Let me start with a little backstory here: My Mom is 82 awesome and very stubborn years old. About a month ago, she began having problems with her vision. She was seeing a red haze. She was convinced it was cataracts, but from everything I've heard, cataracts don't make everything look red, they make everything darker, and harder to see.
My sister finally convinced her to go to the doctor's office two weeks ago. Her primary care looked in her eyes, and referred her to an optometrist. The optometrist looked in her eyes, and referred her to an ophthalmologist.
She visited the ophthalmologist yesterday.
It turns out that she's got something going on behind her retina. The vein leading into her eyes has greater pressure than the vein leading out. As a result, the blood is leaking out into the space behind her retina. It's not glaucoma.
For now, Mom is to rest, take it easy, and wait. One month from now, she will go back. If the pooling or swelling is worse, the doctor will give her a shot in her eye, which should help break up some of the fluid. If there is no change, or it goes down, then they will leave it alone.
"Above all else," said the doctor, "You must control your blood pressure."
"My blood pressure is fine." Said my Mom. "It dropped so much that I quit taking my blood pressure medicine a few months ago."
The ophthalmologist stared at my Mom for quite some time, measuring out his response.
"Does your primary care doctor know you stopped taking your blood pressure medicine?"
"I think so," said my Mom.
I wasn't present for this appointment. I get the next one. I know the last time my Mom was with her primary care doctor, my sister went to the appointment. I told her to make certain that her PCP knew she had given up her blood pressure meds, but I'm not sure she did.
Mom and I had an argument 3 months ago. She told me that she had given up her blood pressure meds because she didn't like the side effects, and because her blood pressure was already low enough. "I take my blood pressure first thing in the morning before I get out of bed, and it's at 119".
I asked if she had talked to her doctor. I told her that not taking her blood pressure meds could cause some serious health issues.
"I'm not afraid of dying" she told me. "I'm 82. I've lived a great life."
"It's not the dying part that worries me," I retorted. "It's the 'what if you don't die' part. Uncontrolled high blood pressure causes some ugly consequences in your body."
She promptly threw me out of her house. Told me I wasn't supportive. Told me to mind my own business, and told me those wonderful words: You're a teacher, not a doctor. You don't know anything.
And then yesterday, she had the appointment with the eye specialist. I looked up the official diagnosis on WebMD after I talked with my sister. Sure enough, the major cause of her condition is uncontrolled high blood pressure.
And now, I'm worried. If this is the first manifestation of uncontrolled high blood pressure, what else is going on inside of her body? Can the consequences be reversed? I was looking through the list of problems caused by uncontrolled high blood pressure, and the list is ugly. It's a scary list.
High blood pressure is called the silent killer for a reason. Frequently, there are no symptoms until it is too late.
Anyway, the long term consequence of this particular event is that even if the haze clears out and goes away, her vision will not ever be the same again. It will be worse. The chance of this happening again in the same eye or the other eye is very high.
My Mom's highly prized and coveted independence will most likely be coming to an end. She is not allowed to drive anymore. She is only able to run errands when either my sister or I can be there for a day to take her out and about. It's a hard reality check for someone who worked full time until she was 80 years old.
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