The first time it happened, it was very late on the evening of November 3rd, 2020. I was up very late watching the election results, not actually rolling in like all past elections, and wondering what was happening. This is when my right eye started to slowly go blurry and progressively get worse the longer I stayed up. I had never had anything like that happen before, although it was strange, I brushed it off as eye strain, fatigue and stress. I finally went to bed about 3:00 a.m. and slept for about 4 hours. When I woke up, my eye was better and I was seeing much clearer. But by mid-afternoon, my eye started going blurry again. Nothing I did, seemed to clear it up, including using some eye drops or resting the eye. I again, thought it had to be fatigue and stress, and mentioned it to my husband, but didn’t really think too much about it again. Went to bed early that night, slept well and woke up with clear vision, and I was good to go!
Ten days later, we went into extreme shock and grief over the tragic death of one of our nieces. Extreme fatigue, stress and blood pressure that was already running high ever since my run in with COVID-19 earlier in March/April, and my blood pressure shot up higher then my comfort level. My eye started acting up again. This time, along with the blurry vision episodes, I started experiencing these waves of pressure around my eye socket. This time, I contributed it to my high blood pressure. Although, I didn’t want to, I called my doctor and asked her for some BP medication. I knew I’d need it to get through the upcoming difficult times we were experiencing. I told her what had happened to my eye, and she instructed me to go to the ER if it happened again. I also scheduled an appointment to see her at the end of the month as I was overdue to see her due to Covid and her maternity leave. So I started taking Clonidine for my BP, it did bring it down somewhat, enough to where I felt more comfortable with it. Then the eye thing happened again, even though my BP wasn’t nearly as high as it was before. This time the pressure around my eye socket started to become painful. I found that a combination of the clonidine, ibuprofen (even though that’s counterintuitive to my already elevated BP, I was desperate) and aspirin, seemed to work to lessen the pressure/pain I was feeling. I did end up going to the ER like she suggested the next time it happened. However, that ended up being a fruitless visit. Spending time in any ER during Covid, while not having Covid is, let’s face it, a pain in the ass. They did some bloodwork, an EKG, started an IV for really no purpose. After being there for about 4 hours and nothing getting accomplished as it pertained to my eye, and the fact that the episode was passing I’m sure due to the OTC medications I took before I left home, I let them know that I was anxious to be discharged. They seemed to focus only on my claims that I’ve struggled with my BP post Covid, and wanted me to follow up at the Covid cardiology clinic for what my impression was, to become a test subject. They did not seem to have any concerns about my reason for the visit, which was my eye.
I did end up having my appointment with my NP, where I brought up the eye issue, but being that it was not bothering me at that point, it ended up being put aside and we discussed my other post Covid issues such as my ongoing off and on swollen glands and lymph’s in my neck. So we were going to focus on clearing the post viral infection she believed I was experiencing.
So as we moved through the month of December, it was happening on and off again. My husband kept insisting I needed to see someone, who I should see, I wasn’t sure. I was able to get ready for the holidays on the good days, and thankfully, I made it through Christmas week spent with my family with no issues. Until New Year’s Eve when it started up yet again. Now the frequency was starting to pick up to about every other day, so I knew it was time to see someone. I called my Optometrist office as a starting point, explained to them what had been happening. They made an appointment for me to come in 2 days later to see their ophthalmologist, someone who I had never seen before. I went into that appointment, and I was honestly put off by this doctor’s bedside manner. When I tried to explain what I had been experiencing, I was cut off by him several times. They did a limited amount of eye tests and proceeded to diagnose me with extreme dry eye. Sent me away with different dry eye drop samples to try and a steroid/antibiotic prescription drop to use in both, and follow up in 2 weeks. Although, I was a bit put off by the way I was not able to talk about what I was experiencing, I did leave a bit relieved, as it wasn’t anything too serious. I could handle some dry eyes (even though if truth be told, at that time, I was not experiencing what I thought would be dry eye symptoms) he must know what he’s talking about right?
Well it went from bad to worse. I had that appointment on Thursday afternoon. I picked up the prescription for the eye drops and started using them immediately. That small 5ml bottle of eye drops cost me $84, ouch, but ok, apparently they were necessary. Friday was awful, the blurry spot in the center of my vision was now over the entire eye. But I knew I needed to give it some time for the drops to work. Went through the weekend, it wasn’t getting much better. I didn’t do much of anything during these days except sit on the couch. I waited through Monday, although I’m not sure why, my husband was urging me to call back and let them know things were not improving. I guess I didn’t want to seem like a “difficult” patient. So Tuesday morning I finally called back to my ophthalmologist office and let the office staff that answered my call, know that things had gotten worse instead of better, and that I didn’t think I could wait the full 2 weeks to my next appointment. I just kept thinking about a local news meteorologist we had, who was a mother to 2 young children, and she took her own life a few years ago, after struggling with laser corrective eye surgery. At the time of her death, I couldn’t wrap my mind around why she did that. Now after what I was experiencing, even though I wasn’t suicidal, I definitely could understand more and sympathize with her now. I actually told my ophthalmologist office these thoughts while I was on the phone having the conversation about how bad things had become. We talked about getting the punctal plugs to treat the dry eye, and that she had them and thought I’d be very happy with them, so she scheduled me to come in on Thursday, assuming I would be getting the plugs inserted. I even spent some time researching them so I wasn’t blindsided on what I was getting.
I went to my Thursday appointment, and again, the same thing happened. He cut me off, he didn’t let me explain what I was experiencing. He got annoyed with me when he started questioning me on how the dry eye drops made my eyes feel, when I didn’t answer the questions the way he thought I should be answering them. All I knew was that, I did everything he instructed me to do (steroid drops 4 times a day in both eyes, and the drops for dry eyes in both eyes at least twice per day) and my right eye was worse. Not only was I having these blurry episodes, I also still had that grey/blue blob in the center of my vision that was always there. Along with pain around the eye socket that would come and go. He then begrudgingly, like maybe I was wasting his time, started looking at my eyes and doing whatever tests they do. That’s when he discovered that the pressure was 42 in my right eye. The left eye pressure was within normal range. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that the pressure in my eye must have been caused by the steroid drops. I questioned that, because I was using the drops in both eyes, and I had felt the pressure around that eye before the previous visit. He insisted my eye pressure was normal on the last visit, which may or may not have been the case as eye pressure can fluctuate during the day. I also knew from past experience with my husband’s glaucoma, that sometimes it’s not always easy to get an accurate pressure. So either his office staff did not get an accurate pressure on that previous visit, or my pressure was ok at the time of that visit. I had tried to explain that when I was at that previous visit, it was during one of the days that I was having a good day. Like how do you time these things of when you’re actually having symptoms at the time of your appointment? You can’t always do that, that’s why I’d think it was important to listen to your patient and not cut them off while they were trying to tell you what they were experiencing, instead of assuming you know what the diagnosis is. He instructed me to immediately stop using the steroid drop and to return again the following week. I was upset that I was leaving that office, again back at square one. I didn’t even think about it at that time I was leaving the office, but he should NOT have sent me out of that office with an eye pressure of 42 and no drops to bring down the pressure. After I left that appointment, I was pretty defeated and upset, I immediately called my husband to tell him what had transpired, and he told me I was done with this ophthalmologist, and that he was calling the one he had seen when he was diagnosed with glaucoma. I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible to rest my eye. He called and got me scheduled for the following Tuesday. Later that evening, after my 2nd dilation in a week wore off, I finally had some relief to my symptoms that I had been having for the first time in a long while, not 100%, but better. I suspect one of the many numerous drops he had put in my eye that day, that one of them was a drop for the pressure. The next morning, was Friday. I could tell early in the day that it was going to be a bad day. I was going blurry and I could feel the pressure was building around my eye socket. Out of desperation, I went rifling through our medicine cabinet, because my husband said he had some glaucoma drops stashed in there from last spring when he had to have his previous glaucoma surgery reopened. Sure enough, I found his bottle of Combigan, and the expiration wasn’t until next year. I used 1 drop in that eye. It took almost 2 hours, but that drop finally gave me relief. I knew I could make it through the weekend now and up to my appointment on Tuesday.
I did not use another drop then after Friday, before my appointment on Tuesday. It was manageable after that, and I did not want it to affect what was going on with my eye, so they could figure it out. I was amazed at this appointment. This office, this staff, and the ophthalmologist all knew what they were doing. So much more thorough with their tests. One tech was seeing something unusual, so she called in a 2nd tech to confirm, etc. They were all so nice and actually let me talk. They let me explain in detail what I had been experiencing. They asked me questions, and I asked them questions. When I left there that day, I knew I had a probable diagnosis of narrow angle glaucoma, and I was being referred to a glaucoma specialist to be seen within the week. They also called in a prescription for a glaucoma drop that they wanted me to use once per day, in the right eye only, until my appointment.
After this visit, I felt compelled to call the first ophthalmologist I saw, to update them on what had happened, and I needed to cancel my next appointment with them. I was very nice about it, and I kept my cool. She was sympathetic and apologized more then once. I was up front about my experience with the ophthalmologist and explained what had happened. I asked her to note this in my chart, as at this time I felt that I may still want to see the optometrist there who I’ve seen on and off for a couple of decades and have never had any issue with. I could be wrong, but I got the impression from her that she was not surprised at what I was telling her. She also said that she’d be talking to her manager and that someone would call me back. They never called me back.
The following week, I went for my appointment at the glaucoma specialist. Again, extremely thorough. They were able to show me on the screen photos of both of eyes, and clearly showed me where the narrow angles were on both eyes, the right worse then the left. This causes the fluid in the eye to not drain properly. This was a definitive diagnosis of narrow angle glaucoma. He immediately sent me to a different room that same day, to have a laser procedure done on the right eye in order to open up the drains. He prescribed a steroid drop, (even though the first ophthalmologist claimed that’s what was causing the pressure) to be used for 10 days, along with the glaucoma drop, and both only to be used in the right eye until my next visit in 2 weeks to laser the left eye.
I went back 2 weeks later and had the left eye laser’d. I was instructed to use the steroid drop in the left eye now only for 10 days. He discontinued the use of the glaucoma drop in both eyes. He said the right eye looked good from my laser and was now draining properly.
I will follow up in 3 weeks to see how both eyes are doing and he will dilate at that time to look behind, as he hasn’t yet done that because for the laser procedure I had done, you need to constrict the eye. I am still seeing a purple/blue hazy blob in the center of my vision on my right eye, that he is aware of. And hopefully he’ll be able to figure that out. It may just be some permanent damage. Although the blurry vision is much improved. I will let you know what happens then.
If the laser procedures don’t hold, the next line of treatment for narrow angle glaucoma is cataract surgery. Even though I don’t yet have cataracts (I’m still in my early 50’s) cataract surgery will also correct narrow angle glaucoma. Who knew!
Why am I telling you all of this? Because not every medical professional is good, or know what they’re doing. Follow your gut, don’t be afraid to speak up, or to seek out care elsewhere. You are in charge, not them. They work for you! I knew better, I’ve experienced this before. This time I was being slightly complacent, I guess I’ve gotten out of practice. This time, it took my husband to step in and say enough is enough, and get me on the right track. I’m so grateful for him.
From My Corner Of…
