Glaucoma

[Marigold2]

Hi Pam,
Like you I also worked front office and I did insurance. Always fun. However the Dr I worked for went into great detail if you had a question, any question was followed by a 10 minute discussion where you learned more then you wanted or needed usually. On Fridays I was often the only person in the office so I had to know a bit about the meds, take all the emergency calls and then pass those messages along to the Dr who would then come in if needed. I remember that the first laser I had three years ago used the hot light, and the new one uses a cool light. Much better. Their actual full name I am not sure about now. Most patient start on drops and their pressure goes down to a nice 15 or 16, not in my case, with pills and drops everyday I was still hitting 32. So scary.
You are so right about people with diabetes. We take our eyesight for granted and it is so precious. Thank you for your kind support. I am sure you are a great comfort to all the patients.
To Laura there are websites you can go to for extra info.

[Pam]

Hi Pam,

the Dr I worked for went into great detail if you had a question, any question was followed by a 10 minute discussion where you learned more then you wanted or needed usually.

HA! For a minute I thought you were describing MY doctor. I think that is the reason that none of us ask him many questions! He is like that in the exam room with patients and I suppose that is a good thing, but unfortunately they can't begin to grasp everything he is saying (brief is often better ) and then sometimes he just confuses them. It sounds like you were wearing many hats in your office with quite a lot of responsibility!

My doctor used to do his lasers at the eye center in the hospital but he now does them in our office. I have not heard the patients mention having pain from the procedure but maybe by the time they get to me it has subsided?

A large part of our patients are elderly as he also specializes in cataract surgery. I love working with elderly patients as they are so sweet and slow to complain about things. They often send us post cards when they go on vacation and bake us goodies at Christmas. One of our very favorite patients passed away and all of us girls went to his funeral. He and his wife were such special people and we wanted to be there for her and just to let her know how much we would miss him too. I know I am getting away from the theme of this thread but it was enjoyable to share some of my experiences with you. I know you have probably had similar experiences. It's been nice chatting with you.

[critters]

I've had glaucoma since I was a teen, but I'm wary of surgery. My mom, who also has/had glaucoma, had at least 3 surgeries on her eyes, which seems to have destabilized them. My grandfather "lost" his glaucoma when they took out his cataracts!!

[Rachel]

This has been a very informative thread. My husband has been on drops for over a year. He is religious about using them, but I've never knew that there were specific readings on the pressure. I've simply relied on him to let me know whatever details there are involved. Obviously he isn't keeping me up on those. This morning I going to ask him. I'm willing to bet his doesn't have a clue himself. He's a long way from being an informed patient and I don't blame his doctor.

[Laura's Babies]

I find my doctor in non informative. He tells me nothing but "Here, use these drops and come back in "X" weeks...."

It use to be you could call and get right in to see him in a few days, since Katrina, it takes a month to 6 weeks to get in. (We are only about a hour from New Orleans and a lot of those people have settled up here so ALL the doctors offices are always super booked now.)