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NotYou

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Hahnsoo1

Yeah, don't ever think that an insurance letter gives you an ACTUAL diagnosis. Often, a physician will have to bill it under a (potential) diagnosis so that it gets reimbursed at all by the crappy insurance company (Haven't you heard? Health care in the US is very broken). When a test is done, usually some sort of diagnosis has to be written to justify doing the test. In other words, the insurance company says "We won't pay you unless you tell us why you are doing this test." The Diagnosis isn't "You have Glaucoma", it's "In order to see whether or not you have Glaucoma, we are doing this test."

In this case, they were probably seeing if you have any visual defects in your peripheral vision that indicates that you have optic nerve damage secondary to increased intraocular pressure. With Primary Open Angle Glaucoma, this occurs slowly and over time, and usually doesn't start to show symptoms until later in life (age 50 or later).

I wouldn't panic about it. Wait until the doctor calls you. If you want some reassurance, you can tell your doctor "Yeah, my crappy insurance company had a diagnosis of Primary Open Angle Glaucoma on my approval letter, what's that about?" You've done all of the tests, and they said your eyes are healthy and normal, so I don't think you have anything to worry about. If you actually HAD glaucoma, they would have told you right off the bat that "you seem to be missing these patches of your vision in this eye".

EDIT: Had they actually been concerned about a diagnosis of glaucoma, they probably would have you come back in for another test which involves a device on your head, a blue light, and an object that pokes the surface of your eye. It is irritating and annoying. It also measures intraocular pressure.

NotYou

Thanks, that sounds pretty reasonable so I feel a bit better about it. I'll be sure to call them monday though...

I've had my intraocular pressure measured, it was normal. They even did this xray/catscan thing of my eye. They have done lots of tests... Enough to know if something is screwed up with me.

This all started because a few months back I was driving, and suddenly felt sick and I got two giant holes in the middle of my vision. It lasted for 5-10 minutes... Was terrifying, but luckily never happened again. The last doctor said it was probably a type of migraine caused vision issue...

Hahnsoo1

NotYou wrote: »

Thanks, that sounds pretty reasonable so I feel a bit better about it. I'll be sure to call them monday though...

I've had my intraocular pressure measured, it was normal. They even did this xray/catscan thing of my eye. They have done lots of tests... Enough to know if something is screwed up with me.

This all started because a few months back I was driving, and suddenly felt sick and I got two giant holes in the middle of my vision. It lasted for 5-10 minutes... Was terrifying, but luckily never happened again. The last doctor said it was probably a type of migraine caused vision issue...

This makes a lot of sense. One of the many things they would have to rule out first is glaucoma, based on the symptoms you described. So the field of vision tests, IOP measurement, etc. They are deliberately testing for glaucoma and would write that down on the insurance form.

Do you actually have migraines? And not "I have headaches sometimes", but a regular headache that occurs multiple times a month with vision-modifying symptoms (usually photophobia) and nausea/stomach problems? A lot of people say that they have migraines, but what they really mean is that once every couple of months or so they get bad pounding headaches typically because of dehydration rather than any particular trigger, and they don't have photophobia or nausea.

NotYou

No, I don't have migraines. I rarely have headaches even. The last time I saw the doctor he seemed pretty stumped by it all and willing to write it off as a one time occurrence.

NotYou

UPDATE

So I called the doctor's office and talked to a nurse. She said that I was supposed to schedule another appointment to hear my diagnosis. Apparently the doctor wasn't in so I couldn't talk to him directly. I explained the whole thing with my diagnosis being on the authorization sheet, and she said that yea I "might" have glaucoma. Thank you nurse for putting my fears to rest. Fucking great. So she let me leave a message for the doctor, yay.

Regardless, things aren't looking good.

LewieP's Mummy

OK, glaucoma is only a big deal if left untreated - basically, your occular pressure builds up until your eye gets damaged, and you can't see.

HOWEVER, there are loads and loads of things that can be done before this happens, and any potential damage can be prevented. LewieP's Daddy has a glaucoma like condition, he has had holes lasered into his eyeballs to release the pressure - it didn't hurt - and uses eye drops twice a day to keep the pressure down. its an hereditary condition, that appears in your 40s, so both LewieP and his sister will need to be checked out. He goes to the Eye Hospital every 6 months to have his eye pressure checked, AND THAT IS ALL!!!!!! He's not going blind, and has had no further problems.

Try to stay calm about this, you may well be worrying unneccessarilly.