Last December of 2012, when my mother woke up early morning of December 8, her right eye central vision can no longer see. My assumption with her condition is probably this is just a cataract. That day, I advised her to see a doctor and she went to UST hospital where her elder sister recommended a doctor there where she underwent cataract surgery. The doctor there advised my mother to underwent angiogram and OCT (optical coherence topography) in St Lukes Medical Center to see the condition of her eyes, and unfortunately, the findings is not good, she had a wet macular degeneration. The doctor advised her to inject a drug called Lucentis that will probably prevent further losing of my mother's vision on her right eye. The cost of the drug is 60,000 Philippine pesos per injection (Maybe you're thinking its typo error, its not, 6 following 4 zeroes) plus professional fee of 13,000 Philippine pesos and it needs to inject on her eye for 3 consecutive months that would cost 219,000 Philippine pesos without any assurance that my mother's eye will get better since this condition is incurable, the drug is will only prevent continuous bleeding inside her eye. So, basically we asked for a second opinion and she went to Ophthalmic Center at Philippine General Hospital. The doctor there gave us an alternative drug called Avastin that cost 13,000 Philippine pesos per injection. So the effect of this drug is the same as Lucentis but the difference is Avastin is not yet offiicially declared as a drug for eye related disease. Anyway, upon searching this drug in Google, I found it safe and some testimonials there attested that this somehow effective. Of course, there are also negative feedback using this drug but I didn't find any major side effects. We decided to go on this drug since, it's not cheap, but it's not too much expensive as compared with Lucentis. December 18, the drug was injected on my mother's right eye only. After several weeks, peripheral vision went off. Her right eye can no longer see even on the side which is not yet affected by this condition before the drug was injected. The drug supposed to be injected for 3 consecutive months but her doctor refused to inject it because according to him, he can no longer see the back of her eye, he needs to see it first before injecting the drug and he suggested to undergo vitrectomy procedure, this procedure cost around 60,000 pesos, this is already a package price, but the cost of Avastin is not yet included. So again, we asked again for another opinion, my mother went to Bernardino Hospital, Chinese General Hospital, FEU-NRMF, Retina Eye Plus, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, and last is Novaliches General Hospital and all the doctors advised her to undergo vitrectomy. Ok, it seems we have no choice with this expensive and unusual procedure, so ok, we decided to go in Novaliches General Hospital. There is only one doctor there specialized in Vitreo-Retinal Surgery, so last February 28, 2013, she underwent vitrectomy. So far, after the operation, my mother can now partially see on her peripheral vision, but not on the central vision.
My mother needs Avastin injection again by next month and she needs a share on the cost of this drug. The vial actually cost 26,000 Philippine pesos and this vial can be share by two person needing this drug, only a certain portion of the drug can be injected.
Please email me at avg_3000@yahoo.com if you also need a share on the cost of this drug.
