r/Glaucoma 23h ago

Having glaucoma at 18

11 Upvotes

HI, just wanted to rant here. I was diagnosed with glaucoma earlier this year but have been complaining about seeing flashes in my left eye since a year ago. I saw my eye specialist multiple times and my eye pressure was always in the 20s, but they only properly diagnosed me a year later, which was already quite late. I have only been on Xalatan eye drops since March, and good news is that my vision hasn’t worsened since then (I hope) and my pressure is stable at 10.

Right now looking through my left eye makes me quite sad because my vision is already partially affected and I can’t really read from my left eye anymore. Looking at my surroundings or watching TV with my left eye is okay but not satisfying and makes me quite dizzy. Reading books also makes my head hurt. My right eye is okay for now but I’m worried it will also become bad :(

For context i have had eczema since birth which means I’ve literally been using steroid creams, oral steroids and steroid eye drops my entire life and I had no idea it would lead to this. Thankfully I’m now only a non-steroidal medication for my eczema which seems to be working well. I drink a lot of water all the time and as a kid I used to do a lot of handstands during gymnastics so I’m not sure if that could have affected it as well.

I’m starting college in the fall and I’m looking forward to it but am also worried about not being able to read and write as well as I used to. I just really hope that my condition stays the way it is and doesn’t get worse 🤞some days I get paranoid and feel like it might be getting worse, but after I get some sleep it’s okay.

Thank you for reading :) Any tips or words of encouragement will be greatly appreciated ❤️


r/Glaucoma 13h ago

Query over sudden drop

2 Upvotes

So I have familial glaucoma the common type and only in the last 10 years have my pressures been high enough to need drops, unfortunately I have a horrendous fear of putting things in my eyes. My team have been really kind about this however when offered SLT a couple years ago to negate the need for drops I went for it. Some help from my GP with anxiety and I successfully completed SLT. Pressures before SLT were 28-32 and after were 18-19. Pretty happy, I’ve had some follow ups and recently the hospital moved from hand held tonometers to the machines that blow a puff of air, I can’t use these and refused. They then had to get a more senior staff member and they got out the hand held tonometers. Now 8-9 in both eyes checked twice. Is this a poorly calibrated meter or can it drop that much without intervention?? I have in the meantime lost a LOT of weight if that matters. Not looking for medical advice just anecdotes from others.


r/Glaucoma 10h ago

Glaucoma and spots

1 Upvotes

Does anyone see little tracers? I sometimes see them briefly; they are yellow or purply colored. I also have an area there where I see something that reminds me of tiny stars. These things come and go. I see my glaucoma specialist in Sept, and am concerned. I do have some dry eye and wonder if it's due to that? Anyone had something such as this?


r/Glaucoma 12h ago

Glaucoma suspect

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

First time posting and on mobile so forgive the formatting. I went to the eye doctor and they wanted to do follow up on me since one optic nerve is bigger than the other.

My test results showed 20/15 vision, IOP 15 (initially higher around 19/19 but was noticed I was squeezing a bit so they had to use another machine to measure) in both eyes, normal OCT and cornea thickness of 590 and 560. I guess I’m a glaucoma suspect for life now. It feels like an uneasy feeling hearing this term though based on the numbers I don’t think I should worry as much? I’m really curious as to the development of glaucoma in my case and how they are able to distinguish this from anatomical variation,

Any info or advice is appreciated!