I spy, with my 85-year-old eye

Over at the National Library for Health, this week is National Knowledge Week on Glaucoma (it seems the National Health Librarians are as puzzled by prespositions as everyone else is) in which new research on glaucoma is made easily vailable to health care professionals, at great benefit to the community at large. This is not to be confused with Glaucoma Awareness Week, which was in June.

The first thing to know is that there is more than one kind of glaucoma. "Angle closure" - acute, as opposed to chronic - glaucoma is not covered by the National Library for Health's Knowledge Week. I suppose, because it is less common and more specific - that is, less of a 'public health' issue in the way that chronic, common, open angle glaucoma is.

Well, I'm a bit hurt. A bit miffed. I'm sure that making some up-to-date research more available to health care practitioners might help some young angle-closure glaucoma patient who otherwise runs the risk of being told she has migraine; but maybe they'll be doing that another time.

Come to that, I could have done with knowing a few things before I did (e.g., "acute angle-closure can become asymptomatic as it progresses over years"; "in fact, it can become sub-acute, as the angles narrow and the eyes become less able to maintain a healthy pressure in between 'acute attacks'"; and "nerve damage isn't the only kind of damage to the eye, so don't imagine, just because they say the nerve looks fine, that your eye has sustained no damage").

Other things I have learned, presented here as a public service:
1. If you are young, present with episodic pain in one eye, and that pain includes halos around lights & darkness of vision, and they diagnose migraines - ask to be tested for glaucoma just in case!

2. Classic acute glaucoma comes on at night, when the pupils are dilated in the poor light. If you have an attack and have no eye drops, or can't get to a hospital, go to bed. The eyes go into a resting position when you sleep which should allow them to normalise.

3. If you have glaucoma, read a lot and suffer from eyestrain, it is important - get reading glasses! Apparently it can raise the pressure (I've been asking doctors about eyestrain since - get this - 1987, and only just got a consultant to engage on the subject)

4. If you do yoga, headstands are out if you have glaucoma

5. If you have glaucoma and you are young, you will be an anomaly, possibly even being asked to sign autographs for trainee doctors, and you will have to ask for every scrap of information. Moat of the care is based on patients upwards of age fifty. Never stop asking.

6. Decongestant flu remedies, like DayNurse, NightNurse, etc, can raise the pressure in the eyes - who knew? Read the info in over-the-counter drugs.

7. Over-the-counter eye drops like Optrex are also out of the question

8. Acute, angle-closure glaucoma is more common in women than men - so where are all the women on the list below??

famous sufferers include:
Elvis Presley
Gore Vidal
James Joyce
Wild Bill Hickock
Claude Monet
Woody Harrelson
Alec Guinness
Astronaut John Glenn
Bill Cosby
Jilly Cooper
apparently, Galileo
Ray Charles
Jose Feliciano

See this week's Elegantly Dressed Wednesday post (coming up in, ahem, two days) for yet more on the glittering carousel that is Glaucoma Knowledge.