Finally - The Word On My Eyes!

I had an appointment yesterday with the doctor who did the cataract surgery on my left eye. I talked to his office and told them I wanted a sit down meeting and I wanted three things out of it: 1) What is wrong with my eye(s)?, 2) What has to be done to fix it?, and 3) Why hasn't it been done yet?

Yesterday I showed up wearing my mask and was asked at the desk if I had any objection for a training doctor to sit in. No, I did not mind, in fact I welcomed it as I thought it might encourage my normally silent doctor to speak up. They had me read (or try to read) the eye chart with my left eye and then gave me the dilating drops in both eyes to let the doctor examine me with his microscope.

I went into his office and was introduced to the training doctor, a young woman and the exam began.  He finally stepped back from the equipment and asked the training doctor to have a look. He then started to talk to HER about my problems. I interrupted with a couple of semi-intelligent sounding questions and that seemed to break the ice. Making it sound more like an instruction lesson to her he described my problem.

1) Common wisdom in eye surgery is in the case of a patient with glaucoma, if cataracts exist they should be removed to diminish the possibility of future complications. This is what he had done with my left eye but the right eye was nowhere near bad enough to need surgery yet.

2) He had referred me to a glaucoma specialist (She had already done laser surgery to both eyes and I have a follow-up meeting with her on Monday).  He said that in 25 - 50 years researchers are going to look back at how glaucoma is being treated today and call doctors a bunch of cavemen.

So I asked the obvious question: "So am I to understand that my main problem is glaucoma and not cataracts?" He looked at me like I was some kind of an idiot and said, "Yes, that is correct and that is why I have referred you to a glaucoma specialist". I told him this is what I was beginning to suspect but that he had never told me. "Well", he said, "You know now and I am passing you off to the glaucoma specialist. You will not be seeing me again unless the specialist wants me involved". That was it, he is done with me and happily, I am also done with him. I suspect he is a good doctor, he just suffers from a severe lack of communicating skills. I think it was only because the training doctor was there that I found out what I did.

I asked him what I can expect from the new specialist and he said she will examine my eyes to see how effective the surgery she already did is working. She used her laser to open up the "drain holes" in both eyes to reduce the pressure that was present in both eyes. He said if it hadn't reduced the pressure she had the option of inserting a valve in the back of my eye(s) to keep the pressure at the "perfect" 10mm HG (milometers of mercury). My eyes tested at 15 mm HG which Google tells me is still normal. This pressure in my eyes has always been in the acceptable range which is why it took time to discover my glaucoma.

So that is all I know for now. I will learn more from the specialist on Monday. And oh yes, he suggested I get new glasses made. I knew I needed them I was just delaying it until my eyes were somewhat stabilized. I will ask the specialist what she thinks and then get that process started.

EDIT: I told him of my concerns over my drivers license and he told me not to worry, I am well within the limits for driving.