asthma, bronchiectasis and eye drops

I have ocular hypertension (not glaucoma yet) and use eye drops to lower the pressure. I was unable to use beta blockers because of the asthma so was given latanoprost ( a prostaglandin). This was fine for about a year but then I noticed my asthma getting worse and after reading that latanoprost can rarely do this I stopped the eyedrops for a trial period during which the asthma got better. I then restarted the eyedrops and the asthma almost immediately got worse again.

So I was swapped onto brinzolamide which again was fine for about a year and then my bronchiectasis started playing up....constant sputum, infections, coughing all night. Again I noticed that in the rare side effects of brinzolamide it causes cough and pulmonary congestion. So I stopped the drops a week ago and what do you know....chest symptoms have disappeared.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I'm not sure where I go from here and i get the feeling (maybe wrongly) that the eye doctors think I am imagining it.

[knitter]

My mother had glaucoma and one set of eye drops made her breathless, but sorry I don’t know their name.

[Izb1]

Very frustrating for you stones93, cant advice you on this, but stick to your guns, you have proved this is the meds so they will havr to take notice x

[watergazer]

Hi stone. My husband is putting latanoprost in his eyes to help reduce the pressure and he had developed a cough- he’s not asthmatic. Thanks for the information x

[Hidden]

Interesting. Are you from Canada? I am in the UK and use the eyedrops twice a day. I've always spent 3 minutes compressing the inner eye punctum after putting in the drops, avoiding blinking as I do so, and doing one eye at a time. Not sure what else I can do.

I am now 6 months into using brimonidine and so far so good, just some visual blurring for an hour or so after use, which I don't find a problem.

Unfortunately because of the pandemic I have not had my pressures tested since I started on this, either by the eye hospital or the optician. One of the unsung side effects of this pandemic.

[Hidden]

Here in the uk with a family history of glaucoma you have an annual free eye test to include intra-ocular pressure measurement and visual fields. My optician picked up on the raised pressure some years ago and referred me direct to the eye hospital where I am now seen annually with a full examination including pictures of my retina etc. In addition I still see the optician once a year.

I am due to see the optician again in August so hopefully that will be sufficient as I have totally missed this year's eye hospital appointment because of the pandemic. If there's a problem she should be able to refer me back to the eye hospital as an urgent case. need new prescription glasses anyway.

[Hidden]

Oh yes, if I click on your name.