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My glaucoma was initially picked up by an Optometrist in 1991 when I went to him to get my glasses checked, thinking I needed new glasses.
He detected it on a visual field test and immediately referred me to an Ophthalmologist. There began my long journey.
At that stage, I had already lost quite a lot of vision in one eye. But with a multitude of eye drops the pressure was able to be controlled reasonably well until 1995 when I had my first trabeculotomy. This controlled the pressure in my left eye for many years and is in fact still in place and functioning.
In 2008, I had another trabeculotomy in my right eye this time. This was followed by many hours of laser treatment and many changes of drops. The laser was unsuccessful but drops kept the pressure reasonably controlled until I had a cataract removed from my right eye in June 2020. This made things much worse.
In September 2021, I had open heart surgery lasting 8 hours. Since then, I’ve been experiencing increasing blindness.
I remind my 4 children constantly to never forget their regular eye pressure check and visual field.
I remind my 4 children constantly to never forget their regular eye pressure check and visual field.Kerry
Living in York Peninsula community two hour's drive from Adelaide and with no optometrist in her local community, Debra booked an appointment as soon as she could. That’s when she received her life changing diagnosis.
When Bette Smith’s cousin told her they had glaucoma in the family, she did what all Australians should be doing, she got her eyes checked.
My mother was diagnosed with glaucoma when she was about seventy, so I was closely monitored. When there were indicators that I could be following the same path, I was referred to a glaucoma specialist.