Let us discuss the best ways to use the internet to better serve patient interests. My site, supereyecare.com, was started with this goal in mind. I have provided links to some useful free information sources that I commonly refer to as great patient guides. What you get that is extra is other information and sites that cost very little but can serve you and your loved ones extremely well right away and in the future.
I also believe in community support and as such will work with charitable institutions for the blind and blindness prevention, such as the Montreal Association for the Blind (MAB), to provide some opportunities for further community support. For now, this is in the form of artwork sales, for which I charge no fee yet serve as a link between the artist, the consumer and the Institution.
My question to you is how do you see this benefiting you and others and do you see ways in which I can help you even more?
I eagerly await your input!
Shawn Cohen, MD
3 comments:
I have a question rather than a comment. I have had open angle glaucoma for 15 years (I'm now 81) and three of my near family members have it. The last few years I have used Xalatan before bedtime in each eye.
I had a field of vision and an optic nerve exam 2 days before leaving for Europe. I received a letter from my opthamologist - the day after the exam - stating that I no longer needed to use the Xalatan as I no longer had glaucoma. Since I was leaving for Europe there was no time to talk with my doctor. I feel very uncertain about his statement. HOW could I become cured of glaucoma? My father was blind long before my age but there were not drops etc as medication.
If you can give me some reassurance that becoming cured of glaucoma is possible I would greatly appreciate it. I have stopped using the drops - a great money saving.
Margaret Diamond
Glaucoma is not a disease you can get cured from, simply because the cause is yet unknown. What might have happened is that you were considered a "suspect", such that you were treated with Xalatan "to be safe".
A normal visual field should never be used to suggest that someone does not have glaucoma for several reasons. First, only the central 24 to 30 degrees of the visual field is usually measured and damage may only be seen in the periphery, such as 40-50 degrees, in the early stages of glaucoma. Second, there is a lot of redundancy in the eye circuitry such that one would need to loose far more that half of the optic nerve to even begin to see any changes in the visual field. Finally, glaucoma is defined as a "characteristic optic neuropathy", in other words, the nerve looks like it has a problem. Visual fields are used to quantify the problem but not determine if it exists.
Eye pressure is also not part of the definition of glaucoma. One can have glaucoma in the presence of a "normal" eye pressure (range 10-21 millimeters of mercury or mm Hg) and still have glaucoma. Conversely, patients with pressures above 21 may not have any nerve damage and are thus simply referred to as ocular hypertensives.
In short, I am uneasy about stopping the drops as a cure would not be expected. Please revisit your doctor for a discussion as to why the drops were stopped. A photograph of your optic nerve may be useful to follow the nerve to see if it changes over time. A second opinion on the matter, by a glaucoma specialist, might be indicated.
Best of luck and best of health!
This is great info to know.
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