Glaucoma Screening
An eye disease can be frightening, especially one like glaucoma,
which can rob you of your sight without you even knowing you
have the disease.
Lois Madison has gone blind in her right eye three different
times.
"When
I started having problems, I was around 40ish," she says.
Now
at 70, she's been living with glaucoma for 15 years and has
been under the watchful eye of Opthamologist Dr. Patrick Villani
of St. John Hospital.
"He
did visual screening tests, so he detected it once it appeared
when there wasn't peripherial vision," Lois says.
Dr.
Villani says glaucoma has no symptoms and requires elaborate
techniques to detect it.
"The
last figures i read, two million people have it and one million
are not aware that they have glaucoma," he says.
Glaucoma
runs in Colleen Kretzschmar's family -- her mother is blind
in one eye.
"It's
very frightening losing your eyesight, I have an aunt that
gradually lost her eyesight," she says. "It's very frightening
for her to lose her independence."
But screening has changed greatly over the last 30 years.
Dr. Villani says it used to be doctors rarely checked pateints
under 40 for glaucoma, but now that has changed and it is
evident on the street.
"When
was the last time you saw a white cane or a seeing eye dog,"
he says.
More
aggressive and consistent screening saved Lois Madison's eyesight
and thanks to medication, regular three-month check-ups and
eye drops, she's seeing life.
"I
am in my senior years and I have such good care, I'm at 12/13
and this is a miracle," she says.
