A Bump in the Road

I was instructed to begin inserting steroid eye drops four times a day for four days. I wasn’t prepared for how the drops would feel after the procedure. I began to feel like I had multiple eyelashes in my eyes. Worried that something was wrong, I looked up the side effects of the drops, and sure enough, a foreign body sensation was one of them. I resigned myself to dealing with the discomfort and tried to distract myself. Though the sensation was gone by the next day, the white line from the iridotomy was not.

The white line has been visible under certain conditions, particularly in dim light and when I’m looking down. For the most part, I’ve been able to ignore it. Unfortunately, my other side effects haven’t been as easy to ignore  - recurring headaches and nausea. Since I wasn’t quite sure if this was a delayed reaction to the constricting drops or if I should be concerned about my eye pressure, I debated calling the doctor. Of course, it happened to be the weekend. I didn’t want to overreact, but I also didn’t want to mess with my eyes.

I finally caved and called. The doctor was very reassuring and suggested I get my pressure checked.  She mentioned that I could be a steroid responder or have inflammation in my eyes and explained that I may need additional drops to keep the pressure down. I hoped that it was neither of these issues since both were not only concerning, but could result in a cancellation of my surgery. Fortunately, my fears were alleviated when my pressure turned out to be 13 in each eye - perfect! Hoping for smooth sailing from here with only 3 days to go until surgery!!

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