Seeking input from glaucoma pts who also have KC, high myopia or wear scleral lenses

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2.9 years ago

Tim • 0

@tim

Hi there:

I’m a 53YO male who has had high myopia since birth. I got diagnosed with keratoconus in my late teens, had a cataract removed at age 47 (also have another that is not yet ripe for removal), and got diagnosed with POAG at age 50.

I have worn some form of contact lenses daily since age 7 (first soft, then RGP, now scleral lenses for the last 6 years, the best so far). Without lenses, my vision is 20/400. With scleral lenses, I can see 20/60 and 20/40 in each respective eye.

For the POAG, I am on Zioptan and have had one SLT treatment (R eye only) to lower my IOPs. When I was first referred to the glaucoma doc, the IOPs were roughly 28-30. After three years of treatment, they are routinely now high teens to low 20s. In a couple of weeks, I will be renting an iCare Home tonometer for the first time from the doc, and am very interested to try it.

The other eye problems make figuring out how much damage has been done by the POAG very difficult. The high myopia prevents good imaging of my optic nerve and contributes a significant amount of “noise” to my field tests. My docs have told me that my thin, irregular corneas from KC are probably giving artificially low IOP readings, and that the scleral lenes could be elevating the IOP even further. I have a tentative POAG diagnosis of “mild to moderate, stable,” but have been told that there really is too much else going on to know for sure. I go in every three months for field tests (alternating 24-2 and 10-2), and get a dilated retinal exam 2x annually.

I am a fairly active recreational athlete (run, bike, ski, kayak) and have been trying to de-stress and use controlled breathing meditative techniques, all with the hope of reducing IOP. Unfortunately, my work requires way too much time under deadline stress in front of a computer screen.

I am looking to connect with other people who have any of these same issues (although I hope you don’t have all of them like I do!), and would greatly appreciate any advice or input you could offer.

Also seeking any advice related to using the iCare Home tonometer while I have it for 2 weeks to maximize its usage.