Glaucoma - new to this, worried, need info/advice

Surabhi ,

Thank you for replying. This was a GP clinic that I went to so the check was using someting called a tonometer which I looked into and was told to stare at a red dot.

The detailed exam would probably be done at the specialist which I have been reffered to in 3 weeks.

Yes, i've been under much stress as a caregiver and its been intense these few months. I've also just had a throat/sinus  infection/allergy that I just recovered from. I don't know whether these things play a role.

Would you know?

I take omeprazole sometimes for reflux. Could this be a problem? Couldn't find any contraindiction on the internet though.

 

Allergies sinus infection and all can raise pressures in the glaucomatic eye may be but again in your case it's yet not a confirmed glaucoma so why to worry .

Relax and do some meditation and breathings till u see an expert.

Thank alcantra for telling me about interocular pressure. I got the word "glaucoma" from the refferal letter the GP wrote to the specialist.

Strangely the eye in question, the left eye has incredible distance vision. Better than that 35 years ago when i needed 100 degree glasses in the lecture hall. Don't know what that means though.

 

Hi Patrick, the tonometer was very inaccurate detecting my eye pressures. The specialist has a much better machine, the tonometer said my pressure was 33 and the better instrument measured it at 26. I saw an optometrist 10 years ago and the pressure was 23, he said it was boarderline needing drops. 3 months ago i was diagnosed with severe glaucoma losing 30 percent of my vision. While i have lost the vision my eye can still read the smallest print on the eye chart-

There are no warning signs like pain or anything to alert you to optic nerve damage. The 2 main types are open angle or closed angle, apparently closed angle is affected by medications like tricyclic antidepressents and others increasing the pressure.  The good eye compensates for the bad eye so you dont realise you have lost vision. 23 is pretty low for glaucoma but different people can tolerate different pressures before nerve damage occurs.

Mikehaust,

Thanks for the info. Just wondering was the tonometer consistantaly wrong, ie, with both eyes and equally wrong or just one eye.

I'm sorry for you vision loss issues. Wish the best for you.

I would think if it was innacurate, it would be incorrect for both eyes!    Just over a year ago, I had a pressure test at a high street optemetrist and the pressures were 28 and 32!    I was referred immediately to the hospital where he (the optemetrist) said I required an "immediate" Trabeculectomy where they cut small holes in the eyes to let the pressure out.    Very alarming.    But I did note that he had me heaving on the toneometer handles on either side of the device with all my strength.    I have never had to do that before and I have had numerous pressure tests since 1990.   At the hospital, the pressures were perfectly OK again.   I mentioned the fact that I had been told to pull on the handles with all my strength.   The consultant was very surprised at that, and said that had no doubt driven the pressure up artifically on a temporary basis.    On the next two hospital visits, spaced at six months apart, the pressures have continued to go down.      I had been sent to the optemetrist to be monitored for pressure, as the hopsital considered I was not a high risk patient.     I am firmly convinced that the optemetrist did not want to be stuck with me and made me pull on the handles to put the pressure up and give them an excuse to put me back on the hospital monitoring again!

 

Well i could hope that the tonometry was wrong but it wouldn't explain why one eye was normal at 18. Both should be higher in that case.

Similerly I was recovering from a sinus infection with partially blocked nasal passages but again if that explain one high reading it wouldn't explain why the other one was normal. As for heaving I was doing some deep breathing exercises while waiting to bring down my blood pressure which was inexplicably high that day. Again it doesn;t explain the one normal reading then.

By the way is there any harm in frequent tonometry. I guess if its just a puff of air it shouldn't be a problem?

By the way,

They are rarely the same pressure.    You can have it high in one eye, and much lower in the other.     For instance, if your actual eye pressures were 18 and 15 on an accurate tester,  an innacurate one may show  17 and 14 or 19 and 16 or some other figues that were both consistant with the testers i.e. both eyes on the innacurate ones out by the same amount for each eye.  The puff of air tester is not as accurate as the one at the one the hospital uses.   In the hospital one, they will put an anaesthetic drop in your eyes.     They then advance a blue light probe that touches the front of your eye to read the pressure.    You don't feel a thing when they do this, but it is a bit disconcerting the first time.     I doubt if it does any harm.   Anyway, your pressures aren't alarmingly high so I would just keep calm and see what the consultant has to say about it! 

hi patrick yes it was incorrect for both eyes

Hi i also had my first test at an optometrist with a puff tester, they said i had pressures of 23 and 33 and i was refferred to a hospital which revealed pressures of 26 and 33 with their hand held tonometer, the dr then tested with the accurate machine wit the probe and blue light which revealed pressures of 20 and 26. I went to a specialist a 3 days later and the handheld tonometer gave a reading of 23 and 30 then the accurate machine gave a reading of 21 and 26???   it seems the handheld tonometers are highly inaccurate from my experiance

It would seem that even the puff ones used were not accurate. The margin of error is so wide it can't even be called an estimate. One wonders than why they even use it.

By the way internet search shows that eye pressure changes throughout the day ( the GP told me it doesn't ).

 

Hi Pat, im not sure if those testers are just inaccurate on my eyes ??? i also heard the pressure changes throughout the day. I read somewhere that it takes 15 years with a pressure of 21to25 and 7 years with a pressure of 25to30 and 3 years at over 30 to go blind

Everyone appears to be different.   My pressures have been hovering around the 25 mark for 26 years and I still have full visual fields and excellent vision.   As I said before, it has fallen in the last year to 18 and 16.      My consultant said they have some patients with glaucoma with perfectly normal pressures, whilst others have had pressures round about 30 for years with no ill effects, and it is really "the luck of the draw!"    Consultant also says that pressures change throughout the day and lifting heavy weights puts it up short term, but not harmful if it is only short duration!