Today's Lesson: It requires both medication and lifestyle to fully control my IOP. Either one alone is not enough right now. This is the middle way. I would like to control my IOP without medication (or even without Timoptic), but attempting that right now would be too extreme. (I have a tendency to go to the extreme, and that's most likely a subtle personality factor underlying my glaucoma.)
Yesterday I made a strong effort to manage my IOP without the benefit of the Timoptic. Granted, I had some work and financial stress to deal with, but it's impossible to live life without some stressful situations coming up. The key is how we respond to those situations. I have a lot of room for improvement. Until then, I have to rely on the Timoptic because all the other things I did yesterday just weren't enough. As time goes on, I hope to learn of more lifestyle factors that are as effective as the things I know now. I also hope to do much better at managing my stress, my emotions and my thoughts.
In contrast to yesterday, today I had the benefit of Timoptic. It showed in my IOP values at 10:18 AM
Left 12.0; Right 13.3
Those numbers are definitely better than yesterday. However, after that good measurement, I got into a situation where I was stressing out over all the things I have to accomplish (mostly work, but personal too). Following that, I had some unpleasant communications (email and telephone) regarding financing for our new business venture. I felt fairly stressed afterwards, and my IOP values reflected it. My right IOP was over 20.
This shows that even with the Timoptic, if I don't manage my stress, my IOP numbers will not be good. Today's early afternoon numbers are as high as some of yesterday's values. Like I said, Timoptic alone isn't enough.
I tried relaxing more in the evening, and my IOP values did come down, but after the events of today, my IOP values didn't reach the lows they can reach when I have the combined benefit of Timoptic and lifestyle. The last really stressful financial discussion we had (3-Nov) affected my IOP for many days afterwards. I suspect today's (shorter and comparatively less stressful) telephone meeting may have affected my IOP for the rest of the day.
Today's overall averages are:
Left 13.3; Right 16.8 (differential 3.5)
The differential is down from yesterday's 5.5. The range (minimum to maximum) in my right eye was 10.7, which is down from yesterday's 16.7. Today's numbers for my right eye are not great. They are an improvement over yesterday, but I can only guess that some effects from yesterday are carrying over. Certainly, today's stress is reflected in those numbers too. I'd like to get back to the numbers I had from 7-Nov to 11-Nov.
Another thing we carried over from yesterday was the work ethic. Today we collected 164 individual IOP measurements.
Here are all of today's IOP values:
| Time | Left | Right | Comments |
| 8:52 | 14.3 | 23.0 | |
| 8:54 | 19.3 | ||
| 9:53 | 16.0 | 17.7 | |
| 10:14 | 12.0 | 14.7 | After 5m frisbee with my dog. |
| 10:18 | 13.0 | 12.7 | Repeated measurements. Trying to relax. |
| 10:30 | 12.0 | 13.3 | After brushing teeth. |
| 11:17 | 15.7 | 18.0 | Stressing over todo list. |
| 12:03 | 17.0 | 18.7 | Feeling pressure to get things done. |
| 13:17 | 19.0 | 20.3 | Funding conversation about new venture. |
| 14:19 | 13.3 | 20.0 | Funding conversation about new venture. |
| 15:07 | 13.7 | 19.0 | |
| 0:00 | 11.7 | 14.7 | After 5m playing frisbee with my dog, 10m long swing, 5m frisbee. |
| 16:12 | 11.0 | 13.3 | After 8m weight lifting (shoulders). |
| 16:23 | 11.7 | 13.7 | Before eating. |
| 16:44 | 11.3 | 12.3 | After eating. |
| 17:49 | 11.3 | 14.7 | Working at computer. |
| 18:03 | 13.0 | 15.3 | After 5m playing frisbee with my dog. |
| 18:11 | 13.0 | 14.3 | Repeated measurements. Trying to relax. |
| 20:08 | 13.0 | 21.0 | Working at computer. |
| 21:37 | 14.0 | 19.0 | Working at computer. |
| 21:53 | 13.0 | 16.0 | Dog training (teaching paw). |
| 22:05 | 12.3 | 16.3 | Dog training (teaching paw). |
| 22:06 | 15.3 | Repeated measurements. | |
| 22:19 | 11.3 | 15.8 | After fixing dinner for my wife. |
| 22:20 | 12.3 | 16.3 | Repeated measurements. Trying to relax. |
| 22:41 | 19.0 | After watching 10m of TV (Dancing With the Stars finale). | |
| 23:58 | 12.7 | 16.3 | Relaxing work on the computer. |
| 0:07 | 14.3 | Before laying down. | |
| 0:15 | Xalatan in each eye. | ||
| 0:33 | 14.0 | 21.7 | After laying down. |
