Fighting Glaucoma: An Action Handbook

ANNOUNCEMENT

The long term challenges faced by people with glaucoma are numerous and important. With such a diagnosis, you have to balance many life demands, of which eye treatments are essential but by no means alone. After all, you are not living to treat glaucoma: you are living a full life into which the treatment of your condition is an intrusion.

Several books written for patients describe what glaucoma is, how it is being treated, and the state of glaucoma research. We are unaware of a book on how to live with the glaucomas, covering practical challenges frequently faced by those with glaucoma, who wish to minimize risk of visual disability or even blindness.

This handbook has been written by an unlikely combination of a physician and a patient. Ivan Goldberg is a world recognized expert in glaucoma treatment. Nahum Goldmann is an experienced high-tech executive, university professor and information scientist. What united us in writing this book is a desire to help people with glaucoma in a practical way.

Treatment of any chronic and serious medical condition is likely to be affected by many other factors, such as money, the wellbeing of your family, your general health, other calls on your time, fitness and lifestyle, housing, your work commitments, and perhaps supporting family members, to name just a few.

You could use this handbook as an everyday reference or as a guide to your glaucoma treatment. We hope you will find it worthwhile to formulate better the reasons for your actions and for your sometimes complicated choices.

We try to address specific issues and anxieties that people with glaucoma might face daily, whether large or small. We aim to guide newly diagnosed individuals, their family and friends, on ‘what is best to do’ – and ‘why’.

This handbook’s focus is on the step by step actions that you, as well as supporting relatives and friends, can take to improve your current situation and outlook. We try to guide you where to find additional help to understand better your condition and your prospects. We hope health professionals who help people with glaucoma also find this book useful.

A digital version of this handbook could be read using computerized gadgets for visually impaired. It could also be computer-translated on the fly to various other languages and without cost, thus reaching the worldwide majority of glaucoma patients who do not read English.

To those who would like to learn more about background science and numerous illustrations, we recommend a companion book by one of our co authors, Glaucoma: How to save your sight!, by I. Goldberg and R. Susanna Jr. (Kugler Publications, 2015).

Glaucoma affects over 60 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. At least half of those affected do not know that they have it. Those who do, are often frustrated in their search for valid and trustworthy information about their disease (there are many different forms of glaucoma) and what they should understand about its nature and treatment in order to obtain the best outcome.

For best results from treatment for glaucoma, patients need to be actively involved in the planning and carrying out of their own care. To be able to do this, they need to understand what is at stake, what needs to be done to save their sight, to know what to do and how to do it. While most of this knowledge comes from a strong relationship with a caring ophthalmologist, a great deal more could be gained with the help of a reader-friendly book that reinforces that knowledge and understanding.

There is a great deal of information, and also misinformation, on the internet, and many advertisements for treatments which may be not yet tested and proven, such as stem cell treatment. Over the years, there have been several books written for patients about glaucoma. What is needed, however, is a book that is written understandably, honestly, and fully explanatory of the different aspects of the nature, causation, manifestations, and treatment of glaucoma, plus information to guide the reader in searching for further information and assistance.

The book Glaucoma: How to Save Your Sight written by Professors Goldberg and Susanna does just that, and now this companion book by Professors Goldberg and Goldmann augments it effectively. This is a work produced by two extremely well-known, talented and knowledgeable authors and the two manuals should be in the possession of all glaucoma patients, and their ophthalmologists as well.

Robert Ritch, MD, FACS

Shelley and Steven Einhorn Distinguished Chair Professor of Ophthalmology
Surgeon Director Emeritus and Chief, Glaucoma Services
The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai
310 East 14th Street, New York, NY 10003, USA

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1. Coming to terms: First steps

Chapter 2. Evaluations and ongoing monitoring

Chapter 3. Pursuing the treatment

Chapter 4. Types of treatment

Chapter 5. Glaucoma and your health and lifestyle

Appendix 1. Glaucoma diagnosis

Appendix 2. Suggested information searches

Index of recommended search terms