My glaucomatous right eye seems to see better now...
Posted , 2 users are following.
I have so many things to talk with us all about on the glaucoma in my right eye.
But this is the matter that I was looking for in the internet, and then I said to myself, there must be some glaucoma forums in the net.
So, I am now registered in this forum.
Thanks to the founder and operator and staff here, for the ease with which I got registered.
You see, five weeks ago I learned that I have glaucoma in my right eye.
The doctor who examined me prescribed Travatan once a day before bedtime.
So I complied with the prescription, and after two weeks from that date I went back to the Eye Center, for another examination.
This time another doctor examined my eyes, both eyes.
He prescribed:
1. Continue as before with Travatan on my right eye.
2. Also do Travatan on my left eye.
3. And do Timolol in addition to my right eye
4. Go and 'buy' a Glaucoma Package, cost 3,980.00 pesos ( I am in the Philippines ).
When I got home, I read a lot as usual on glaucoma, since when I learned that I have glaucoma - for I was thinking that I have on both eyes cataract, in particular very badly with my right eye.
The doctors here in this Eye Center who examined me seem to show little concern about cataract in my both eyes: they are concerned however with glaucoma in my right eye.
I decided to just continue with Travatan as before, only on my right eye and as before once a day before bedtime.
Why have I decided to not comply fuly with the prescription of the second doctor?
Because I say to myself, the only thing I need is Travatan, period.
Three weeks after this second visit, I checked in again to the Eye Center ( it is a section in a large govt hospital where they have all kinds of doctors for all kinds of diseases and health concerns ).
This time another doctor examined my eyes ( you see, these are what are called resident doctors, meaning doctors in training in their chosen specialty, like in the present case, ophthalmology ).
I told this third doctor that I must confess that I just continued for five weeks with only Travatan on my right eye, once a day before bedtime, and I notice that my right eye seems to see better now - though it is still useless, unlike my left eye which is my working eye for all purposes eyes are useful for.
He told me to wait in the waiting hall, for he would consult his Senior.
Okay, now what happened?
This fourth doctor told me to follow the prescription of the second doctor, plus 'buying' the Glaucoma Package.
With all respect and cordiality, I told him, that No, I am going to continue with only Travatan on my right eye, and I am not going to buy the Glaucoma Package.
He told me that he would not schedule my next visit, unless I go and subscribe to the Glaucoma Package.
With all due respect and cordiality, I told him that it is the policy of the hospital that after every visit, the consulting doctor must schedule the patient for his next visit - that is the normal routine.
This resident doctor is younger than me as to be young enough to be my grandson though now a doctor in medicine.
And I told him, Son, you'd better schedule me, otherwise where would I go to continue with my eye trouble?
So he scheduled me for my next visit to take place after more than two months and a half after the present one - instead of the regular two weeks after a present visit.
That did not bother me, you know why?
Because I will just the same check in at the Eye Center after two weeks, and the staff person on duty will get my eye card ( some kind of ID card which every patient must bring with him, to get service from the Eye Center ), and I will get attention just the same on a first come first serve basis.
Now, back to my original question or concern.
Do you anyone with what I might call simple glaucoma, experience improvement in your glaucomatous eye, and that with Travatan only.
When doctors here get mad at me for not following a doctor's prescription, and also some instruction to 'buy' some procedure, please bear with me: because I am of the idea that I have a say with how doctors treat my medical and health concerns.
So, dear colleagues here, what are your experiences?
0 likes, 8 replies
mrsmop pachomius70950
Posted
Hello Pachomius, the people on this forum are like you, patients & they just share their experiences. Sometimes it helps & sometimes it doesn't.
I have secondary glaucoma, that is, it is caused by the drugs I have to take for a different disease. I had to use drops for about a year but then I was told to stop them but, the ophthalmologists check my eyes very regularly.
Perhaps you should try talking to your ophthalmologist and tell him that you can't keep buying different packages depending on whom you saw last.
You also need to wonder at the knowledge that these young doctors have. I do! My grandsons aren't old enough to qualify as doctors yet but I do see a lot of young doctors. They listen to my experience and share their knowledge too.
You do not want to lose your sight because of your stubbornness. Eyes are precious & you cannot examine your own eyes & that is where having a young doctor is useful, their sight is much better than an older doctor's.
When you go to your Government hospital, can you ask to see the senior doctor & then see him every time, so that you get 'continuity of care'? Then you wouldn't be being told something different every time.
I hope this helps you Pachomius.
pachomius70950 mrsmop
Posted
The reason why I encounter every visit a different resident doctor is because: the idea is so that every resident doctor will have a chance to learn by doing.
Now, please bear with me, I have this idea that minimal medication and procedures is good for the patient.
Are you in a country with socalled socialized medicine, like in England and also in Canada?
In my country doctors naturally want to make more money than to treat their patients with their best knowledge and at the least cost to them and time and trouble.
I think in the US, medicine is if I may use the term, commercialized, meaning people into this service and materials and procedures of all sorts, they have this natural desire to get rich.
That is why I read a lot about medicine.
In order to save myself from using more money and getting less quality care and medicines prescribed.
May I ask you, is the iop in your glaucomatous eye getting lower, and even stabilized within the normal low range of iop, i.e., as I read, from 11 to 22 scores?
And do you notice that the eye concerned is seeing better than when you were not into eye drop medication?
pachomius70950
Posted
Well, I am here again.
It's been over five months that I have started to get treatment for my right eye glaucoma.
I have been taking Travatan on my right eye everyday at bedtime.
My left eye has what is called dry eye condition, which I understand cannot be cured, you just have to live with it.
My left eye is my working eye, though.
To make a long story short, I thought at the start that I had cataract with both eyes, but it turned out that my right eye has glaucoma and my left eye has what is called dry eye condition, still it is functioning.
Both eyes to date after five months, with me not taking any medicine for my left eye, and only just Travatan for my right eye, the intra ocular pressures of both eyes are within the normal range, i.e. 10 to 22.
Yesterday I decided to visit the government eye center again, and find out how my eyes are doing, for it has been four months already that I had not seen any doctors.
Again a different doctor attended to me.
He asked me why I did not buy the 'glaucoma package', but did not inquire about why I did not follow the prescription of the second doctor, with adding another medical eye drop to my right eye in addition to Travatan, and neither also why I did not follow the second doctor with doing eye drops of Travatan with my working left eye - though this eye does not have glaucoma, only dry eye condition.
This doctor instead prescribed that I should buy the 'glaucoma package' for my left eye, the one that has dry eye condition but no glaucoma, reason is because then this diagnostic procedure, the 'glaucoma package', will avail doctors of the medical condition of my left eye, i.e. the bigger picture.
For my right eye, the one with glaucoma, he wants me to have surgery, or at least laser.
From what I have read about glaucoma, my right eye glaucoma does not need surgery and not either laser, because the Travatan is working to keep the intra ocular pressure there within normal range: 10 to 22.
According to what I read about glaucoma, it cannot be cured, and the patient, in my case, just have to observe a regime of daily eye drop, like in my case, Travatan: in order to keep from losing completely whatever sight is still present with my right eye.
So, I thanked the doctor for his prescription: but I said to myself:
1. I am not going to buy the 'glaucoma package' for my left eye, for it has no glaucoma, only dry eye condition.
2. I am not going to buy the surgery and not alternatively the laser, because from what I read, my left eye has what I would call the run of the mill ordinary glaucoma, not the kind that needs surgery or laser to keep it within normal range.
Please do not follow me!
My purpose in writing this post as with every post is to get comments from you, fellow eye patients: in order that I will come to something useful from you, dear fellow eye patients.
For the rest, I pray to God to restore my both eyes to normal working condition, in the name of Jesus Christ.
pachomius70950
Posted
Corrigendum:
"2. I am not going to buy the surgery and not alternatively the laser, because from what I read, my right (not left) eye has what I would call the run of the mill ordinary glaucoma, not the kind that needs surgery or laser to keep it within normal range."
Guest pachomius70950
Posted
pachomius70950 Guest
Posted
Dear k51095, thanks for your information.
I like very much to read the records of my case folder, but I can't get my hands on them.
So, I don't know the larger picture of my case, as coming from the resident doctors in the government hospital.
Resident doctors are trainee doctors, i.e. doctors who are still getting to learn how to heal and/or alleviate the woes of mankind.
Forgive me, are you having some eye problems yourself?
pachomius70950
Posted
If I could get my hands on the folder of my case, in this government hospital, and I being the patient treated by resident i.e. trainee doctors, a new one every time I see one of them for my eye vision problems, I will be able to monitor my intra ocular pressures, to know whether they are already within the normal range of 10 to 22 – and of course intra ocular pressure fluctuates, but there is an average which any educated person can compute by himself . . .
If I could get my hands on my folder, I would see what were the original at the start of treatment the intra ocular pressures in each of my eyes, then I would know that without ‘glaucoma package’ whatever and surgery and/or laser, my eyes are doing all right, insofar as my limited but still functional eye vision is concerned.
Besides, glaucoma is incurable, anything at all possible is to prevent the condition from getting worse.
But the way the government eye center operates, it seems that patients’ folders are guarded as though they are the most strict security documents of the country!
I seem to know that common sense tells us that patients have the human right to read their folder, and also as they are educated persons they can and do understand the language of doctors whatever – at least they (patients) can use dictionaries of medicine to get to comprehend what doctors are recording about their (patients) condition and the treatment being done by them (doctors).
I will try to see the “Quality Service Board” of this government hospital, and ask about my human right to read my medical folder.
Of course doctors are doing a great service to mankind, notwithstanding that they are normal human beings as patents are normal human beings.
pachomius70950
Posted
About the socalled glaucoma package, I like very much to read about it in the internet, but to date no serious medical eye vision websites have anything to say about the socalled glaucoma package.
Perhaps folks keen on advocating the glaucoma package to patients who are suffering from glaucoma, they can tell patients what the package is supposed to explore, as to achieve all the aspects of what is glaucoma, and thus the glaucoma patient will know whether he is getting the best management of glaucoma from his ophthalmologist.
Of course I cannot deny that the socalled glaucoma package will enrich the speculative scientific knowledge of ophthalmologists on glaucoma.
My own reading though limited as it is in the internet, is that the package investigates with probing into a patient's glaucomatous eye, in order that a bigger and more concentrated picture of the glaucomatous eye will be achieved.
On the other hand, an ophthalmologist with all the features of the all-purpose piece of equipment available (like the corresponding all purpose piece of equipment of a dentist) today for ophthalmologists to observe into the eye of a human being, as to know what is the trouble with a patient’s eye, and also if glaucoma, then what kind of glaucoma and what the treatment should be - no need from my impression, that any glaucoma package should still be done on the patient's glaucomatous eye.
I understand that the glaucoma package requires the patient to invest more time and trouble and money to go through, which in regard to the patient’s glaucoma is not any kind of a condition that any ophthalmologist specializing in glaucoma cannot know, and thus decide on the best management of his patient's glaucomatous eye – without making his patient undertake the glaucoma package.