Glaucoma alert

[pageturner]

I know with MS, we have to think about ON. Right after diagnosis (08), I decided to go to the eye dr just to get a baseline. It had been a few years since my last eye exam, so I decided why not, after all I'd had everything else checked out.

I hadn't had vision problems so I was shocked to find out that I have glaucoma in my right eye. I do not have high pressure glaucoma. I have LOW pressure glaucoma which is....guess what...sometimes present with auto immune disease. I read this last night and thought bingo.

I was lucky as it's been caught early, years before I would have noticed anything, and glaucoma is the number one cause of preventable blindness. This would not have been caught with a simple puff test or even a tonometer. I have what is called disc cupping and then had all sorts of fancy field vision tests and laser tests.

I'm on meds and doing ok. I just wanted to alert everyone here to the fact that you might want to have this checked out. It can be detected and treated before much damage is done.

On another note, and this is curious, it's my right eye and all my problems are on the right side. The eye dr said it can be a problem with getting enough blood to the optic nerve.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but it's just something to check out.

[Redwings]

Thanks for posting. Your experience is yet another example of why everyone should have a complete eye exam every year. It seems to be that people with MS think that, somehow, their neurologist is taking care of their eyes and vision, when that isn't the case at all. I'm so glad you were smart about getting an eye exam and that your glaucoma was caught early.

[pageturner]

Redwings

Thanks Redwings:

I was so upset when I found out about the glaucoma as it came right on the heels of MS. The eye Dr said, "well the good news is that we've caught this, and I bet you haven't even noticed anything yet."

At the time I double-checked with my neuro and she said no--nothing to do with MS/ON.

I am noticeably colder on my right side. It's become worse in the last few years and I always attributed it to 'circulation problems.' According to the eye dr., the nerve just doesn't get enough blood so we lower the pressure even though it's already in the normal range.

I read somewhere that cardiovascular exercise for 20 mins 3x a week helps too, so I do that and just deal with the temporary MS heat problems when and if they arise. Fans help!

After the eye dr., I moved onto the podiatrist....

Part of it was setting up relationships.