There are often people that you meet that deal with health issues that you know nothing about. Many of these are invisible to others. Even though you cant see what is happening, they can have a major impact on how they not just live life, but how they see the world around them. That is why I decided to write a little bit about my life with Glaucoma.
One of the things that many people do not know about me is that I was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 12. This was considered young to receive this diagnosis and little did I know how it would impact my life.
What is Glaucoma
Glaucoma is an eye condition that causes fluid to build up in the interior of the eye.
This can cause an increase in eye pressure which can result in damage to the optic nerve if it is not treated right away. The most common treatments are the use of eye drops to reduce the pressure in the eye, but there are also surgeries that can also be done.
Over the past 20 years, I had used eye drops only until my doctor decided that more treatment was necessary.
Glaucoma is a condition that rarely has any symptoms before the loss of vision occurs, so early treatment is not always an option.
How We Found It
The only indication that anything was wrong was that I experienced frequent eye pain when reading, which prompted my parents to take me to the eye doctor.
The diagnosis was something that we were not expecting because glaucoma is something that typically occurs in older adults.
Even though it was a big deal, to me it was just one of those things that happen in life.
Through my teens, I went to my appointments. I took my drops but I did not take them as I should have. This caused the pressure in my eyes to remain higher then it should have.
Getting Older
Once I was in my 20’s I began to take it more seriously.
I went to my appointments on a regular basis and did my medication as instructed.
The main problem that I encountered was my lack of health insurance. This meant that I had to pay for everything out of pocket, which as you can imagine got pretty pricey. My appointments alone would cost me about $200 every four months and the drops that I took were about the same.
My eye doctor did everything he could to help, from writing off tests to making sure that he had samples of drops to give me.
When I became pregnant with my first child, I had to stop using one of the drops because it had not been tested during pregnancy. Everything went smoothly and there was not much change in my eye pressure throughout the pregnancy.
Any elevated pressure in the eye can cause damage to the optic nerve, which is why it is so important to monitor eye pressure when dealing with glaucoma.
It was the same with my other two pregnancies, except that by the last one there had been more research done and I was able to stay on my regular drops.
The biggest issue that I encountered was a side effect of one of the drops that I had taken. It actually caused the drainage channels in my eyes to narrow. It was close to the point that it could cause blindness if I experienced a significant spike in eye pressure.
Surgery
Last year in order to try to ease some of the discomforts that I had been experiencing. Which were frequent headaches and halos around lights, my doctor ordered a laser iridotomy.
This is a procedure that uses a laser to make a hole in the iris for excess fluid to drain from.
While this procedure sounds painful, the reality was that it was just a bit uncomfortable and to be honest, it just felt weird.
The procedure worked and for the last year, I have not had much eye pain at all.
One added benefit of this was that for the first time in about fifteen years I am able to take allergy medicine, which is awesome.
I used to spend the majority of the year miserable from my allergies. Now I am able to be outside with my kids without sneezing my head off and feeling like I can’t breathe.
I still have to take eye drops twice a day, but the intraocular pressure stays low most of the time. As long as I take my medicine the way that they are prescribed, then I shouldn’t have to worry about significant vision loss until I am much older.
Final Thoughts
While my experiences dealing with Glaucoma throughout my life are not major, it has had an impact on how I view life in general and how I approach different aspects of life. I still have my sight, and for that I am grateful. I could have slowly experienced worse vision loss and my life would be completely different.
This is why it is important to listen to others when they say that something is not quite right and to make sure that you do not neglect even the smallest part of your health.
What, if any experiences have you or someone you know had with Glaucoma?
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