Odd Side Effects

I had my six monthly check up for my glaucoma today. I seem to be developing a strong aversion to the fields test machine they use at the hospital, the eye nurse did her best to be reassuring but I my stress levels rose as I was doing the test. It makes me feel claustrophobic and I find the beeps and whirling unsettling, which makes it harder to do the test which means it takes more time and so I have to listen to more bleeps and whirls and stick my head into a machine that makes me feel claustrophobic for longer and so it goes in an unvirtuous circle.

After the field test and a quick and dirty eye test I saw the consultant. I immediately had to fess up to have been bad about using my eye drops recently, erm like not actually have taken them for the last *cough* two and a half months. Anyway I didn't get slapping from the consultant but after he checked the pressure in each eye he asked me how pregnant I was. Then he spent a while consulting his bumper big book of medicines which probably did not give him much assurance. He told me that as the pressure in each eye was just borderline high that it would be best to carry on without treatment for the moment and he would check the pressure again in about ten weeks time.

It's good that the pressure in the eye seems to have dropped for now, because as far as I am aware there aren't any recommended treatments for glaucoma that have been checked for side effects in pregnancy, that doesn't mean that they are necessarily unsafe it's just they do not have evidence to say that they are definitely safe. And that's because most glaucoma sufferers are far older than I am and there isn't really a need for checking against pregnancy. The first consultant I saw back when my glaucoma was diagnosed told me this when I told him that we were hoping to start a family once we were married.

Hopefully next time I will not have to stick my head into the fields machine. And the time after next Simon will have to look after Junior I don't think he'll complain too much unless he's stuck in a meeting.

Duckface

On Tuesday I went to see the consultant at the QEH about my potentially dodgy right eye.

He did various test, he looked at my eyes under coloured lights and pressed various objects against their surfaces (not too hard and under a very local anaesthetic so it didn't hurt, just felt odd). He made his notes, consulted the chart from the last visual acuity field test I did and decided: yes this duck has wings. The pressure is markedly raised in my right eye and slightly too in the left and the field testing shows the classic arc of vision lose for the right eye. I have glaucoma.

I'm now on beta blocker drops which means that my snooker playing should improve but my hopes of being an Olympian have been dashed. I'm ok, although I will admit, I did have a little weep the next day I think that was more because I'm going to be on medication for the rest of my life and that seems so final. But really, the glass is more full than empty, it was spotted before any serious damage was done and with continuing treatment there's very good chance that I will never have noticeable sight loss.

And So

I was off work today, first day of my holidays, Si wasn't so the day was mine. So I went into Lynn bimbled around and decided that I really needed to go to the opticians. I needed to go as I hadn't had my eyes checked for over two years, I need new contact lenses and the lens of my spectacles are scratched. Three very good reasons for anyone.

The chap who received me did the puff test which made my eyes water, then I had to place my chin on the edge of a box which had an array of bulbs that would glow green at his command. I had to tell the chap how many of the bulbs were glowing. He did my right eye first, it seem to take an age, he kept stopping to ask me in which quadrants I had seen the lights. The left eye we sailed through, not a question was asked.

Next I was ushered through to the care of the optician - first she asked me the usual questions seeing as I was a new patient I assumed. Were any members of my family diabetic? - Yes my mother; did any members of my family have high blood pressure? - Yep my mother; Does anyone in the family have glaucoma? - No, no one does. She cracked on, looked at my retinas very carefully, asked me if the letters looked clearer with "either 1 or 2.... a or b.... 3 or 4?"

Then, once she had finished with the eye test she started to talk, she told me about how my prescription had changed from when I had my glasses made up, she told me how she was very concerned and would be writing a letter to my doctors telling them to refer me to the Ophthalmologist at the hospital because I showed all the signs of the early stages of glaucoma in my right eye. There were three tests she could do as an optician, the puff test, the grid test and looking closely at the retina for all three I showed the typical indications of glaucoma - the pressure was too high, I had an arc where I was not perceiving the lights and my retina looked wrong. The good news - it looked like it was the very early stages, the disease is very treatable, the bad news I'm a bit too young to be a typical glaucoma patient, it usually manifests itself in people over 40.

They redid the puff and grid tests because the hospital likes consistency - they'll be pleased with me.

It's not been confirmed I might not have glaucoma but as far as I can tell it's quaking like a duck, it's walking like a duck and it sure as looks like a duck so I'm not really expecting any other diagnosis when I do see the consultant.

How do I feel? I feel very dropped on, I wasn't expecting this, I have no obvious symptoms, it doesn't hurt. But I now face a lifetime of eye drops to stave off the risk of going partially sighted or blind. However that is far better then a prognosis of blindness or permanent disability, I don't have that and if it means that from the age 40 my brother will get free eye test I'm sure that I should get a freebie or two myself.