I hate to start this post by harping but for crying out loud HAVE YOUR EYES CHECKED YEARLY! I have had 3 patients in the last few weeks who have had eye conditions that were treatable if they had just come in just a little sooner....but they didn't.
Let me go a little eye geek on you. Don't worry I'll keep it simple. You have 2 eyeballs. You want to maintain them for as long as you live since seeing is a big part of your existence.
Today I will be talking about glaucoma simplified.
Glaucoma: this is increased eye pressure that damages the optic nerve and therefore can cause severe vision loss if not treated promptly.
You have a drain in your eye kind of like a drain in a bathtub. If the drain gets plugged up the fluid in the eye backs up and causes the eye pressure to rise. Now imagine all the little blood vessels that supply the retina and optic nerve with food an oxygen getting crushed due to the increased pressure. Well, they can't deliver an adequate amount of O2 so the tissues start to die. Unfortunately you won't be able to feel this unless you have a very rare type of glaucoma called angle closure glaucoma. I won't get into this right now.
If glaucoma is diagnosed very early on vision most likely can be saved. There are special eye drops that are used usually just once a day. It opens the drain (kind of like draino you use in a bathtub to unclog the drain) and allows the pressure in the eye to lower.
Bottom line: get your eyes check EVERY year even if your eyes feel "fine".
Remember you only have one set of eyes and I can't give you new ones if your old ones start to wear out.
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