I was diagnosed with a rare eye disease recently named pigmentary glaucoma or pigment dispersion syndrome and I figured I’d write about it a bit as when I was told about it and googling my symptoms, I found very little information. So far what I have read, it’s hereditary, it occurs more often in men, ages 20-40 and with age it disappears! Odd.
My First Episode/ Symptom
Night time is when I noticed PSD, the biggest symptom is rainbows around lights or a glowing haze around lights and pain in the eyes, for me a dull pain. To explain the rainbows around lights heres a diagram of what I see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigment_dispersion_syndrome I love wikipedias information.
I love this facebook group where people who have this condition share information:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/32863711306/
Things that help me:
• Do not keep looking at the lights to see if it happening!
• allergies in eyes ie. itching, don`t, also do not use allergy drops, use water and an allergy pill.
• Do not have hot hot steamy showers, steam can cause it, I try and keep the steam down in the bathroom but opening the door and shaving my legs seperately.
• Wear sunglasses outside at all times, even the winter.
• Avoid high impact aerobics.
• Do not rub your eyes hard
• I find lighting does make a difference, driving at night, at a place were you are looking at bright lights in a dark room.
~The few things I noticed that definitely seemed to bring it on was once going to a high impact fitness class and driving a long distance due to my bumpy car. I am hoping that I can soon curb this with eye drops.
Drops I have tried:
Combigan– These seem to work well for taking the pressure down, I notice slight burning when using these drops. These are by far my favorite, I currently only take them when having an episode.
Isopto Carpine 1% – WARNING these drops almost gave me a heart attack! Or a panic attack. These drop move your lens, and you instant lose vision for 3-4 hours! I have a habit of putting drops only in one eye just in case, THANK GOD I did this when trying these for the first time. I could not have driven so thank god Mike was here to drive me to the hospital. These drops scared me, BIG TIME.
Azopt Opht Susp – Used with PMS-Brimonidine 0.2%, These I find work to bring pressure down, however, not as good as the combigan. These ones a thick and make vision blurry, I always used this one first and then PMS-Brimonidine 0.2%.
PMS-Brimonidine 0.2% – I used these drops with Azopt Opht Susp, and the combo did help, but I do not use these anymore.
Rumors
• Smoking cannabis will help lower pressure(I have not tried this)
• The condition is all attributed to lighting (I notice showers more lately)
• Stress can cause it (maybe but I cannot get any concrete answers)
Please let me know what your symptoms are, I am posting this so other people with this condition can find information as I could not find anything when I was having this condition.