain I made my appointment for the third shot a month later. And so it went. The third visit also showed a slight improvement; heck, I was delighted in the fact nothing had gotten any worse. He could see from all the eye tests, but I also told me everything still looked cloudy, I couldn’t recognize peoples’ faces, (but I was getting better at voice recognition) and telephone poles, candles, fence posts, building columns, all looked crooked, bent towards the left. My friend in Utah who is an artist was outstanding help. Actually, without meaning to, she also made me feel very sheepish for my fears. She had AMD for years, she told me, but she continued to follow her dreams as the artist she is. Yes, she used a ruler some time to be sure her trees were straight, and yes, she covered branches of her trees with lots of leaves. And when her AMD gets worse, as she knows it will, she smiled and said she would just start drawing and painting flowers. She’s doing that now, and has some spectacular artwork for sale online all the time. The fourth visit was downright easy. I knew what was going to be happening, knew the doctor was so precise and careful, knew he would answer all of my questions, and knew it would be over in a second. Between the fourth and fifth visits, I began to notice a couple of other things. At Christmas time, the wreath on the altar with four candles looked like it had eight. The six tall candles at the top of the altar looked like 12 candles sometimes. The wreath was gone after the Christmas season, but the six candles still looked like 12 most of the time. By the fourth shot, I was only seeing six candles every day. Sure, they were still crooked, but here were only six. Only Six Crooked Candles. About a week before my fifth visit this week, I also noticed something else. One morning the candles were straight! Standing up there on the altar proud as they could be. The next morning, they were there again, tall, skinny white candles, everyone of them straight up. It happened every day so by eye injection day, I was really eager to go in and tell the doctor that even I could see improvement. He checked all the tests, checked all the charts, and there was no doubt about it. One more month, and one more Improvement. That shot that day actually even felt pretty good! Hours later, I kept an appointment to share cocktails with some good friends at the Proving Ground in Highlands. No, you’re never going to have perfect eyesight, the doctor told me. Yes, you are making some improvements because of the injections. And yes, we have been successful in halting any further damage so far. Yes, taking AREDS2 capsules once a day is a good thing, yes, your new diet heavy on greens, seafood, and olive oil and nuts is a good thing, and yes, having a positive attitude certainly appears to be helping. So yes, I’ll see you in another month for your six injection. And that works fine for me!

The optometrist called it macular degeneration and put me in shock! I had never even worn glasses! Thirty or more years ago, I had cataracts removed at a North Carolina medical facility while traveling on the road in our RV. We were volunteering with other RVers at a national wildlife refuge. Because of my squeamishness with anything to do with my eyes….dating back to an accident with a dog when I was five years old ….I couldn’t even put in my own eye drops, and went to a neighboring RV every day to have someone put them in for me. How could I deal with something like macular degeneration? Better I find out more about it, I reasoned. New words to me, new sign of aging I had to deal with. So I searched books, google, and medical journals. The macula is that little area, like a little film, right in the center of the retina. It’s the part that makes the difference between seeing details vividly and clearly as on a sunny beautiful day and seeing them blurry and like through a rain-soaked window. It’s the part that makes 20-20 vision and differentiates among colors. It’s full of little nerves and cells and is arguably the most important part of the eye. It lies flat against the back wall of the eye on a cushion of fluid. Like all body parts, as you age, that back layer begins to deteriorate, and it gets more difficult to recognize faces, colors, fine details in objects; it gets more difficult to read and drive. All the little messages the optic nerve gets from the macula aren’t getting there to be brought to the brain. That’s the degeneration part of it. It is the leading cause of vision loss in the world, in the United States, more than 10 million people are affected by it. That’s more than people with cataracts. Or glaucoma. Or the combination of people with cataracts or glaucoma. What’s more, it’s still called an incurable eye disease. That’s enough to make you sit up and take notice…(no pun intended) Now I’m starting to get angry. How can this happen to me, I asked an astonishingly calm and understanding optometrist. I get my eyes checked every year, in fact had them checked as late as six months before. I eat decently though not perfectly, but I do love all kinds of vegetables and eat lots of salads. I never wore glasses. I don’t know much about vitamins but I’m a healthy specimen, having overcome both a stroke and cancer in the last five years. I can’t be losing my sight! Once home from that initial appointment, I decided to become more knowledgeable before having the prescribed eye injection. So I started to research. I learned there are two primary types of aging macular degeneration, “wet” and dry.” Dry isn’t quite as serious and is more common accounting for about 85 to ninety percent of the cases. The other 10 to 15 percent are wet. My degeneration was wet, the optometrist had said. He explained that that fluidy base the macula rests on is made of liquid and blood, and in ‘wet’ degeneration, the blood cells burst apart and start shoving up through that film, blocking its mission. That’s when the real trouble starts. It doesn’t seem like anyone, including the Macular Degeneration Foundation, which is loaded with information and assistance, knows precisely what causes all of this. For sure, both heredity and the environment are involved. Not much funding is put into the research of this disease so other causes have not yet been determined. Like so many other diseases, smoking is most likely a factor, some experts saying it doubles the risk of AMD (aging macular degeneration) It appears it is most likely to appear after age 55, affects white people more than other people of color, but genetics…whether there’s a family history, seems to be the largest risk. I wasn’t sure if that is a factor for me. My father died at 48, and while my mother was never diagnosed with it, I knew her vision wasn’t perfect several years before she died at age 95. But I could rule smoking out. I never did. Studies also show, that as the baby boomer generation ages, if scientists don’t come up with more prevention or treatment measures, age-related macular degeneration is going to reach epidemic proportions in ten years. Baby Boomers. Those kids born between 1946 and 1964. The “no known cure” part of the information I was gathering was upsetting. But the idea of having eye injections to help, or at least attempt to halt the rapidity of the degeneration, seemed like the only option. I was thrilled the schedule for that procedure had been moved up by two weeks. I wanted to meet the ophthalmologist I was going to let stick a needle in my eye. But I wanted to do some research on him first.

There’s no doubt about it. Pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies run the world. At least the world of medicine in the United States of America.

Without doing any research on the why of it, my guess is because Congress allows it, because Congress obviously doesn’t do anything about it. And why does Congress allow it and not do anything about it? There again, it’s a guess, but it would be my guess that pharmaceutical and insurance companies have an awful lot of very strong lobbyists and donate an awful lot of money to Congressional campaigns.

Eylea is a perfect example.

Described as a miracle drug, which it may well be, Eylea is a prescription liquid administered by an ophthalmologist into the eyes of persons with macular degeneration. That’s a disease that means blood vessels under your macula, the back part of your eye, have started to leak or bleed, blinding your vision and an ability to read books, make out facial features, watch TV or drive. It’s also used for a few other eye problems, including swelling in the retina caused by a blockage in the blood vessels, diabetic retinopathy, an eye disorder in diabetics that can lead to a fluid buildup in the retina, causing blindness.

In any case, the doctor, under local numbing, inserts a whopping 0.05 mL directly into the eye. That’s lot a couple of teardrops full of stuff. It’s generally a once a month treat, depending on the severity and success of the injection.

The good news is it’s highly effective, and ophthalmologists have seen results they didn’t expect to see in a million years.

The bad news is if you look at the bill, it costs $5,000 a shot. That’s one 0.05mL dose. That’s without any of the other costs associated with preparing you for the shot.

Multiply by that by say ten or 12 times a year, and you’ve got a dandy down payment on a house or the hope of being able to see faces again.

Insurance covers it you say, so why worry? Well, that’s only partially right. It depends on your insurance company, Medicare, plus a few other things. Some companies will cover a part of the cost, but only if you’ve tried the cheaper stuff first. Avastin, for instance, comes in around $50 to $100 a shot. Some insurers will cover it from the start, but only a portion of the total. Some will cover it only if Medicare covers some first.

I was lucky. Besides having a doctor who cared enough to check my coverage before hitting me with the shock of a terrible debt, all those years my husband was a railroad engineer with the PRR, later AMTRAK, all those nights I got up at 3 or 4 a.m. to get his breakfast and pack his lunch so he could make his two hour call to start the engine, are worth it all. His railroad brotherhood, or union, has a wonderful insurance policy. My Eylea was paid from the first very shot, whether I had tried Avastan or not. Pays the monthly bill in full. Plus all the related costs. Thanks, BLE.

Eylea knows their miracle cure is expensive. But rather than using their strong lobbies to convince Congress to fund more drugs, why don’t they simply cut the costs? If the drug is so effective, doctors will spread the word themselves. Cut out the advertising. Pour those dollars into that expensive research and cutting costs for the blind customer. He’s got enough problems without having to face exorbitant bills.

Eylea doesn’t do any of those things. Instead, it provides customers with plenty of facts, figures, and means to get someone else to pay the bill. They have their own EYLEA copay card program for one. You can get one of these if you live in this country, if your own insurance covers EYLEA and you have a copay, or if you have Medicare AND your own policy and still have a copay. If you visit their website, they will help you seek out and find lots of different foundations that might help you out. They’ll also hook you up with help if you don’t have any insurance at all that covers eye care. Doing all that close paperwork at a time when you can’t see very well probably takes your mind off the fact you can’t see very well.

Find out the cost of Eylea in other countries. Just north of us, on the same continent, it’s around $2,000 a shot. In Europe, it’s around $1,00. But here in the United States? $5,000 per shot is about the going norm. Is there something wrong with this picture? Can I not see it clearly enough because of AMD?

By the way, the drug is made in Tarrytown, New York.

Sardines are small but mighty, the American Macular Degeneration Foundation will tell you. With their omega 3 fatty acids and loads of vitamin D, they’re giants in the world of people who want to reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.

For a simple snack, try smearing cream cheese on a cracker and topping them with a sardine. Far a more filling luncheon, try this recipe for Sardine Sandwiches. You might find you like the little critter. It’s one of many unusual recipes you’ll find in the Foundation’s recipe book for better sight.

Toast 4 slices of whole grain bread, and spread two of the slices with whole grain Dijon mustard. Divide the sardines from one can evenly, layering them atop the mustard. Add 1 medium sliced tomato, two chopped scallions, and some freshly ground pepper. Spread the other two slices of bread with more mayonnaise, close them up and voila! Two Sardine Sandwiches fit for healthy eyes!

It doesn’t always have to be salmon and sardines, or avocado and grapefruit, The American Macular Degeneration Foundation’s recipe book has recipes for all of them, it’s true, but it’s also to filled with terrific dessert, juice and cooler recipes.

How about a Blueberry Smoothie? Really simple in a blender, and chock full of the Vitamin A and potassium these little blue delights are known for.

All you need is 1 cup of berries, 1 Cup of vanilla soy milk, ½ of a ripe banana and 1 tablespoon of flax oil! That’s it! Toss them all in a blender, puree for about a minute, chill a bit and enjoy a great cooling smoothie.

Even easier, if soymilk is hard to find, use plain old orange and grapefruit juice. Take 3 oranges and 1 grapefruit, preferably pink if you can get it, slice them all in half, use a hand juicer or reamer , stir, and simply pour into glasses. A delicious and cooling way on these hot summer days to get a lot of Vitamin C and folates, with few calories. The mixture makes about two cups!.

As I sliced celery stalks and green peppers into strips for snacks and placed them in a cup of water for easy access in the refrigerator, I laughed out loud and actually enjoyed the sound of my own merry self.

You’ve come a long way in nine months when you first found out you were going blind, I laughed.

And indeed, I have.

I remember nine months ago when the ophthalmologist first told me I had Aging Macular Degeneration and it had developed so fast and was so advanced that he did not think the injections he was proposing would do anything. Maybe, he said, he could halt any further damage, but he did not think he could make it any better.

I did not take the news very well. After all, the day before I called the doctor I was fine. It was when I thought the window in my bedroom was streaked with pelting rain the next morning and it was a sunshiny day, that I knew something was wrong. But even at that, I thought it was something temporary, maybe a cold in my eye, or a slight infection. I never though of AMD or it not being able to be cured.

So, I did what any octogenarian with a full life, a life dependent on reading, driving, traveling, being independent, working, writing and more, would do. I went ballistic!

I didn’t cry, I screamed. I didn’t sob, I yelled. I didn’t sit quietly and ponder what’s next, I ran around the house, screaming, crying, yelling, not believing, not comprehending. Not even thinking I’m not the only one. It was only after I did research that I learned AMD is the leading cause of blindness in people over 60. But I wasn’t thinking of that then. I was just thinking my life was changing forever and I would never be able to adapt to it.

It was the calming understanding of two of my children that made me come around. You can do this, they both said. You can handle anything. Remember that stroke you had ten years ago? Remember that breast cancer five years ago? You beat both of them, why not this, too? Learn more about it, like you always do.

So, I did. That’s when I realized I’m one of so, so many people with AMD, that’s when I became aware of people with so many other disabilities I had always recognized, contributed to for research and helped however I could. But I never fully comprehended what disabled people, regardless of the disability, suffered privately every day. So it did not take me long to get over feeling sorry for myself.

Strong in my faith, I turned to St. Lucy, the patron saint of the blind. I found prayers with devotions to her. I prayed them. Then months later, when those candles on the altar in church that had been crooked, or where I saw eight when there were really only four, and I was back to seeing four again, I thanked her. I thanked her for the part she played with modern medicine in helping me.

My research also made me pay more attention to my diet, something my children recognized before I did. So that recipe book from the American Macular Degeneration Foundation my daughter gave me, got me more intrigued with trying new recipes. My son from his out-of-state home had boxes of fresh vegetables sent to me. So I learned how to prepare kale and spinach in different, more appetizing ways. I roasted tomatoes and sauteed carrots and turnips in a spicy mix with ginger, peppers and garlic. I found I actually liked cauliflower and broccoli with new recipes to try. I learned that once again, even living alone after raising a family, cooking was really fun.

The new ideas in cooking led to other surprises. Without even trying, my weight went down, my blood pressure went down, my energy went up. Heck, I was feeling younger!

Who could believe a disease I thought was going to be the end of my life was actually the beginning of a brand new and exciting chapter?

It’s the season for peppers of all kinds, be they red, yellow or red. So why not mix them in a terrific quesadilla? The American Macular Degeneration Foundation’s great and diverse recipe book offers a great and really easy recipe that feeds four and is equally delicious with or without AMD. It’s full of Vitamin C, lots of carotenoids, and is as good for the skin and immune system as it is for the eyes.

Here goes, and thanks to the Foundation once again. Enough for four!

Add 1 cup each of chopped yellow, red and green or orange peppers to a T olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté about 10 minutes or until soft. Put in a bowl and mix in ½ Cup chopped scallions, ½ teaspoon of both cumin and sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon each of ground black pepper and cayenne or red pepper flakes, (more if you like things spicy, cut back if you like it more calming.) Next heat a skillet over medium hit, place 1 tortilla on it and top with ¼ cup of the mixture. Sprinkle all of that with ¼ cup grated cheddar cheese, top with a second tortilla and cook about 2 minutes each side, pressing down on the mixture and cooking until golden. Do the same thing with the remaining six tortillas, cut them all into wedges, and serve. Outstanding.

And if you want even more, serve them quesadillas with an apple celery juice that’s easy to whip up. Simply mix 4 chopped Granny Smith apples, with 8 McIntosh apples, chopped the same way, and toss in two chopped celery stalks. Put them all in a blender for a minute and strain. Simply enjoy. An apple a day does more than keep the doctor away. It also benefits those with AMG, and decreases risks from issues lie asthma and lung diseases. Want to make it truly special? Serve on ice with a shot of vodka!