‘I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT GLAUCOMA UNTIL I LOST MY SIGHT!’
Editor Grace Kang-Ong interview Stevens Chan, a high-flying managing director of a training and motivational company, who lost his sight due to glaucoma.
“I didn’t know what glaucoma was until one day when I had a terrible migraine,” says Stevens Chan. “I had never had migraine before. I thought it was a normal headache and when to a general physician for treatment. He didn’t really inspect my condition and just prescribed me a painkiller.
“The pain didn’t go away. On the second day, I went back to the clinic and met another doctor. She suspected something was amiss and did a visual acuity test.”
Stevens fared badly in the test. “I couldn’t see the letters clearly – they were blurry. She referred me to an ophthalmologist.
“I went to a private eye hospital and immediately my eye pressure was checked. The first eye to get glaucoma was my right one – the intra-ocular pressure (IOP) had shot up to 50mmHg (the normal level is 15.5mmHg).
“The ophthalmologist immediately had me warded as it was an emergency case and put me on an intravenous (IV) drip to bring down the pressure. By late evening, the pressure subsided, but it was still at a dangerous level. The doctor said he had to perform surgery to insert a valve into my retina.”
By inserting a valve, the aqueous humor would be redirected out off the eye capacity into an outlet chamber. “I was told I would have to keep a card with me all the time. If I were to meet with an accident, then the emergency doctor treating me would know that. I had a glaucoma valve in each of my eye. And these valve are very expensive – they are made of platinum! So, I have very costly eyes now,” Stevens jokes.
However, the surgery didn’t solve his problem. “After the surgery, I suffered a lot of complications, even until today,” says Stevens, who recently underwent an eighth surgery on his left eye to release his IOP.
“The doctor who attended to me told me that recovery depends very much on the patient’s physical condition,” explains Stevens, who was diagnosed with glaucoma seven years ago at the age of 40. At the time of diagnosis, Stevens also had type 2 diabetes.
“Since I was young, my body tended to heal faster. So when there’s a scar, the body naturally heals fast and the valve became blocked. The doctor then injected a solution to prevent fibrosis, but that didn’t work and my IOP kept increasing.”
Stevens recalls that at one time, he was applying up to four different types of eye drops and had to take a pill a day to bring down the eye pressure. Some of these medications can hurt the kidneys in the long run, so Stevens was warned not to over – use them. “But still my eye pressure remained high.”
When IOP is constantly high, there is a danger of the optic nerves in the eyes being damaged. And this condition is irreversible. “I still have about 5% of good optic nerves in my left eye. My right eye is completely damaged – there’s no optic nerve left.”
As the pressure in Stevens’ left eye kept increasing, the doctor told him that another valve had to be inserted.
“One of my early mistakes was not seeking a second opinion,” Stevens laments. “When I went in to insert a valve in the other eye, I didn’t really get a good consultation or seek a second opinion. A lot of complications set in after that as I was young and there’s a risk of fibrosis, in which the healing of the scar will block the valve later on.”
He later learned from another ophthalmologist that there’s another method besides inserting another valve, ie, to cut off the membrane that is blocking the existing valve.
“This ophthalmologist told me that at my age it is normal for the healing process to block the valve.” He underwent surgery to remove the membrane before Christmas last year and his eye pressure has remained within the normal range ever since.
“My current ophthalmologist is doing his best to maintain the pressure of my left eye. Hopefully, I will one day be able to see with my remaining good optic nerves,” says Stevens, who is now blind.
As he runs a health screening programme, he actively urges his customer to check their eye health. Besides the usual eye pressure test, his center also tests the condition of the optic nerves at the back of the eyes.
“Out of 160 people who walk into our center, 10 are detected with higher than normal IOP. Sadly, the awareness about glaucoma is still very low.
“Get an eye check–up yearly. Start doing this when you are 30 years old,” Stevens advises. “This is especially so for people who suffer from diabetes and hypertension, and those whose jobs require a lot of computer work.
“One of my cousins was diagnosed with glaucoma (IOP 25mmHg) recently and he’s only 30. His sister also has glaucoma. Both of them are now applying eye drops. Glaucoma tends to run in the family, so if a relative has it, have your eye checked regularly.
It is not true that pain always accompanies glaucoma. “My doctor told me I have a high level of pain tolerance. By right, I should have felt the headache earlier. Some people can’t stand the pain when the pressure is about 20mmHg. When’s it 50mmHg, a normal person would faint.”
Glaucoma stars by damaging a person’s peripheral eye sight. “when eye pressure shoots up very high, you can actually see white. Then your vision became milky. When I had migraine, my vision became blurry.
“About a year before I developed migraine, I already had the symptoms of glaucoma, but I thought I was developing presbyopia and needed reading glasses. With reading glasses, I could sometimes see better, but most of the time, I couldn’t, so after a while I stopped wearing them.” Little did he realize that those were actually the early symptom of glaucoma.
After losing his sight less than the year after the first diagnosis, the Chans have made a lot of readjustment to their life. From a high-flyer and important person in his company, he now
has to depend on his wife Kaye to help him read his mail, phone messages and with other daily activities.
His condition has had a silver lining, though. The couple have now grown closer to each other. “We spend more time talking and listening to each other,” shares Kaye. “The family has to support him as he has already gone through a lot. No matter how strong a person is, he will definitely need support. There will be a lot of ‘funny’ thoughts running through his mind. As a wife, I have to be there for him.
“I have never even though about working out of this marriage. Think about it: if I can’t take him now because of his condition, how could the next man I meet be sure that I were not dump him later on?”
And they have even learned to watch movie together. “I will narrate the actions changes in the scenes, eg, ‘here comes the villain’ or ‘the hero is kneeling down now,’ etc. and we have lots of fun time together.”
“I am blessed – my wife is always trying to make my life normal,” Stevens says proudly.
