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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Glaucoma / July 2005Very depressed
I may have glaucoma , I will know more on Thursday..the cups in both eyes are enlarged and the pressure in both eyes is high although I don't know the exact number of my IOP. Anyway I passed the peripheral vision test and i took a test for blood flow to the eyes and the doctor said that it was fine as well..On thursday I get more of the pressure tests , a cornea thickness test and a laser 3D pic of my eye ( the last pic he took to see the cup was a big polaroid machine pic )..the problems I have been having though I don't believe are related to my eye problems..he also said i was far sighted and near sighted and needed reading glasses which he gave me..the reason i went there is i felt a strange pain in my left side of my forehead..the next day my left eye was blurry and had a lot of floaters and my head felt like it was under enormous pressure...all around my temples and top of my head..I also had an MRI which was negative..can glaucoma give you a lot of head pressure/pain and if i do have glaucoma what is the best medicine (eyedrops i guess) i can take for it , i dont want to screw with my heart at all as I have pac's and high cholesterol and slightly high blood pressure.I am also seeing an ENT on Friday because I did have a long time cocaine problem that i kicked at the beginning of the year and i am wondering if that has something to do with my head issues. Thx for any advice and sorry this was so long. Damn it figures the group is dead when I arrive , its my bad luck continuing :( >I may have glaucoma , I will know more on Thursday..the cups in both eyes >are enlarged and the pressure in both eyes is high although I don't know [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >wondering if that has something to do with my head issues. Thx for any >advice and sorry this was so long. Go to Google groups to read all the prior messages posted in alt.support.glaucoma. >Damn it figures the group is dead when I arrive , its my bad luck continuing >:( [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >>wondering if that has something to do with my head issues. Thx for any >>advice and sorry this was so long. > I may have glaucoma , I will know more on Thursday..the cups in both > eyes are enlarged and the pressure in both eyes is high although I [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > wondering if that has something to do with my head issues. Thx for > any advice and sorry this was so long. Anthony, I'm not a doc, just a fairly-well educated glaucoma patient. Glaucoma is diagnosed by damage to the optic nerve. Elevated pressure is only one of the glaucoma risks (there are people who have elevated pressures and never develop glaucoma and there are people who have normal pressures with glaucoma!) It looks like you're getting a really thorough exam. That's great! So many people get an elevated pressure and the eye docs says "you've got glaucoma. Here are drops. Go home and use them!" Glaucoma can can pain if you have acute angle closure or really super high pressures, but it's eye pain, not a headache as normally experienced. BTW, migraines can also be a risk factor for glaucoma! I'm glad the MRI was negative. If and when your glaucoma specialist (you are seeing one, right?) prescribes drops, he'll be the one to determine which ones would be best for you. I know with me it was trial and error to find the ones that worked for me and didn't have insufferable adverse reactions. Many glaucoma patients get a great drop in IOP with beta blocker drops - I couldn't tolerate them (I got migraines!). There is a new class called prostaglandin analogues - Xalatan, Lumigan and Travatan - all which work very well for most people. I used Xalatan for 5 years before I had trabeculectomies. (It was the 6th drug my eye doc tried on me - the others either gave me serious side effects, allergic reactions or just weren't effective! But not everyone has this problem, so don't despair!) If and when you do get drops prescribed, be sure to use them faithfully and to use good punctal occlusion techniques to keep the meds from going down the tear ducts and getting absorbed into your system (well, a bit will be absorbed, but this will minimize the amount). There's a good video at http://www.nyee.edu/video.html "How to Put Drops in Your Eyes: The Ritch-Sussman Technique" which shows you how. Good luck and keep us posted! Sherry The person who is doing the eye exams isnt even a opthmologist its an optomitrist ..when i went to him I had no clue I had any problems. I just went because my union sent me to him to see if I needed glasses , but he has all the machines to do the full testing for Glaucoma..I think no matter what happens today I need to go to get a 2nd opinion. You said this below I used Xalatan for 5 years before I had trabeculectomies What is trabeculectomies , some kind of surgery? Is Xalatan relatively safe? Thanks a lot for your reply. >> I may have glaucoma , I will know more on Thursday..the cups in both >> eyes are enlarged and the pressure in both eyes is high although I [quoted text clipped - 59 lines] > > Sherry Also is there any proven methoed to cut down on the floaters I am seeing , I was told there isn't anything to be done about it but figured I would ask here.. > The person who is doing the eye exams isnt even a opthmologist its an > optomitrist ..when i went to him I had no clue I had any problems. I just [quoted text clipped - 72 lines] >> >> Sherry Well I got back from the eye doctor and he said my cornea is thicker then normal and my pressure in both eyes was 19..the 3D picture showed that my eyes were both in decent shape and the cupping while larger then normal may be normal for me..I am going back in 4 months for a pressure test and will keep an eye on it..now to find out why my head feels so terrible , I did an MRI and it came back fine but the pressure through out my scalp and weird feelings and tingling and headaches are really incredibly hard for me to deal with.. > Also is there any proven methoed to cut down on the floaters I am seeing , > I was told there isn't anything to be done about it but figured I would [quoted text clipped - 76 lines] >>> >>> Sherry Sounds like your optometrist is pretty knowledgeable. Nevertheless I'm another who thinks you should get a 2nd opinion, from an OPHTHALMOLOGIST. Two thoughts come to mind: 1. What did he use to check your pressure? I've found hand-held devices are not very reliable. It's better to use a that Goldmann (sp?) thing, a table mounted device characterized by a blue light. 2. Did he do any kind of field testing? Laura >Well I got back from the eye doctor and he said my cornea is thicker then >normal and my pressure in both eyes was 19..the 3D picture showed that my [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >feelings and tingling and headaches are really incredibly hard for me to >deal with.. He used the table mounted blue light , and i did a peripheral vision test where i had to do one eye at a time looking dead center of some machine while lights flashed on and off all around the place and when i seen a light i was to press a button , i did fine on that test he said.. > Sounds like your optometrist is pretty knowledgeable. Nevertheless > I'm another who thinks you should get a 2nd opinion, from an [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >>feelings and tingling and headaches are really incredibly hard for me to >>deal with.. >> What did he use to check your pressure? I've found hand-held >>devices are not very reliable. It's better to use a that Goldmann >>(sp?) thing, a table mounted device characterized by a blue light. I have been around 19 on the latter device (was 24 before starting on drops), pretty consistently, at the local bigtime eye clinic. I had an 'air-puff' check when I got some new specs from the local opticians and the tech said my pressure was 8. I made her do it again, and she got numbers between 7-9. Both the tech and my pro doc just said "different tests give different answers" but 8 vs 19??? Something sounds broken. Perhaps I don't need drops after all - duh. Derek >>> What did he use to check your pressure? I've found hand-held >>>devices are not very reliable. It's better to use a that Goldmann [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Derek The air-puff is notoriously inaccurate. The Goldmann tonometer is the best! Sherry My understanding from my glaucoma specialist is, it isn't unusual for these hand-helds to be off by around 10 points. So I don't find your experience surprising. Before I had my trab last summer, I was in the mid-20's. I was sent to a retina specialist to make sure it was OK for me to have the trab. His nurse used a hand-held to check my IOP, and got such a low reading that I went back to my glaucoma specialist for another reading before scheduling the surgery. All that hand-held did was make me put off surgery a few weeks and generate an unnecessary visit to the doctor. Laura > I have been around 19 on the latter device (was 24 before starting > on drops), pretty consistently, at the local bigtime eye clinic. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > doc just said "different tests give different answers" but 8 vs 19??? > Something sounds broken. Perhaps I don't need drops after all - duh. Hard for me not to be biased here, as I am a fellowship-trained glaucoma specialist and an ophthalmologist. While the tests that your optometrist are doing, Anthony, sound appropriate, he may not be well-skilled in interpreting them or be up on all of the latest medical studies regarding glaucoma. It is impossible to know. Nevertheless, if there is a glaucoma specialist in your town, get a copy of your test results from the optometrist and bring them for a second opinion (so the GS doesn't have to repeat all of them.) Sherry is absolutely right here...too often appropriate treatment is delayed because the doctor following you is not on the mark. An extra opinion could never hurt. Good luck to you. --Rick Cohn, MD Glaucoma Specialist Winter Park, FL > The person who is doing the eye exams isnt even a opthmologist its > an optomitrist ..when i went to him I had no clue I had any [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > What is trabeculectomies , some kind of surgery? Is Xalatan > relatively safe? Thanks a lot for your reply. Anthony, Yup - trabeculectomy is a glaucoma filtration surgery. Not something you want to go through unless drops fail! I personally had no problems with Xalatan. I did get nice thick luscious eyelashes, a side effect of the drug. It can turn blue eyes brown and darken the skin around the eyes, but most people tolerate it well. DEFINITELY go for a second opinion - find a glaucoma *specialist*. If you're in the US, go to http://www.glaucomaweb.org/patients/find.htm to look up one that's close to you. Sherry LOL lucious eyelashes , this guy told me yesterday he is in fact a glaucoma doctor but he isnt a opthamologist..i told him what others have said and he told me to do as i wish but no other eye doctor will do any different tests then what he just did in our 2 visits. >> The person who is doing the eye exams isnt even a opthmologist its >> an optomitrist ..when i went to him I had no clue I had any [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Sherry > LOL lucious eyelashes , this guy told me yesterday he is in fact a > glaucoma doctor but he isnt a opthamologist..i told him what others > have said and he told me to do as i wish but no other eye doctor > will do any different tests then what he just did in our 2 visits. Hmm..... He could have some knowledge about glaucoma and it sounds like he's pretty well versed with the condition and can do all the tests. *However* a glaucoma *specialist* has the training and experience to accurately interpret all those tests! I've heard of way too many people who have been told they were going to go blind if they didn't have immediate laser surgery and then went to a glaucoma specialist for a 2nd opinion who said "whaaaa???? you're fine, use these drops and enjoy many years of good vision" (Or were even told by the GS that they did *not* have glaucoma and not to worry!) Tell him you appreciate all that he's done but with a condition as serious as glaucoma, you'd like to get a second opinion. For a long time, I had borderline pressures and questionable optic nerves (high myopia made diagnosis difficult). My ophthalmologist followed me for years, watching everything closely. When the pressures went up a bit and the nerves appeared to change, he sent me to a glaucoma specialist for a definite diagnosis. Even the glaucoma specialist wasn't 100% sure, diagnosed me as glaucoma suspect and put me on drops. Eventually, I had trabeculectomies because there was some slow progression of optic nerve damage - he wanted to get the pressures down into single digits to protect the nerve. No progression and the IOP is remaining stable. Sherry |
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