First Visit to Dr. Kondrot in Arizona

I just got back from Arizona and spent three days with Dr. Kondrot--very interesting. I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

I am very interested to hear about your experiences!

I spent three interesting days in Dr. Kondrot's office. He is very nice as well as the rest of his staff. Everyone I met (patients) were really enthusiastic about the program and gave him  a rave review. I was the only patient with glaucoma

Dr. Kondrot tested me on day one and dilated my eyes. He advised me to get off most of my medications. (I take three at this time--cosopt, alphagan P, and Xalatan. ) I had 4 microcurrent stimulation treatments that day and two color therapy. On the color therapy you look through a sort of bull horn in reverse at a red light for 10 minutes and then a green light for 10 minutes.  

I also saw Dr. Warner every day who does things with color therapy.  I bought a gadget called EYEPORT which is a electronic vision trainer. There are 12 lights that turn on in succession moving from one end of the unit to the other and back. Dr. Jacob Liberman sells them. He wrote "Turn off Your Glasses and See." I like it a lot. 

I also bought glasses with rotating prisms that I will use on a trampoline. Now I have to buy a trampoline but I hear they are great for exercise. 

That night, Monday, I noticed at 9:00  that my left eye was FULLY DILATED. I became quite hysterical. I thought I had a stroke first--my husband and I are both EMT's so we did all the tests. I insisted on going to the hospital. I called Dr. Kondrot's office first and heard a message that if this is an emergency call 911. My husband and I called 5 hospitals looking for an opthamologist.  Finally we got a maybe at St. Josephs. Trust me, you do not want to go to a hospital in Phoenix. The ER had wall-to-wall people, all over the floor, people in protective masks????. The waiting list was 4 hours just to see the doctor. My husband and I went home and I figured I would be better in the morning. 

The next day my eye was much better, but still dilated a little. I went to the office and had to insist on seeing the doctor right away. He said he had seen this once before. 

I continued the treatment for the next 2 days. On Wednesday both eyes were really bloodshot. I don't know which treatment caused that.

I was glad to take off on Thursday to see the rest of Arizona. I came home with enough vitamins from his office to fill  a third of my suitcase. I tried the microcurrent stimulation treatment on myself this morning and took pressures before and after. Before, my eye pressures were 22.3 and 22.7. After the treatment my eye pressures were 24 and 27. Not good,

I went back on all glaucoma medications this morning. I never expected to drop all of them, I was just hoping to get off Cosopt.

This is a very nice summary of your visit. Thank you for sharing it with me.

How long did Dr. Kondrot expect you to stay off all the glaucoma meds? Did he measure your intraocular pressure each day while you were there? Did he measure your intraocular pressure after you had been off the drops? If so, what feedback did he give you?

How long did Dr. Kondrot expect it would take before you notice an intraocular pressure lowering effect from his recommendations? 

Did you repeat the microcurrent stimulation treatment and test your intraocular pressure before and after? If you plan to continue the microcurrent treatment, I suggest that you measure your intraocular pressure before and after several times to see what the result is each time you do microcurrent. The one test you describe is helpful information, however.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

Dr. Kondrot expected me to stay off the glaucoma medications but check with my doctor about my eye pressures. I did tell him I own my own tonometer. He checked my pressures on day 1 after dilating my eyes.  I had already taken my Cosopt that morning and the pressures were 19 and 20. He did not take my eye pressure on Tuesday but took my IOP again on Wednesday. My eye pressures were 19 and 20 again which is good in that I had taken no medications for 2 days. He did not dilate my eyes on Wednesday--I had such a bad scare on Monday from my eyes being dilated. He said there was "no change in my eyes." He told me to continue with the vitamins and microcurrent stimulation and gave me a schedule.

He did not give me a time frame for lowering the intraocular pressure but he wants to hear from me in one month.

I have been sick with a stomach virus and I was only able to take one microcurrent stimulation treatment at home. I plan to get back to the the microcurrent stimulation and intraocular pressure testing tomorrow.

I'm also a little upset that I can't seem to get the codes for my medical forms from them so I can submit them to my insurance companies. I talked to others in Phonix and they were reimbursed almost $750 after submitting their  forms (on their own) to their insurance companies, but I need the codes.