Welcome. I am one of several glaucoma patients who maintain a blog at FitEyes.com. My blog is my personal story of my own adventures with elevated intraocular pressure. Please consider joining us by starting your own blog here. And everyone is welcome to post questions at any time in the FitEyes forums.
All registered users (registration is 100% free) of FitEyes.com can publish content on this site. Please visit all the blogs and forums at FitEyes.com. While great for freedom of expression, this also means that anything you read here should not be trusted for making medical decisions without checking with your doctor.
My Blog About Eye Pressure
Sight is our most precious sense. The prospect of losing our sight can be scary. However, I believe we can take simple steps to increase our chances of maintaining our sight – and even improving our sight. I firmly believe that we (patients and medical professionals) can do much better in managing glaucoma. In my blog I discuss some things I have done that have helped me dramatically reduce my eye pressure without additional drugs or surgery.
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world, according to the World Health Organization, and it is the leading cause of blindness in African-Americans. Glaucoma is more common in older people, but it can strike anyone of any age, including newborns. It is estimated that over 3 million Americans have glaucoma -- but half of those who have it don’t know they have it!
I found out the hard way that even a few weeks delay in receiving treatment can translate into significant loss of vision. If untreated, glaucoma can lead to blindness. Intraocular pressure (IOP) is the most important risk factor for glaucoma, and current treatment focuses on reducing intraocular pressure through drugs or surgery. If you have glaucoma or suspect you might (it runs in families), please make sure you are regularly seeing a highly qualified glaucoma specialist.
Having a great physician is extremely important -- it is probably the single most important thing you can do for yourself if you have glaucoma. However, even the brightest people in the field do not have all the answers about glaucoma yet. Many things remain unknown or open to question. This website questions some of the common assumptions and hints at some surprising answers. In our research, we try to take a novel look at the most important risk factor in glaucoma - intraocular pressure.
This blog shares my case history. I'm a guy who enjoys being active and doing things that require good vision. For example, I like things like mountain bike riding, and this is a photo of me at the left. Glaucoma has affected my vision, and it has slowed down my mountain bike riding, but it hasn't stopped me from being me. In fact, it is helping me become better a better me, as many of life's important lessons have a tendency to do!
My personal experience with glaucoma led to the idea for high-frequency self-tonometry that plays a large part in our scientific research projects. I continue to participate in that research. However, this blog remains my personal story and I continue to share things I have learned in an informal way.
Previously, I was losing vision. Now I am very happy with the quality of my vision and I am much less worried that I will go blind.
There is no substitute for working with a good ophthalmologist when one has glaucoma. But it is my opinion that the eye pressure measured in the physician’s office once every few months doesn’t provide enough information for the doctor or the patient.
Furthermore, the lack of facts makes it difficult for the physician to give the patient good advice. No one (patient or physician) would consider managing diabetes today without obtaining information about the patient’s blood sugar after various meals and at different times of the day. With enough information of that type, the physician adjusts the patient’s medication, diet and lifestyle (such as exercise routine). That same approach is not taken with glaucoma. However, that is the approach I am taking withy my doctors and I feel it is leading to new insights about managing glaucoma. I could not imagine going back into the dark – for without knowing exactly how one’s eye pressure is behaving throughout a typical day, both patient and physician are only guessing about the best treatments.
DISCLAIMER:
I do not give medical advice or engage in the practice of medicine. Under no circumstances do I recommend particular treatment for specific individuals and in all cases I recommend that you consult your physician or local treatment center before pursuing any course of treatment.
As you probably know, FitEyes.com is not designed to and does not provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment or services to you or to any other individual. Through this site and linkages to other sites, FitEyes provides general information for educational purposes only. The information provided in this site, or through linkages to other sites, is not a substitute for medical or professional care, and you should not use the information in place of a visit, call consultation or the advice of your physician or other healthcare provider. FitEyes is not liable or responsible for any advice, course of treatment, diagnosis or any other information, services or product you obtain through this site.
UPDATE: Previously I called my blog The IOP Querent. Now it is just Dave's Blog.
