Just to recap, at routine appt at opticians in Jan for my normal checkup , iop was up at 23/24 so had a more thorough appt and he told me I had narrow angles left eye 15 right 35 . Did a Field test , my first one ever, was ok . Referred to Moorfields at Bedford Hospital . Never been a Glaucoma suspect up till now.
Went on 13th April where various staff did all the initial Glaucoma screening tests , iop was higher at 26/28 , cornea thickness measured, field tests and scans .
Received a letter on Sat , have an appt on 14 th May to see consultant , so still a waiting game as no other info in letter.
So will update once I’ve been to that lol
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Lovemy2woofs
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I am glad to hear that your waiting will soon be over and finally you have an appointment to see a consultant. You will at least know then exactly what you are dealing with and what your treatment plan will be going forward. I found it helpful to have a list of questions with me at my eye appointment, as my brain tends to go blank and everything I wanted to ask disappears.
Hi Lovemy2woofs, firstly that's brilliant news you do not have glaucoma, I'm sure that's a big relief.It s good you did finally get a letter with all their findings. I had to google gonioscopy as I heard of it but actually had no idea what it was. Thick corneas do lead to false high eye pressure readings but are meant to lessen your chances of glaucoma.
All the best for 14th, let us know how you get on .
Thank you .I envisage I will need an irridotomy , as I’m diabetic so have yearly screens for retinopathy which means eye drops that enlarge pupils , so anything that enlarges pupils can bring on a closed angle attack.
So although you thankfully don't have glaucoma you unfortunately aren't out of the woods yet. I had narrow angles and my consultant removed the beginnings of cataracts in both eyes and replaced them with artificial lenses to open up my angles, I am assume an iridotomy also opens up narrow angles ? Thank goodness you don't have too long to wait till your appointment and can find out exactly what the surgeon is planning . X
No not out of woods , as you know yourself, having narrow angles is very risky .
The two usual procedures are irridotomy where they use a laser to burn a hole in the iris that allows another drainage place , or like you had lens replacement which is same as cataract surgery.I think the lens one depends on other factors as more risky and costly etc...
Plus of course drops if needed .
I think they can monitor some patients too, depending on the grading of angles , but of course with no treatment you have to be aware of having an attack .
I find this type very scary as can do more vision damage as can happen quickly , where the most common type people get open angle is slower .
The issue with irridotomy is it may not work , though they can repeat it , but I need to ask how much laser eyes can have, because at the moment I have background retinopathy , if that progressed then laser is required for that , but this is worse case scenario.
I think time and cost is a huge factor in what treatments now more than ever due to all the backlogs covid has caused. X
I agree narrow angle is definitely scary and yes vision damage does definitely occur more quickly. The one positive thing is you are now in the system and with luck you will have a proactive consultant. It's a catch 22 situation as noone really wants an eye operation which possibly may not be successful or to be on eye drops for life but then the alternative is just being monitored and risking an attack.One of my friends has had her eyes lasered 3 times but I'm not sure how many more times it's possible to have this done.My cataract operations did open up the angles in my eyes so from that point of view it was a success , so I no longer need to worry about an acute attack but unfortunately it didn't lower the pressure enough so I did require drops.I had these operations done privately as NHS referrals were taking up to 9 months in my area and I wasn't risking waiting that length of time.
Yes lens replacement does seem to offer a good success at opening up , and if you had small cataracts as well , makes sense that you had that .Shame you needed drops too, but sounds like most of us end up on drops at some point .
It’s sad you have to go private , it’s awful with waiting lists , so scary for people who may go blind or are in pain and even worse now with covid backlogs and that goes for any part of the body.
Not everyone can afford private , though I do wonder if that’s what they hope people do more of to lessen the waiting lists .
NHS needs more staff and investment etc.... something drastically needs to happen with how covid has left it , scary times ahead .
My consultant told me quite a large percentage of people don't require drops after being fitted with artificial lenses but yeah obviously I wasn't one of them. I'm not a suitable candidate for SLT either as I have very dark irises and very pale aqueous fluid and this would make it very difficult for laser, so drops it is. I only use them in one eye now as other has had a trab. I actually am now on my private consultants NHS list so it all worked out really well for me .I agree lots of people can't afford to go private and in actual fact you really shouldn't have to but the NHS is under such pressure through no fault of the actual staff. Covid has made it so much worse like you say, I know so many people who have had cancer treatment, appointments etc all cancelled. It is indeed very sad and scary.
On the plus side we are both in the fortunate position to be in the system which many still aren't. X
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