So interesting relevation for my family over the past few days and I wanted to share it in case anyone else had a similar problem.

My mom's side of the family has a history of high eye pressure which, for those who don't know, is not necessarily related to high blood pressure (many have high eye pressure without high blood pressure) and is one of the precursors of glaucoma. My grandmother always had high eye pressure and ended up being on glaucoma drops for 20+ years. What always baffeled the docs was she never showed any other signs of glaucoma - all her field vision tests were normal, no sight loss, no damage to the optic nerve... nothing.. which made the docs pat themselves on the back and say "Well heck, we must have gotten her on drops quick enough then!"

Ever since we were teenagers, my mother, my uncle, my sister and I all had high eye pressure readings. My mother, being the oldest of us four, was told since she'd had these eye pressure readings for so long when she went back to the eye doc this year, if they were still high, he was going to have to put her on glaucoma drops as well. The rest of us shrugged it off figuring it was our fate as well and continued to endure seemingly endless puff tests, and when those read high (as they always did) the blue light test. (If you've had either of these done, you know how much "fun" they are.)

Well, luck was on our side. Recently eye docs have put a new gizmo in their medical toolbelt called a "pachymetry test". This test measures your corneal thickness - average being around 500. When the puffs or blue lights are used in people with thicker corneas, pressure readings are higher because these machines have to press harder to get a reading.

It turns out my mother has a cornea thickness of 631, my uncle's is equally as high. I would bet dollars to donuts that mine will come out the same when I go in for my test because they believe cornea thickness to be hereditary. Which also means that my grandmother was on three glaucoma drops per day for 20 years for probably no reason what so ever.

So do yourself a favor. The next time you go to your eye doc, get a pachymetry test. You may just save yourself a heck of a lot of worry (not to mention money in prescriptions) like my family just did.

More info here: http://www.glaucoma.org/learn/the_importance.html

I have had high pressure in both eyes for about 15 years now. I've had the test done and although I cannot remember the exact number, I know it was in the 600's. I have had to go to the eye doctor every six months to have my pressures done. All my vision fields etc. have always been normal. I am 46....

My mother's eye doctor said there is an equation based on the number in this test. So, even though she was getting high eye pressure numbers with the pressure tests, when they calculated the pressure readings based on her 631 corneal thickness, her pressure came out exactly normal. I believe she said she was getting pressure readings in the mid 20s - then, once calculated with the 631 number, was found to be in the normal range.

Did your eye doc calculate your pressure equation? Chances are your pressure really isn't high and it was just a high reading based on your corneal thickness.

Yes he did. The pressures in my eyes went from 20 to 26 during this time span. He still wants to keep an "eye" on things every six months which is ok with me.

My Mom has had a terrible time with glaucoma. She didn't respond to the drops so they the surgery to open holes to drain her eyes. But it worked too well unfortunately. Now she is going blind. :\

But I am glad to know this!