Topic: In the blink of an eye: what you need to know about glaucoma

Audience: Speech class

Main idea: How glaucoma prognosis can be prevented with treatment options such as medicines, laser treatments and surgeries.

INTRODUCTION

Slide 1: Glaucoma: the silent thief of sight

It’s called “the silent thief” for a reason: it’s usually painless and has no immediate symptoms. More than 270,000 Canadians have some form of glaucoma – an incurable eye disease – and yet half of them don’t know it.

I am one of nearly 7,500 Nova Scotians who has glaucoma and I’ve had the disease since I was 14 years old. My doctor always educated me about how glaucoma is a silent “sight stealer” and that my medications are like oxygen to my body. He told me it could cause permanent vision loss if I didn’t adhere to my medication schedule – and he was absolutely right.

Today, I am here to talk to you about glaucoma – what it is, the two different types, the symptoms, who is at risk and treatments. I will then reveal to you my personal experience having grown up with the silent thief.

Slide 2: What it is, the different types and who is at risk

Slide 3: What is glaucoma?

TRANSITION: But first, what exactly is glaucoma?

SPEECH BODY

Glaucoma involves damage to the optic nerve, often caused by high pressure inside the eye, although occasionally people with normal eye pressure may also develop glaucoma. It is usually painless and has no immediate symptoms.

Over time the disease may cause loss of peripheral or side vision, followed by “tunnel” vision or complete loss of sight. Since the disease progresses over many years, some people do not realize they have it until vision loss is permanent and irreversible.

Slide 4: Normal eye and eye with glaucoma

Slide 5: From normal to “tunnel vision”

Slide 6: What are the different types?

The two main types of glaucoma are open-angle glaucoma and closed-angle glaucoma.

Open-angle glaucoma is the most common form and 90 per cent of glaucoma patients have this type. It is caused by a slow clogging of drainage canals with a wide and open angle between the iris and cornea. It develops slowly and is life lasting. It has no visible symptoms until permanent damage to your vision has already been done.

Closed-angle glaucoma is a not so common form. It has a closed or narrow angle between the iris and the cornea. It develops fast and requires urgent medical attention. Symptoms include throbbing eye pain, eye redness, headaches or migraines, blurry vision, halos around lights, dilated pupils and nausea or vomiting.

Slide 7: Who is at risk?

So, who is most at risk?

You are more likely to get the disease if you:

• are over the age of 40,
• are African American,
• have a family history of glaucoma,
• have low vision, diabetes, or high blood pressure,
• have high eye pressure, and
• if you are far-sighted or near-sighted.

If you are diagnosed with glaucoma, you are more likely to sustain your remaining eyesight by consulting with your eye doctor regularly, by taking your medication faithfully and by going for treatments.

Slide 8: Treatment: What are the different types?

Transition: What exactly are the different kinds of treatments used to stop the disease from progressing?

Slide 9: Treatment

Medications – many with names I can barely pronounce – like Xalatan, Travatan, Lumigan, Cosopt, Alphagan P, Brimonodine, and Simbrinza – are common. Your eye doctor may prescribe them in combination with one another for better results.

Another option is having laser procedures done to open up “clogged channels” in your eye – and this can be performed right in your eye doctor’s office.

Ophthalmologists – a fancy name for eye surgeons – often perform filtering surgery, where an incision is made in the white part of the eye and some of the trabecular meshwork is removed. This is called a trabeculoplasty. Another common procedure is done where a drainage tube or a shunt is inserted inside your eye that can help drain the fluids and help to keep eye pressure stabilized.

Transition: I know a thing or two about these treatments because they’ve been a big part of my life over the last 20 years.

Slide 10: Personal story

Now, I’m going to share with you my own personal and somewhat painful story. Think back to when you were 14 years old. Did you do everything that adults told you to?

My doctor always tried to educate me about the dangers of the disease – but at age 14, I was too young to understand the importance of adhering to my medication schedule.

I didn’t take my eye drops everyday. At the time, I was only on one eye medication. I took it faithfully for the first two years and whenever I missed it, I noticed it had no effect on my vision. Internally, however, damage was being done to my optic nerve and that damage can only be detected by an eye physician by staring into the eye with a special light and scope.

He knew I was missing them and as a result I was put on travatan, a stronger medication I had to take in conjunction with the cosopt I was currently taking at the time.

When I was 18, my eye doctor gave me information on the disease and told me to read it. Despite his efforts to educate, I continued missing medications here and there, thinking it would do no visible harm to my eyes because I didn’t notice anything.

At age 21, I lost the right view in my left eye and my pressure was 38 The normal pressure range for my eyes is a pressure reading of 15 and below. If higher, further damage to my optic nerve can ensue. He put me on a new pill-form medication that was more potent than the travatan and cosopt. I remember how it gave me a funny sensation in my feet. At this point, permanent damage was done and was irreversible.

My lost vision was not coming back.

My eye doctor experimented with many different combinations of medicine and when I was 31, I went for a shunt procedure at the Q-E-2 with a glaucoma specialist and surgeon. My pressure was 51 in the left eye, way above the 15 mark. I was seeing halos around lights and everything was foggy. I had massive migraines around the affected eye and my right eye was starting to dominate.

A year after the surgery, permanent damage was done to my vision as a result of a post-surgical complication. Doctors were reluctant to send me for surgeries in the first place because of potential effects but it was the only way to relieve the painful migraines around my eye.

I now have no vision in my left eye. I can only see lights and figures moving around. I am legally blind in my right eye, but I have enough remaining functional vision to get me by in my regular day-to-day activities and in school. I am living proof that anyone can become affected by the harmful effects of this disease.

CONCLUSION

As I said, glaucoma is a silent thief and the scary part is that some of us here in this room may have it and not know it. I urge you to go for regular eye examinations once every two years and even more frequently if you are over the age of 40. Talk to your friends and loved ones and urge them to make an appointment with their optometrist if they haven’t been for an eye exam in a while.

If you ever become diagnosed – and I hope you don’t – know that treatment is available. Do not go off schedule with your meds. Trust me, I know the importance of adhering strictly to your medication schedule to save and preserve your sight.

Slide 11: Thank you! Do you have any questions?

So to wrap up, I want to thank you all for being here and for listening to my talk. You were a wonderful audience and I hope you gained valuable knowledge about what glaucoma is and how it can be treated to prevent permanent vision loss. Remember to always trust the advice of your eyecare physician and don’t stop taking your medications like I did. It can save your sight.

During this speech, we covered what the disease is and its prevalence among the Canadian population, its different types, the symptoms, who is at risk, the most common medical treatments and my experience living with the condition for the past 20 years. Thank you for your time. Do you have any questions?

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