Other than
wearing glasses and having dry and itchy eyes sometimes, I don’t have other problems
with my eyes. Yet, out of curiosity, I ask the optometrist to check my eyes
after she examines my son’s eyes.
The
optometrist does a general test. She asks me to return in the morning with my
son to check the back of our eyes. The next morning, after examining my son’s
eyes, she examines mine. Then she says, “You need to see a specialist
immediately.”
She makes
an appointment for me. I feel scared.
One week
later, the eye specialist examines my eyes. Two days later, I return for my
results. The specialist seems concerned.
“What’s
wrong?” I ask.
“You have
glaucoma.”
"What's
glaucoma?"
"It's a buildup of fluid in your eyes and you could go blind. We need to take care of
you and monitor you every month.” She prescribes Xalatan eye drops and recommends
I learn vision impairment skills for precaution.
I have
pigmentary glaucoma. My left eye pressure is 27 and my right eye pressure is
20. When I was young, I remember that some people in my family became blind,
but they were in their 70’s or older. I thought they were blind because
they were old. I’m 39. I don’t want to be blind like the people in my
family. I hope the eye drops work.
Every day I
look at things twice to see if I can really see. I worry my husband will leave
me. I worry about my children. I want to make them happy, not depend on them. I
want to see them do many things. Graduate from high school. Get married. But, I must face the future and hope I will
always have eyesight to guide my life and my children.
This is Alesha's story. I interviewed her. Alesha is not her real name. (I gave it to her because it means protected by God). She wants to keep her name private because her children does not know of her condition.
=================
Glaucoma info: http://www.kellogg.umich.edu/patientcare/conditions/glaucoma.html
