Me and my operation: Five-minute op means no more painful eye drops for glaucoma

By Carol Davis

PUBLISHED: 22:47, 3 June 2013 | UPDATED: 01:58, 4 June 2013

More than half a million Britons have the eye condition glaucoma, which damages sight. Gill Robinson, 61, a retired carer from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, had a new procedure, as she tells CAROL DAVIS.THE PATIENT

A new five-minute laser treatment means those who suffer from glaucoma will no longer have to use painful eye drops
When I started getting headaches at the age of 35, I had my eyes checked because I was driving people with learning disabilities.
I was prescribed glasses, which stopped the headaches, but during routine tests they found the pressure in my eyes was high. The optician explained the fluid that keeps your eyeball in the right shape can start to damage your sight if it can’t drain away.

This is because pressure in the eye builds up and damages the optic nerve. That worried me, but tests each year showed the pressure wasn’t high enough for doctors to take action.

But a test in 2004 showed the pressure reading had risen to 35 – normal is ten or 12. I was referred to Rupert Bourne, who saw me two weeks later.

He said I was at risk of developing glaucoma, where the pressure is so high it causes damage and sight loss.

The fluid in the eye drains away through tiny channels into the veins around the  eye – but in some people these holes become blocked.
He prescribed eye drops to keep the pressure down and said he’d see me again in nine months’ time.

Each night, I’d have to pull my lid down to put the drops in before I went to sleep and they would sting horribly. My eyes were permanently sore and red, and people thought I’d been crying.

In 2011, the pressure was rising again. Mr Bourne explained the drops can stop working over time. He said he could put a tiny titanium tube into the corner of my eye. This would force open the drainage channels.