"With his vision stabilized, Arvind thrives in his professional role, thanks to effective glaucoma care.”
At 45, Arvind was at the peak of his career, working as a project manager for a prestigious IT company. He was known for his meticulous attention to detail and his ability to manage multiple tasks efficiently.
However, over the past year, Arvind began noticing changes in his vision. He found it increasingly difficult to focus on his computer screen and experienced frequent headaches. His peripheral vision started to diminish, making it challenging to navigate his daily commute and office environment. The once confident and capable Arvind became anxious and stressed, fearing that his vision problems might jeopardize his career.
“When the pressure in my eye was really high, it felt like a balloon about to pop,” Arvind said. “There was also sharp, piercing pain near my temple, a pressure headache. When I stood up, my vision clouded over. There were halos around lights all the time, but especially at night.”
Arvind was diagnosed with recurrent anterior uveitis of his left eye, a relatively uncommon condition in which the coloured part of the eye becomes inflamed, sometimes for unknown reasons. His ophthalmologist treated him with anti-inflammatory steroid eye drops, but these had the dangerous side effect of increasing the pressure in his eye and causing glaucoma – a condition in which blindness can occur due to optic nerve damage from persistently elevated pressure. After nearly a year of treatment, the episodes of eye inflammation continued, and it seemed his condition was not improving.
At the recommendation of a family friend, he sought out the expert opinion of an internationally renowned uveitis specialist at Dr. Shroff’s. The specialist was concerned about the rising pressure in his left eye, which was now twice the upper limit of normal (normal eye pressure is considered 10-21 mmHg). He knew that vision loss that could occur as a result of glaucoma damage.
That same week, he was referred to see a glaucoma specialist at the hospital. His doctor initially made some changes to Arvind’s medications with the hope of avoiding surgery, but this only led to a minimal improvement in his pressure. At this point, he was using five different medications to try to control the eye pressure, so doctor recommended he undergo urgent surgery to lower the pressure and save his sight. While traditional glaucoma surgery involves making a large incision or placing a large tube in the eye to lower the pressure, his treating doctor thought he was a good candidate for a newer, minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS). The advantage of MIGS in Arvind’s case would be a lower risk of complications and a faster, easier recovery.
The morning after surgery, the pressure in Arvind’s eye had dropped back to normal levels. Now, six months later, not only is her pressure controlled, but his uveitis has not recurred, thanks to a new, simpler treatment regimen.
He was very happy to find that the pressure in his eye had decreased as expected, confirming that the surgery had solved the problem. He was grateful for the care he received at SCEH and to be able to focus on his life and career.Share on: