This is World Glaucoma Day. Yes, today, March 12, 2026, is World Glaucoma Day. It is part of World Glaucoma Week (March 8–14, 2026), which focuses on raising awareness about the “silent thief of sight”. The day emphasizes the importance of regular eye check-ups to prevent blindness.
I want to share my experiences with Glaucoma.
My Glaucoma started in 2003
Dr. Monica Jensen referred me to Dr. Kirker to see if I had signs of glaucoma.
Dr. Kirker was full of fun. He always called me, Maureen O’Hara, and he would laugh. He did confirm that I had the start of glaucoma and I began taking eye drops to stop the progress by reducing the eye pressure.
Dr. Kirker retired and I started seeing Dr Douglas and he retired. I was referred to Dr. Gooi and now I see Dr. Penner.
In the past few years, I tried many different eye drops and had major side effects. The last prescription was Monoprost.
Dr. Penner explained to me that the drops were not keeping my glaucoma at bay and that surgery was the only option. I was booked January 5, 2026 for surgery on my right eye and February 17 for my left eye.
This surgery is called Trabeculectomy and they make a flap called a bleb in the white of your eye. My first surgery was on the outer side of the white of my eyeball of my right eye. The 2nd surgery was to the right of the eyeball of my left eye.
The surgery on my right eye kept the pressure down however it caused my eye to be blurry. 4-6 weeks was generally the timeframe for the blurriness to stop. However, after eight weeks, there was still a bit of blurriness in that eye.
The surgery for February 17 was postponed to March 4 when my left eye surgery was done.
When I wake up in the morning, there is no blurriness in either eye, however, I do believe the eye drops cause some cloudiness but it is mild. Right now I am using four different drops; prednisone, bepreve, nirvanac-sandbox-moxifloxacin. These drops are to heal my eye.
For whatever reason my right eye was blurry for seven weeks. With my left eye right from after the surgery I had very little blurriness.
I can see quite clearly with my latest
prescription classes from last summer. However, they up close reading portion of my glasses is not accurate. Dr. Pender said that it takes a good month for the eye to heal totally and I will be able to get new prescription glasses.
Hopefully my eyes will be healed from the surgery soon and I will be seeing OK!
Checking the pressure of the eye is, I believe, pretty common now — which is a great thing. That pressure can damage the optic nerve and create irreversible vision loss.
It seems that eye science has advanced by leaps and bounds since Laser surgery was first introduced. For those of us who had vision issues, going without glasses or contact lenses was amazing. It also put off the “short arm syndrome” for me.
It’s wonderful that the second surgery went so well!
It was 1030 this morning when Bridget posted that it was world glaucoma day. Thank goodness I had written a bit about my experience with glaucoma. It seems like every time I go to write a post WordPress has changed. Thanks Colleen for your input. It’s always great to get comments.
Hi Maureen. I hope you feel good as soon as possible. My nethew is ophtalmologist . He said this surgery is safe and you Will be fine. Kisses, Josanne.
Thank you so much Josanne for your kind words. YES, I will be OK. You know we have been friends for 11 years this summer. One plane ride from Calgary to Toronto and we had so much in common. I hope you are well and coming to Canada again soon. Take good care of your clients Doctor. Hugs/
Maureen, very well written and explained.