Had an appointment at hospital today for eye checks. When I went to the opticians recently she mentioned I had a deep optic nerve and referred me to the specialist.

I had a look at deep optic nerve on google but don’t like self diagnosis so thought I’d wait to hear what the specialist had to say…which was it could be glaucoma.

Unfortunately I have to wait a year to find out – apparently it could just be ‘normal’ for me – they have to take a photo now and then compare that to one in a year to see if there’s any change.

In the meantime does anyone on here have experience with glaucoma? It sounds like it can be managed quite easily but I’m still a bit worried about it – don’t want to go blind!

My Dad had it, as far as I can remember he just had to take medication in the form eye drops. He never went blind, but he died when he was only 56, think he was diagnosed with glaucoma in his 40’s.
Now I’m 40 I can get free eye tests.

My Dad’s had it and been fine for 20+ years.

I got diagnosed at 38 with some damage that was picked up in a visual field test – apparently I had a few blind spots that I didn’t know about as your brain fills in the holes. They assume it was caused by high pressure as I was measuring 18 when I should have been about 12ish and it was damaging the nerves.

Been on drops of one kind or another ever since and it’s not getting any worse – I get checked every 6 months or so and I also get free eye tests.

Hope yours is not – not that it’s life threatening or anything but it’s a PITA doing the drops every night. Oh and it’s £7 something a month fro the drops. Whoever make Lumigan must be coining it in.

My dad had it for about 15yrs before he died. Seem to remember he had the odd eye injection and drops

I have an annual eye test, which is free, due to dad’s condition.

snap had it four 4 years now, take the drops every day no probs, have got a bit of damage to right eye, which could only be seen when the did all the test , main thing is dont worry loads of advice etc at your doc / hosp glaucoma centre, my drops are free.

Whoever make Lumigan must be coining it in.

😳

I wouldn’t worry about going blind just yet as you haven’t even been diagnosed, sounds like at present you are a suspect glaucoma.

You should have had your eye presures checked and visual fields tested, by definition you don’t have glaucoma until you start losing parts of your peripheral vision.

Eye presures can be tricky, the is a normal range ( up to 21mmHg) howeve for some people it can be normal for them to have pressures above this and never get glaucoma, othe people can have pressures lower than 21 who do develop glaucoma.

Having a deep optic nerve can be perfectly normal, depends alot on the shape and size of your optic nerve head. I’ve seen some very dodgy looking optic nerves in people who have never shown signs of glaucoma.

Annual monitoring is common practice, glaucoma changes generally happen slowly so the hospital will know more when they have more pictures to compare.

In the mean time if you’re worried you could always get more regular eye tests and have your pressures and fields checked to monitor for any change.

my drops are free

Don’t you pay for your prescription scraprider?

Thanks guys puts my mind at rest a bit, from what I’d read it looked manageable but as Speeder says must be a PITA doing drops every night! Just good to hear from the horse’s mouth.

Yeah I’m suspected Glaucoma at the moment, from peripheral tests at opticians and deep optic nerve identified at the same time. It had been 4 years since my last eye test and didn’t have a photo taken at that one so nothing to compare to. I have my first photo at the hospital in september and then one a year later. Have a check up at the opticians in June next year as the glasses I have at the moment aren’t my full prescription (optician thought that jumping straight from the one 4 years ago to the full one would break my brain so have an intermediate one for now).

Basically listen to T666DOM he’s an optom so will give best advice, as an aside does your opticians do retinal/fundus photography? I know you are being monitored at the hospital but alot of opticians do this is now a standard part of the test and a history with your eyecare provider (who wont have access to the hospital pictures) after you are discharged from the hospital is no bad thing…..

Regular checks are the key, at least then if any change does occur it can be caught early and treated appropriately.

Drops can be tricky but with the newer drops available the impact can be minimal, google the side effects of Pilocarpine and Lumigan sounds so much better!

the hustler – Member
Basically listen to T666DOM he’s an optom so will give best advice, as an aside does your opticians do retinal/fundus photography?

Yeah was a standard eye test at Spec Savers that picked it up, will be going back to them before second hospital visit (Sept 2013!) to get intermediate prescription updated.

Guess the plus side (should diagnosis be positive) is I could move to Colorado and take advantage of the medicinal herb