anthony

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.

anthony

Damn it figures the group is dead when I arrive , its my bad luck continuing

nobody

Go to Google groups to read all the prior messages posted in
alt.support.glaucoma.

sherry

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 ****ogues - 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

anthony

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.

anthony

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..

anthony

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..

laura

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

sherry

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

anthony

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..