Living with DME
The loss of your central vision will undoubtedly affect your everyday life. Though our brains are quick to adapt to patch together a full picture, we must adapt too.
You will be introducing many changes to your routine to manage symptoms of DME, but how do you continue to live your life whilst doing so?
This is a question you can always approach with your doctor, but advice from others with your condition, and from macular disease experts, can be found in several other places:
- The Macular Society Practical Guides
Practical tips and advice from experts in macular disease
- Local Support Groups
The Macular Society connect you with welcoming support groups formed of those with macular conditions near you
- HealthCentral’s DME Advice Videos
Videos about life with DME, created by Eye Specialists
Much of the advice available provides actions to protect your eyesight day-to-day:1
- Wearing tinted lenses
- Selecting larger text prints and altering your technology settings
- Using blue light screens to reduce glare
Driving with DME
As with all conditions that involve sight loss, driving becomes a potential risk to yourself and others.
As DME usually affects both eyes, you’re required by law to report DME to a driver and vehicle licensing authority. Your ability to drive should be discussed with your doctor.2
Working with DME
DME does not need to prevent you from working; instead, measures can be taken to make you comfortable in the workplace.
The decision as to whether to work is for you to discuss with your doctor, considering what environments you can work comfortably in, what obstacles you may encounter at work, and what can be done to overcome these. You can make sure to be using the same daily techniques to protect your sight, as well as some work-specific ones:
- Using the Access to Work scheme: to help provide you with the specialist equipment and arrangements needed
- Taking a Work Capability Assessment: to determine whether you are able to work or eligible to claim a benefit in place of this
Helping others to understand DME
As managing DME requires these changes to your daily life, it can help to inform others of your diagnosis so that they understand and can help where necessary. This may be particularly relevant in work or school.
So, how do you explain DME to others? A good start can be to share the first page of the NHS patient information leaflet with them, which explains the condition and the recommended changes to daily living. Alternatively, you can direct others to the Macular Society’s page on supporting people with macular disease, allowing them time to take in all the information and understand what this diagnosis means for you.
You may find that many of those around you are familiar with similar macular conditions, such as wet AMD, as this is a condition that several of us develop as we age.3
References
- Guide Dogs. Living with diabetic macular oedema. Available at: https://www.guidedogs.org.uk/getting-support/information-and-advice/eye-conditions/diabetic-macular-oedema/living-with-diabetic-macular-oedema/. Last accessed July 2025.
- 2. Gov.uk. Eye conditions and driving. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/eye-conditions-and-driving. Last accessed April 2025.
- Macular Society. Age-related Macular Degeneration. Available at: https://www.macularsociety.org/macular-disease/macular-conditions/age-related-macular-degeneration/. Last accessed April 2025.