Glaucoma

Rob43 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-06-2003, 09:57 PM

Hi, I have Glaucoma and take eye drops every night for life. I got this from a family connection from my mothers side. My eye doctor said Glaucoma has nothing to do with diabete's. I have open angle Glaucoma. What do you have to say about Glaucoma?

Rob43

Tony · #2 (**permalink**) 09-06-2003, 10:08 PM

Any thing to do with the eyes scares me. I hate going to the eye dr. Very time I go, I come close to passing out. That is why I put it off. I think I'm due this month to go. And I'm thinking I will go next year.

With out to much detail, You can't get Glaucoma from having Diabetes?

Rob43 · #3 (**permalink**) 09-06-2003, 10:29 PM

Hi, My doctor claims diabete's doesn't cause Glaucoma. I'm taking one drop in each eye every night and the side effects are long eye lashes and if you have blue or green eyes it might change the color to brown if you use long term use. Which I have to. I hate going to the doctor to because he uses a tester that touches the eye ball and I'm always afraid he is going to put my eye out. He puts a drop to make it not hurt but it's just the idea of someone pooking something in your eye.

Rob43

Tony · #4 (**permalink**) 09-06-2003, 10:42 PM

Uhhhhhh........ I thought I said no details.

How do you do it? That has got to be hard. I have a hard time with just drops. I hope I don't have to go thru that.

Does the Glaucoma effect your sight?

Rob43 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-07-2003, 03:29 AM

Hi, Sorry about the details. It doesn't hurt and it's better than going blind. My pressure in my left eye was 26 and my right eye was 21 which is not bad compared to some people. If you don't treat this problem you will go blind sooner or later the doctor told me. There is no cure for this and my mother had Glaucoma and she never lost her sight and lived with this till she was 74 years old when she died.

Thanks, Leo.

snydermom · #6 (**permalink**) 09-07-2003, 08:24 AM

Oh, for heaven sake, Tony ... it's ONLY your eyeballs!

Now the dentist ... that's a different story!

Shalyndria · #7 (**permalink**) 09-07-2003, 02:45 PM

Think of your eye like the sink in your bathroom. Aqueous humor is a fluid produced by the ciliary body (like the tap) and maintains the shape of the anterior portion of the eye and nourishes the structures in that region. Aqueous humor is supposed to leave the eye and enter the bloodstream via a canal (like the overflow drain). All this fluid is stuck in the anterior chamber which is like a sink. Nowhere to go. Can't overflow onto the floor like the sink, so there you have pressure. This pressure results in damage to the retina and optic nerve.
Any ophthalmologist worth his degree will check for glaucoma if you have diabetes, since it is considered to be related. I would assume that it is a result of poor control.

A little medical spiel for you here:
glauc/o the combining form of glaucoma, means gray. -Oma, its suffix, means mass or collection, in this case referring to fluid. The term comes from the dull gray-green gleam of the affected eye in advanced cases of glaucoma.

snydermom · #8 (**permalink**) 09-07-2003, 05:57 PM

Tony is probably on the floor in convulsions & frothing at the mouth by now!

Nice anthology, tho. It puts things in perspective.

Rob43 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-07-2003, 09:46 PM

Hi, I'm taking a drug called Travatan for the treatment of Glaucoma. This bottle is small in size and costs about 40.00 a month. I get samples from my doctor because of the price. One sample lasts over a month.

Rob43