I don't mind answering here.  I was shocked to hear this, so maybe
someone else doesn't know.  

Nearly 2 years ago I had to have my license renewed.  I was
starting to notice that things that used to be sharp weren't
anymore, dismissed it to aging (I'm only 44 LOL) but my eyes have
always been perfect. In fact, people used to be amazed at how I
could read road signs from a long distance.  When I went to have my
license renewed, I couldn't pass the eye test. Well, they sort of
*let* me pass the eye test by letting me guess at the letters for
as many tries as it took. I went to the eye dr, and since I'd never
had vision problems before, I didn't have a regular eye dr that
knew my history.  He saw what he took to be macular degeneration.  
I had never heard of that before.  He gave me a prescription to
boost my distance vision, so driving now is no problem. I can again
read road signs from a comfortable distance.  He also noted high
pressure indicating risk of glaucoma and since there's a history in
my family for that, I've been going to see him every three months
since then.  For a while there he seemed more worried about the
pressure, even having me come at different times a day to see if it
fluctuated.  But this week he took pictures of the retina to see if
the macular degeneration has progressed since last years pictures.  
He said it's still mostly the same. Yes!  But he told me that there
are more and more journal articles showing a connection between
smoking ciggarettes and macular degeneration.  Funny thing was he
said what he sees in me is either that or something that looks just
like it, but he is hesitant to call it that because he keeps saying
I'm too young for it.

When I told him about the vision change that I've noticed lately
giving the example of claw clipping, that's when I got the
concerned lecture about smoking. He said it's progressing from
distance vision to near vision.  Then again, he also said this is
my penence for having perfect vision up until now.  LOL

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