Glaucoma: A simple way to maximize effectiveness of pressure lowering medications

Medications I am taking:

• Zioptan (before bed) (kept in refrigerator)

• Simbrinza: 3X/day (kept in refrigerator; shake well before use)

• Timolol Maleate (morning; shake once)

Did the laser surgery (laser trabeculoplasty (SLT)) to see if that is sufficient to lower pressure to 10 since other surgery is much more risky. It is supposed to lower pressure 5 to 7 points on average.

Trick to maximizing impact of medication:

1. Do NOT squeeze your nose like they tell you. This is likely to get rid of the medication!
2. Just let the drops go in and keep your eyes shut for 5 minutes (not the 1 minute they say)

I did these two things and got an additional 3 points of pressure drop (down to 13 in each eye).

Other important notes:

1. They say that you should wait 5 minutes between different medications. The 5 minutes is from start dose time to start dose time of the second medication. So you can put in first one, keep eyes closed for 5 minutes, then immediately put in second one.

2. You can get dry eyes from these medications. Using lubricating drops is a good idea for comfort, but it really doesn't interact with the vision loss.

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