Hello Dr. Hagan,
I hope you are doing well!
I had asked you several questions about my CSR and Wet MD conditions over the last five months. I wanted to thank you again for your generous answers! I am currently on my fourth Avastin injection and OCT is showing significant fluid clearing in the right eye, but the vision is still blurry and wavy when the lighting is not good. If you don't mind, I have a question about my father's Glaucoma Treatment.
Details:
1) Father is 85, lives alone in India and has help when needed.
2) He was diagnosed with Glaucoma in 2001 and was in the care of an Ophthalmologist until 2011 and since then has been seeing a Glaucoma Specialist (GS).
3) His eye pressures are well controlled and is currently (measured yesterday during a visit) at 11 and 11 (cornea is thin, but the GS told me he has applied the corrections for the eye pressure).
4) He is currently on a single eye drop : Timolol (5mg) + Travoprost (40mcg) and an eye drop for dry eyes and takes an antioxidant soft gel capsule.
5) He sees the GS once every five months.
I talk to the GS after every visit. The GS has always maintained that since my father’s Glaucoma is advanced, the OCT does not have much utility. A visual field test was done yesterday after a year and the results were not reliable. Therefore, the GS told me he will use eye pressure to gauge progression and increase the number of drops if the eye pressure increases or father has any vision issues. So far, father has not had any vision problems. He does not drive and is always with a caretaker when he leaves home.
Questions:
1) With the current treatment, it seems like we are checking eye pressure every 5 months and/or waiting for father to detect vision changes. It is not pro-active. Your thoughts?
2) I have read about Macular OCT and OCT Angiography for advanced Glaucoma. Can these tests detect progression before they show up in increased eye pressure or vision changes?
3) Can Macular OCT be done in the same machine that does regular OCT?
4) Would you happen to know if OCT Angiography would be available in countries like India?
Sorry for the long message. Thank you for your time!