NWPR: Narrow angles in eyes

[k3am]

Does anyone have this?

I went to the eye doctor for the first time in... 15 years, maybe more. My vision is great, but the doctor says I have narrow angles (a precursor for glaucoma) and is referring me to a specialist, and she says the standard treatment is a laser procedure. 

Besides that, I have no idea what it means. How worried should I be about this? (I mean, I'm probably going to worry too much anyways. I was never a hypochondriac before I had kids, but with all the bad luck we've had health-wise, I'm assuming it means nothing good.)

And it doesn't help that she dilated my eyes and I'm stuck at work with very minimal ability to see. (Thank you zoom 280% feature for letting me type this.)

[covergirl82]

I believe my mom had something similar (although I can't remember if it was pre-glaucoma or pre-cataracts) - she had something like tunnel vision, where her peripheral vision was basically gone. She had laser surgery last January and it was pretty quick and easy, then she had eye drops for a couple weeks.

[2chatter]

My mom had the same - the surgery was very quick and recovery was a ton of drops. I’d get a second opinion as DH was told the same and he went to get a second and they said nope, so he got a third tie breaker, who also said not needed.

[k3am]

I'm waiting to see if Kaiser will just accept that I saw an optometrist and refer to me to their ophthalmologist or if I need to see their optometrist first before getting a referral through them... so many hoops.

[mommyatty]

An ophthalmologist needs to make this call. Basically what they are saying is the structure of your eye is such that pressure isn’t going to be able to equalize as you age. An optometrist really isn’t trained to make a call like that.

FWIW, my first job in high school was as a vet tech for an animal ophthalmologist. This was among the easiest procedures we did and the animals seemed happy as could be when it was over.

[k3am]

Update: Saw the ophthalmologist today. She said she saw NO signs of narrow angles and didn't understand why the optometrist would suggest it, but that since she had me there, she wanted to make sure I got a "real" eye exam that we can rely on... so I ended up dilated again. I'm 20/20 and have no indication of any kind of eye issue beyond some sun damage that's been there for 20 years.

I am a-okay with the conclusion.

[waverly]

I'm glad you got good news. But ugh why did they put you through that worry?

[2chatter]

That’s exactly what they did to DH k3am. Glad for a good outcome!

[mommyatty]

Just a PSA: Always see an ophthalmologist. Not an optometrist. It’s really amazing what your eyes can tell a medical doctor about your health. My dad had these really odd symptoms in his early 20s. Weakness in his legs, balance issues, severe cramps in his hands and feet. Then he started having double vision. After having been passed for more than a year from doctor to doctor and accused of faking symptoms to get disability benefits, an ophthalmologist looked at his eyes and told him to see a neurologist because he was 90% sure my dad had multiple sclerosis. And he did.

I had to find a new ophthalmologist because mine decided he just wanted to do LASIK and hired a bunch of optometrists to do annual exams. I want an MD doing that check every year, not a technician. Plus I’ve had two optometrists screw up contact lens prescriptions and one of them did such a bad job with my fitting that it actually could have seriously damaged my eye. Luckily I knew the contacts felt wrong and went to an ophthalmologist when I was back in my home town. I had to lay off contacts for a few months while my poor squished eyeballs healed.