What Does a Glaucoma Diagnosis Actually Mean?

It is a blessed day today and the weekend is fast approaching. I am certain that most of us and quite excited about that, if not for anything, the fact that another week of December would be done with and we will have some fewer weeks to go.

As usual, I am here once again to talk about ocular health and I am optimistic that the content I have been sharing has impacted one or two about their ocular health. Today, I am going to talk about a condition that is quite popular and yet very misunderstood by lots of patients and I am hoping that through this shedding of light, you my dear reader would get it better.

This write-up was also inspired by some of the patients I saw this week who had advanced glaucoma and yet still didn't fully grasp the intensity of the condition they are living with. It turns out that they now fully comprehend what led to the acceleration of the condition and eventually the nearly blind eyes they presented to the hospital.

For most of them, they were diagnosed through opportunistic screenings, either as part of an outreach program, or they went in for the driving test at the eye clinic or coming in for a consultation with a different problem. Unfortunately, whiles they got diagnosed earlier they lost their vision along the line because they didn't grasp the concept well and it proved fatal.

I do not know how many of my readers may have glaucomatous eyes or may know someone, a friend, a colleague, or a neighbor who may have glaucoma however, I hope that through this post you get to understand things not just for yourself but also for your loved ones so their sight may be preserved for as long as possible.

If you have visited the hospital and your doctor said he suspects you may have glaucoma because your eyes are suspicious, that is not a diagnosis, it is what we call a differential and you may have to go through some tests for him to verify, the most basic of which include Intraocular pressure check, visual field test and or ocular coherence tomography test.

Your intraocular pressure ought to be within a range of 10mmhg and 20mmhg, if it is found to be higher than this and the disc or the retinal changes correspond with glaucoma that you may be put on glaucoma medication right away to prevent damages from occurring or worsening. Your Optometrist would set targets for your pressure and would seek to achieve this by altering your drugs with time.

Now, most of the glaucomatous damage which eventually results in blindness comes as a result of the intraocular pressure rising when this pressure rises it pushes against the optic nerve which emerges out of the eyeball to the brain at the weakest part of the sclera. This pressure on the nerve initiates the automatic death of its cells a process known as apoptosis and the death of one cell triggers the other and a cascade begins.

In low-tension glaucoma, this damage would continue to go at the same rate as when the pressure was up but thankfully most glaucoma patients tend to have high-tension glaucoma which makes it easier to monitor. Now what most patient do not fully grasp is the fact that getting diagnosed with glaucoma is a lifetime condition that does not go away just because you used the eye drops or systemic drugs once.

When you are diagnosed with glaucoma you will have to go on medication for the rest of your life and your medication should not be used as and when you feel like it. Your reviews shouldn't be as and when you feel like going back to the hospital, this habit has caused a lot of people their sight, please do not be one of those individuals, which is why I am sharing this today.

When you begin glaucoma treatment and you do not follow the routine daily or your stop along the line to start again later, the pressure goes haywire during the break period and it can shoot up to as high as the 50s or 60s and this rapid rise could kill more cells in a day than may have died along your treatment in years. The rapid rise in IOP is a known to cause of acute irreversible blindness and certainly not something to joke with.

And so by the time you come back for review, your optometrist now has to tackle this rise in IOP anew, set new targets, adjust your drugs and begin a whole new routine, so the more you continue to practice these habits the more you lose years of your vision in days and then within a short time you have quickly advanced your condition and vision is at the brink of death.

One thing that you shouldn't also do as a glaucoma patient is to allow your eye drops to run out before you go for review or get a new one. Your doctor would advise that even when you are unable to come for review get the same drug he gave you to use, and use and bring them along when visiting the hospital for review, this would ensure that there are no breakages within the treatment plan.

Also, if you happen to be diagnosed with glaucoma, do not go around looking for facilities that would cure your glaucoma or give you better news than your Optometrist did, we seek your welfare and are certainly not happy that we have to give you the bad news however roaming eye facilities would mean there wouldn't be a treatment plan you follow which could be detrimental to your sight.

Stay with your Optometrist and follow the guidelines, go in for regular reviews and you should be fine. There's a reason why we say early diagnosis saves sight, I have met geriatric glaucoma patients who still had some good sight to live by and younger patients who lost their vision entirely due to some of these habits I have discussed. And so let's be in the know.

Glaucoma is a sight-threatening condition however, it is not a death sentence or necessarily a blind sentence if detected early, you could actually enjoy a good amount of sight throughout your lifespan if you take your condition seriously and take the management plan seriously. And so do not panic if you have been diagnosed with glaucoma, instead, learn and be informed so you can do what is right for yourself.

Glaucoma could also be passed down to the offspring and so if you do have it, do get your siblings and your parents to also check, you may have just saved their sight by doing so. It is always best to seek professional counsel when in doubt, avoid unsanctioned medication by your Optometrist, and always seek to stay in good health. It was a pleasure coming to you once again.

Let me use this opportunity to say hello to @gentleshaid, my Nigerian mentor and leader from our wonderful family, and my gratitude to prof @lemouth for his support love, and guidance always and to an old friend @armandosodano, I do hope all is well and that my music brother is killing it out there. Special thanks to the Ghanaians on the blockchain @mcsamm, @collinz, @awuahbenjamin, @depressedfuckup, you guys are a great inspiration to us all, let's keep sharing Hive and making it bigger and better in Ghana. I wish us all a wonderful time.