You have two different diseases. One of them is called cataract. This means that the lens inside your eye became cloudy. This usually happens from age. The only way to improve your eyesight is to wash out the cataract. Glasses, eye drops or medications are not going to help. We can remove the cataract and place a clear plastic lens in your eye.
You also have a disease called glaucoma. This occurs when the pressure inside the eye becomes very high. It causes the small blood vessels in the back of the eye to become closed so the blood cannot get to the optic nerve, which is the wire connecting your eyes to your brain. The damage that has occurred to your eyes cannot be reversed and it will worsen until you go blind unless we can lower your eye-pressure. Eye drops will help only temporarily.
There is a procedure that can be done in an effort to reduce the pressure in one of your eyes. This is the best possibility for stopping or slowing down the loss of your eyesight. Without it you are going to go completely blind soon. We create a small hole from inside the eye to underneath the white part of the eye called conjunctiva. The fluid will drain out of your eye through the hole. There is no pain during the procedure, and you might have some discomfort afterwards for a few days but you will not have severe pain.
We can do BOTH procedures on your eye at the same time. This is the best choice to try to improve your vision and also to prevent you from going blind. After the procedure you are going to see better, though there is a chance that the glaucoma damaged your eye to such extent that your vision will not improve. There might also be complications and there is a chance that you will need a second procedure later to correct the complications.
You will need to use drops after the procedure for 6 weeks. If it is successful, very likely after this you will not need eye drops, but there is a small chance you still will. Please, do not go to a traditional healer, he will spoil your eye. Please, think about it and let us know if you wish us to do it. Also please let us know if you have any questions.
I understand the above and I am consenting to the combined cataract and glaucoma procedure in my RIGHT LEFT eye.
Name:……………………………………….. Date: ……………………
You have an eye, which is paining you a lot and is seeing very small or not seeing at all. We are very sorry but there is no way to make your eye see better. Your sight is lost permanently and unfortunately it cannot be restored in any way, including drops, glasses, surgery or traditional medicine. The only way we can help is to make the pain go away. We can give you eyedrops for the pain but usually they are not very effective and they will have to be taken forever. If the drops are finished, the pain will return.
The best solution is to give you an injection behind your eye called Chlorpromazine. It kills the nerve causing the pain but it also kills the optic nerve, which makes you see. This injection will probably control your eye pain for at least a few years. It works most of the time. It will NOT make you see. Sometimes the nerves grow back and the pain returns in a few years. Then it can be repeated.
You can get the medicine in our pharmacy.
You will be sleepy for 2-3 hours after the injection and will have eye swelling and some pain for a few days, which is normal. If your eye pains, take pain pills given by us 3 times daily for a week. Please, return to us if your pain does not resolve in 2 weeks or if it returns any time after this. Do you have any questions?