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 Hello, is there a general consensus about what the best glaucoma hospital / center in the country is?  I have one good eye and the pressures are now going up in that one... I am not happy with the specialists here in Alabama and am thinking about looking elsewhere.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

I have congenital glaucoma.  IOP is going up at night.  I can wake up just 4 hours after using 3 drops and see rainbows.
Then after staying up just a few minutes it goes back down....
 

This will probably benefit self tonometry practitioneers the most, but even if you don't have a tonometer, you will have a better understanding of how eye pressures can behave.

An interesting discussion developed on the Fiteyes Google newsgroup concerning modifications to eye drops - BUT which proved to be a good platform to delve into the whole new paradigm of the patient's role in complementing and augmenting care provided by the medical community. I have posted key components here so you can get a good 'gist' (and hopefully join in the discussion)..

From Holly,

 I have a question.  After putting alphagan into my eyes, after a few days my eyes become very red and burning. Eventually I have to stop taking the drops. I want so much to be able to tolerate these drops. I have normal tension glaucoma and these drops help to lower my pressure. What do you think of diluting the drops with water?  Maybe the water would lessen the reaction.  Has anyone ever tried this?

When I first became diagnosed with glaucoma, I checked and double checked everything which the doctor told me. I also read every article on glaucoma which I could find, and tried to calculate and assess the risks in my own particular case. I reached a point where I became obsessed with understanding everything there was to know about 'my disease' (as though understanding alone could result in some sort of curative action).

As time went on, this pursuit caused me to feel like I was looking at the world through 'diseased eyes' and it became more and more frustrating as I realized that from an empirical perspective alone, there was simply no way to ever understand glaucoma (and anyone who says they do is probably delusional). It wasn't until I familiarized myself with Dave's perspective of focusing on health and letting doctors worry about my condition, that I began to interrupt this negative cycle.

Verious people have mentioned "cupping" numbers.  What are these and what do they mean?  Are these the numbers around the diagram the dr draws on each eye at each visit?   Thank you for any info!

Hello, I have just now found your website after searching for contact information concerning Drs Marc and Michael Rose and their book "Save Your Sight".  

Last week I was diagnosed with NTG in my left eye.  My dr has been watching the "cupping" in the 5:30 to 6:00 area of my eye for several years.  For the past few weeks I have noticed a "shadow" in my upper peripheral view.  When I went to my dr, she said she did not see any change in the cupping but since I am now seeing the shadow she is wanting me to use Xalatan drops. 

When embarking on the journey of self tonometry, many are quite surprised at how much and how often their eye pressures can vary. When I first discovered this fact, I thought that perhaps I was doing something improperly in measuring my pressures. Of course, that was not the case. Here is a recent question which we received..

In light of his busy schedule, we are so fortunate to have the participation of Dr. Robert Ritch on these forums and on our fiteyes newsgroup.  I have received immense value from the questions which he has answered (both personal questions and those of others). Additionally, his insight and information concerning the nutrional aspects of glaucoma, and contribution of current articles and studies are invaluable.

Therefore, we would like to honor Dr. Ritch here at Fiteyes by posting the recent Jose Rizal International Medal Award nomination..

I am posting a question (and followup) which we received regarding the following article from the 'Asrani' study on the ICare portable tonometer..

Evaluation of the ICare Rebound Tonometer as a Home Intraocular Pressure Monitoring Device

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20436362

We can also, potentially, install light sensors onto the spare neurons in blind people, converting the spare neurons into a camera so they can send info to the brain. We've done this in mice.

Having had a very interesting conversation with another tonometer user today concerning questions related to the corneal and glaucoma, I decided to post this article I recently came across.

Here is the full pdf link..

Role of corneal thickness in glaucoma becoming clearer

http://www.eurotimes.org/07sept/Roleofcorneal.pdf

Many thanks for the painless introduction today. I wound up taking 20 sets of measurements over a 10 hour period. It was incredibly easy to do.

For the first time, I saw how my numbers spike after taking drops and then shortly after start to drop. It was great to be able to actually see this.

I expecially appreciate your remarks about turning it into something fun. My first microscope was like that and while this is much bigger, it is every bit as much fun. Maybe more.

When I first began to measure my pressures around 2 years ago, my IOP was fairly even between my right and left eyes. This remained relatively unchanged for a few months, but then an interesting (and alarming at the time) thing happened; I began to see a pressure shift towards my right eye. This actually became quite a profound difference as time went on., and it began to concern me because I felt it might signal the start of some 'problems' with my right eye.

Sometimes I take an eye pressure reading and then, a minute later, take another IOP reading...and sometimes, in another minute, take one more eye pressure reading. Each successive reading is almost always lower, sometimes considerably so. What does this mean?

Which reading is the "real" reading?

I had canaloplasty in one eye. ten days ago.Before surgery my IOP was 36.On  my post surgery check up the following day it was down to 2. one week after later it was still only 4. My vision is still very blurry in the eye probably do to the low pressure.

Because this is such a fascinating topic and relevant to the Fiteyes emphasis on home based self tonometry, I am copying prior posts from the google fiteyes group here regarding the home measurement trend.

I have been coming across a few articles and studies dealing with c-type natriuretic peptides (CNP) and opioid receptors as they potentially  relate to glaucoma, IOP and neuroprotection. While I don't have enough to go on in order to build any cogent arguments, I will present what I have found as a matter of interest. As a quick preview, it seems that CNP has neuroprotective effects..

A FitEyes member has recommended Brian A. Francis, MD, MS after trying six other glaucoma specialists who were not to her liking. The FitEyes member has just purchased her own tonometer and will be using it with the full support of Dr. Francis.

Title: Associate Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology

Department: Department of Ophthalmology

Locations: Doheny Eye Institute

Areas of Treatment:

Hi.  Seemingly as soon as I started using glaucoma eyedrops, I started getting cataract in my right eye.  Then the left eye, and both are very bad now.  I am about to break down and get lens-replacement surgery I guess, as I know if no alternative at this point.

Possibly NAC eyedrops (Can-C) would have worked if I started them early enough, but I didn't. 

Does anyone know who are the best glaucoma specialists in Los Angeles?

There are both USC and UCLA centers here.  UCLA has the Jules Stein Eye Institute and I'm not sure what USC has.  So there is not shortage of glaucoma specialists here, but ....

who is supportive of self-tonometry?

who is supportive of nutritional approaches, etc.?

Please help ASAP if you know of someone.  Thanks!