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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Glaucoma

What is glaucoma?

This is the type of eye disease which silently steals away the sight of a person without any symptoms or even warnings. It is true as I did not feel anything at all when I lose the sight of my right eye. Until to the day when the doctor ask me to close my left eye, then i realized that I can't see anything at all anymore. However, although it was said that there are no warnings or symptoms at all but I experienced these few things.

1. Unbearable headache ( sometimes you right side of the head is aching and at times the left side of the head is aching.

2. Tears will come out excessively from your eyes and eye ball hardened

So if one experience this, it is better to do check up. I mean it's no harm to do so right? Early detection is better.


I also have few information here. There are many types of glaucoma.

1. Primary Open Angle Glaucoma
2. Secondary Glaucoma
3. Angle Closure Glaucoma
4. Normal Tension Glaucoma (NTG)
5. Pediatric Glaucoma

The one that I have is this :-

Primary Open Angle Glaucoma

This is the most common form of glaucoma, affecting about three million Americans. It happens when the eye’s drainage canals become clogged over time. The inner eye pressure (also called intraocular pressure or IOP) rises because the correct amount of fluid can’t drain out of the eye. With open angle glaucoma, the entrances to the drainage canals are clear and should be working correctly. The clogging problem occurs further inside the drainage canals, similar to a clogged pipe below the drain in a sink.

Most people have no symptoms and no early warning signs. If open angle glaucoma is not diagnosed and treated, it can cause a gradual loss of vision. This type of glaucoma develops slowly and sometimes without noticeable sight loss for many years. It usually responds well to medication, especially if caught early and treated. (Cited from http://www.glaucoma.org/learn/types.html#i132)


Anyway there are lots of research has been done to find the cure for this however, the best step to prevent this is to have an early detection. Both of my eyes were infected my this sort of glaucoma but thanks God that doctor manage to save the left eye. Of course by the time they got to the right eye, the percentage of saving it was only 5%. I am still continuing using drops for my eyes because once you're infected by glaucoma, this medication is for life and continuous review needs to be done to ensure that the pressure is always low and not exceeding the reading done by the scanner. If it is below 20 then the eye pressure is perfectly normal.

Here are some sites that might be useful to others who would like to know more about glaucoma

http://www.glaucoma.org
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/glaucoma.html
www.paperpen.com/glaucoma
http://www.medicinenet.com/glaucoma/article.htm

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