Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 03/27/2023 Ask the Expert – Dr. Amy Armstrong: Understanding Glaucoma, Early Detection, and Treatment Options

Transcript

03/27/2023 Ask the Expert – Dr. Amy Armstrong: Understanding Glaucoma, Early Detection, and Treatment Options · WCHS Network Podcasts

0:00
Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
0:02
Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCHS, it's employees,
0:07
Speaker 1: or WVRC Media.
0:20
Speaker 2: It is twenty two minutes past eight o'clock. You're listening
0:22
Speaker 2: to Ask the Expert WCHS, the voice of Charles and
0:25
Speaker 2: I'm Del Cooper. Thank you so much for tuning in
0:28
Speaker 2: on this Friday morning. Congratulations you made it to the weekend.
0:30
Speaker 2: I know I'm looking forward to it. I hope you
0:32
Speaker 2: are as well. Not quite the houseyon day today that
0:35
Speaker 2: it was yesterday as far as weather goes, but it's
0:37
Speaker 2: still going to warm up a little bit, maybe a
0:38
Speaker 2: little bit of sprinkles throughout the day and we're gonna
0:41
Speaker 2: have a pretty good weekend. So getting you ready for
0:43
Speaker 2: the weekend. Thanks for tuning in to five eighty WHS.
0:46
Speaker 2: And for those of you who listen to the station
0:48
Speaker 2: a lot, we don't do experts a lot on Fridays,
0:50
Speaker 2: so this is a special expert show that we have
0:52
Speaker 2: on a Friday, getting you ready for the weekend. And
0:53
Speaker 2: I welcome into the studio from our friends over at
0:56
Speaker 2: West Virginia I Consultants. Doctor Amy Armstrong is joining us
0:59
Speaker 2: this morning doing this morning, doctor Armstrong, I'm doing great.
1:02
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming in. I'm really looking
1:03
Speaker 2: forward to our conversation. We're going to be talking a
1:06
Speaker 2: lot about glacoma today and I know that and I
1:09
Speaker 2: almost made the first mistake and we'll get into this
1:11
Speaker 2: just a moment. I was going to say, with our
1:13
Speaker 2: aging population in West Virginia, which although that is true,
1:16
Speaker 2: we're going to find out in just a moment, that
1:18
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily match up with glaucoma diagnosis. And that's one
1:23
Speaker 2: of the things we're going to learn this morning. So
1:24
Speaker 2: thank you so much for coming in. Yeah, before we
1:27
Speaker 2: get to some questions and I kind of put you
1:29
Speaker 2: to the grill, introduce yourself a little bit, tell us
1:31
Speaker 2: a little bit about you and how long you've been
1:33
Speaker 2: here and things like that.
1:34
Speaker 3: Well, my name's Amy Armstrong and I come from Dayton, Ohio.
1:37
Speaker 3: I was trained at Ohio State University, so I've been
1:39
Speaker 3: doing glaucoma. Even though I'm new to the area, I'm
1:41
Speaker 3: not new to ophthalmology and I'm certainly not new to glaucoma.
1:44
Speaker 3: I finished my fellowship in two thousand and six and
1:46
Speaker 3: stayed up at Ohio State as faculty. And then my
1:48
Speaker 3: home was in Dayton, so I moved back home. And
1:50
Speaker 3: then my corporation was brought up by a private equity
1:53
Speaker 3: and they were having me see eighty eighty five patients today.
1:55
Speaker 3: Couldn't do that nonsense. So I began a journey. And
2:00
Speaker 3: the guys at West Virginia I have been calling me
2:02
Speaker 3: for five years. Oh wow, Amy, we need you over here.
2:04
Speaker 3: I trained with one of them, doctor Jeff Sinclair, and
2:06
Speaker 3: he's like, Amy, we need you over here.
2:08
Speaker 4: We need you to help our patients.
2:10
Speaker 3: And so he was the first person I called and
2:12
Speaker 3: I said, Jeff, you're still looking for a glackoma surgeon
2:15
Speaker 3: and he said yes. So it is im mediate fit.
2:17
Speaker 3: It's a fantastic practice. They really are patient forward and
2:20
Speaker 3: the entire community has been very welcoming. You have a
2:23
Speaker 3: lovely city and a lovely state. Your state's gorgeous.
2:26
Speaker 5: You we appreciate it.
2:27
Speaker 4: So yes.
2:27
Speaker 3: And so I was a pharmacist before I went to
2:29
Speaker 3: medical school, so I know a lot about drugs and glaucoma. Unfortunately,
2:32
Speaker 3: we have to use drugs drops for part of it.
2:34
Speaker 3: So you got to know your drugs and got to
2:35
Speaker 3: know your surgeries. So that my pharmacy background really helps
2:38
Speaker 3: for patients when we're looking for side effect profiles and
2:40
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff.
2:41
Speaker 2: Oh, that is very u and that's that's I don't
2:43
Speaker 2: know about uncommon, but at least that's a massive skill
2:46
Speaker 2: to having your toolbox. I mean to be able to
2:48
Speaker 2: have that as well, that's really amazing. So over twenty
2:51
Speaker 2: years in education and just in general in this field,
2:55
Speaker 2: so you're bringing a lot of expertise to Westerning Eye Consultants.
2:57
Speaker 5: And we do this.
2:58
Speaker 2: We do a show every once in a while with
2:59
Speaker 2: our friends over at Westernia Consultants. I always love these
3:02
Speaker 2: conversations because I learn a lot and I like getting
3:05
Speaker 2: kind of technical and into details and things like that,
3:07
Speaker 2: and so hopefully our listeners do as well. If you
3:09
Speaker 2: have any questions this morning, as we're kind of continuing
3:11
Speaker 2: our conversation, you're welcome to give us a call. The
3:13
Speaker 2: numbers threees are A four three four five fifty eight
3:14
Speaker 2: fifty eight. Threes are A four three four five fifty
3:16
Speaker 2: eight fifty eight. I know texting is very popular as well,
3:18
Speaker 2: so you can text this morning. It's three zer of
3:20
Speaker 2: four non three five five zero zero eight three zero
3:22
Speaker 2: four non three five five zero zero eight is a
3:25
Speaker 2: number you can text us as well. So anyway you
3:26
Speaker 2: want to get a hold of doctor Armstrong this morning,
3:28
Speaker 2: you're more than welcome to do that. So I thought
3:31
Speaker 2: that the first thing we could do is just kind
3:33
Speaker 2: of tear right into it. Let's talk about glacoma just generally.
3:36
Speaker 5: First. What is glacoma.
3:37
Speaker 3: So glacoma is actually a brain thing. That's where the
3:40
Speaker 3: common misconception is my eyeballs hard or the pressures are high,
3:43
Speaker 3: But it's really dying, a dying optic nerve.
3:46
Speaker 4: And we think it's genetics.
3:47
Speaker 3: Okay, So it's genetics ten to twelve percent of the population,
3:50
Speaker 3: and it can happen to your great uncle and your
3:51
Speaker 3: second cousin and you. It doesn't have to be granddad
3:54
Speaker 3: dad's and it's not like that. So glaucoma can hit
3:57
Speaker 3: at any time. Typically it hits over the age of five.
4:00
Speaker 3: I always say my average pation is eighty five years
4:03
Speaker 3: of age, but that's not true. And it can hit
4:05
Speaker 3: it any time. And that's why screening and seeing your
4:07
Speaker 3: eye doctor once a year is so important because they
4:09
Speaker 3: can catch things early.
4:11
Speaker 2: And so this is something that just like we found
4:13
Speaker 2: this out so much with our health screening, early detection, screening,
4:17
Speaker 2: early detection, screening, early detection, that's something that you should do. Yeah,
4:20
Speaker 2: is there any recommended tom that somebody should start getting screened?
4:24
Speaker 4: You know everybody, So it's a very common question.
4:28
Speaker 3: And if you have a family history of glackhoma by
4:29
Speaker 3: twenty five years of age, you need to be seeing
4:31
Speaker 3: an eye doctor at least every three or four years.
4:34
Speaker 3: But if you don't have a family history, a lot
4:35
Speaker 3: of people don't go to the eye doctor until they
4:37
Speaker 3: need reading glasses. I'm fifty years old and so it's like,
4:40
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I'm always looking for my readers.
4:41
Speaker 4: Now I'm like, where are those readers?
4:43
Speaker 3: And so then people go into the doctor. But by
4:45
Speaker 3: then sometimes it's too late. So you want to ask
4:47
Speaker 3: your family history, you want to talk at your family reunions. Hey,
4:51
Speaker 3: and we didn't do a great job diagnosing glackhoma thirty
4:53
Speaker 3: years ago. We just didn't have the technology we now.
4:55
Speaker 3: At West Virginia, I have the world's best imaging.
4:58
Speaker 4: Of the optic nerve.
4:59
Speaker 3: Its high Itelberg machine and it's fantastic. It's to the micron.
5:02
Speaker 3: It's amazing technology that we've got. We didn't have that
5:05
Speaker 3: thirty years ago, we were just kind of looking at
5:07
Speaker 3: a nerve. And ophthalmology really has expanded in the last
5:09
Speaker 3: thirty years. I mean it's been insane even in my
5:11
Speaker 3: career what I've seen with technology, and so now it's
5:14
Speaker 3: just seeing your eye doctor before you need the reading glasses.
5:17
Speaker 4: Maybe by the.
5:18
Speaker 3: Time you're twenty five, you should just see somebody. Let
5:20
Speaker 3: somebody look at an optic nerve so that they can
5:22
Speaker 3: steer you in the right direction and maybe you are
5:24
Speaker 3: doing great and they can say, hey, come back in
5:25
Speaker 3: three to five years and maybe you do have something
5:27
Speaker 3: we need to.
5:28
Speaker 5: Watch closer screening at twenty five. Then.
5:30
Speaker 2: I think one of the misconceptions, as I opened up
5:32
Speaker 2: the show with, is like lacoma is an elderly disease
5:35
Speaker 2: or it's something that only affects old people, and that's
5:36
Speaker 2: not necessarily true at all.
5:37
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, I see a lot of thirty
5:39
Speaker 3: year olds. There are things that hit and it's symptomless.
5:42
Speaker 3: They don't know they have a problem. I even talked
5:44
Speaker 3: with a patient just this week and he said I
5:46
Speaker 3: didn't know I had a problem, and I was like, rite,
5:48
Speaker 3: no symptoms.
5:49
Speaker 4: And so that's what it's kind of like high blood pressure.
5:52
Speaker 4: ID kin it to high blood pressure.
5:53
Speaker 3: You know, you're walking around, you feel fine, and then
5:55
Speaker 3: all of a sudden you've had the stroke and can't
5:57
Speaker 3: move the left side of your eye. It's left side
5:58
Speaker 3: of your body. So same thing where you don't know
6:01
Speaker 3: you have it until somebody shows you and you're like,
6:02
Speaker 3: holy crap, your brain is amazing. It makes up for
6:06
Speaker 3: the loss. And so that's what we want to be
6:09
Speaker 3: in there to catch it. Because even though we cannot
6:11
Speaker 3: cure this disease, a brain transplant is required.
6:13
Speaker 4: Right, So we can't do that.
6:15
Speaker 3: Although I do have spouses that would assign their spouse
6:17
Speaker 3: ub or a brain transplant. Right all the time, I'm like,
6:19
Speaker 3: I wish I could do that. I can't squirt new
6:21
Speaker 3: neurons back there that would cure it, and then we
6:23
Speaker 3: would be done. We would all do that if we could.
6:25
Speaker 4: We just can't.
6:26
Speaker 3: So the only thing we can do is take the
6:28
Speaker 3: stress off the optic nerve. So the optic nerve wants
6:30
Speaker 3: to live longer. So when you're forty five and you
6:32
Speaker 3: have the disease, I have decades of life to keep
6:35
Speaker 3: that optic nerve alive, right, Thank goodness, We don't live
6:38
Speaker 3: to be five hundred years anymore. You know, that would
6:40
Speaker 3: be a long time to keep an optic nerve alive.
6:42
Speaker 3: But we want to keep that optic nerve going. I
6:43
Speaker 3: always tell patients, my job is to keep the optic
6:45
Speaker 3: nerve going until you're one hundred and fifty two, and
6:47
Speaker 3: then when the angels come for you, that's their.
6:49
Speaker 4: Job and your job, and not my job.
6:51
Speaker 3: But I want to keep that optic nerve going so
6:53
Speaker 3: that you can drive a car, be independent in your
6:55
Speaker 3: eighties and nineties. Vision is so important. I see my
6:58
Speaker 3: patients struggle when they lose their vision in their nineties.
7:01
Speaker 3: Then they can't live independently, and then the kids, and
7:03
Speaker 3: then the nursing homes and then all the things. And
7:06
Speaker 3: so I don't want that for anybody I'm taking care of.
7:08
Speaker 3: I want you seeing every day you walk this earth.
7:11
Speaker 2: I'll share an ad that I told you right before
7:13
Speaker 2: we went on the air, but it never really I
7:17
Speaker 2: was maybe not a kid, but I could be blond
7:19
Speaker 2: by you know, whatever age I mean it was, I
7:21
Speaker 2: mean his life. He felt like at that point in
7:23
Speaker 2: time that his life was over and he wasn't very old.
7:26
Speaker 2: I remember that being at the time. One of the
7:28
Speaker 2: things I was like, wow, he only looks like he's
7:30
Speaker 2: you know, to me he was older because I was,
7:31
Speaker 2: you know, I was nineteen or twenty or something, but
7:34
Speaker 2: he did he wasn't elderly, you know, he was like
7:36
Speaker 2: maybe my age now or something like that, maybe in
7:37
Speaker 2: his forties or fifties or something like that. That is
7:41
Speaker 2: part of what you have to overcome as well, is
7:45
Speaker 2: once the diagnosis does come in that a lot of people,
7:47
Speaker 2: especially before the education piece comes in, and stuff that
7:50
Speaker 2: is very heavy.
7:51
Speaker 3: I am a natural born cheerleader, so I was a cheerleader.
7:55
Speaker 3: I went to Dayton Christian High School back in Dayton,
7:57
Speaker 3: and I was a cheerleader for all junior high high
7:59
Speaker 3: school because it's just my firstonality. But I think that's
8:01
Speaker 3: why I was called into Glackoma. I remember going to
8:03
Speaker 3: my chairperson at Ohio State and I said, hey, I
8:05
Speaker 3: really think Glackoma's where I want to sub specialize. I
8:07
Speaker 3: had to spend an extra year of making crappy money
8:10
Speaker 3: and working ninety hours a week to learn this trade.
8:13
Speaker 3: But I love it and I have my invisible pomp
8:16
Speaker 3: pumps out every day and patients come in and in
8:18
Speaker 3: mid nineties, we did a study a psychological evaluation of
8:21
Speaker 3: when we diagnose somebody with glackoma, it permanently affects their
8:25
Speaker 3: psychiatric outlook and the risk of depression is higher. And
8:28
Speaker 3: so that's where a lot of my patients I even
8:30
Speaker 3: offer counseling, not me, but I offer them to go
8:32
Speaker 3: to a counselor because it's not a mental health problem.
8:35
Speaker 3: They don't have a mental health problem. They have one
8:36
Speaker 3: of their five senses has a problem. And so we
8:39
Speaker 3: need good coping skills that when they feel frustrated, or
8:41
Speaker 3: when they feel angry, or when they feel like it's unfair,
8:43
Speaker 3: because it's not like karma, like you toldal Live five
8:46
Speaker 3: years ago. And then this comes to get your optic nerve.
8:49
Speaker 3: This is just genetics, and we all have crappy genetics.
8:51
Speaker 3: So in my family, I tell my patients this all
8:53
Speaker 3: the time. In my family, my mom's side all strokes,
8:55
Speaker 3: my dad's side all aneurysms, So we all have crappy genetics.
8:59
Speaker 3: So we just have to you with the genetics we've
9:00
Speaker 3: been dealt. Nobody has perfect DNA, and we just have
9:03
Speaker 3: to be people of action and we can make good
9:05
Speaker 3: plans for the future to keep them sighted.
9:08
Speaker 2: That's great information. We're here this morning. Doctor Amy Armstrong's
9:11
Speaker 2: with us. She's from Westerning Eye Consults. We're talking about
9:13
Speaker 2: glaucoma this morning. She's a glaucoma specialist and can answer
9:16
Speaker 2: your questions along those lines. We do have a text
9:18
Speaker 2: message from the three zero four five to seven two.
9:20
Speaker 2: My mother was just diagnosed with glaucoma at sixty eight?
9:23
Speaker 2: Does that mean that I'm going to get it too?
9:24
Speaker 2: And should I be tested now?
9:26
Speaker 3: So sixty eight's young, So that's pediatric. Anybody under seventy
9:30
Speaker 3: eight years of age is pediatric in my lanes. And
9:32
Speaker 3: I tell them that. So if you've got a family history,
9:34
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that you're going to get it, And that's
9:37
Speaker 3: absolutely don't go home and sob. But she needs to
9:39
Speaker 3: be screened once a year. If you've got a mom
9:41
Speaker 3: at sixty eight, we want you in there every year,
9:43
Speaker 3: seeing an eye doctor once a year.
9:45
Speaker 2: And the important and part of this comes from our
9:47
Speaker 2: discussion before. There's the important thing about this is if
9:51
Speaker 2: we've danced around it. Glaucoma itself is not curable. But
9:55
Speaker 2: what we were talking about, what you were talking about
9:57
Speaker 2: with early detection and the technology that's come about in
9:59
Speaker 2: the last few decades. Is it is treatable. You can
10:02
Speaker 2: extend the life of the odd absolutely.
10:05
Speaker 3: My job is to keep them going until the angels
10:07
Speaker 3: come for you. So that's what my job is, to
10:09
Speaker 3: keep the optic nerve going. And that's what we can
10:12
Speaker 3: do with technology today, the drops, lasers, surgeries. We're bringing
10:16
Speaker 3: a ton over to Charleston. Charleston Surgical Hospital and I
10:20
Speaker 3: work in Beckley as well. They both have bought new
10:23
Speaker 3: technology for this state. I had it in Dayton, Ohio
10:25
Speaker 3: for the last seven years. It's a laser that we
10:28
Speaker 3: can do in the operating room that really helps. We've
10:30
Speaker 3: got surgical stuff coming, and there's more stuff before the
10:32
Speaker 3: FDA right now.
10:33
Speaker 4: I pray for the FDA.
10:34
Speaker 3: Every day that they're going to approve some new stuff
10:36
Speaker 3: because we need some new stuff. I'm always eager for
10:39
Speaker 3: some new stuff. But we've got good medications, good lasers,
10:41
Speaker 3: and good surgeries.
10:42
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk a little bit about We'll talk about
10:44
Speaker 2: some of the treatments in a minute. Let's talk about
10:46
Speaker 2: the exam first. So if somebody is looking at screening
10:49
Speaker 2: or I don't know if there's progressive levels of screening
10:51
Speaker 2: or how that works, How does that work?
10:52
Speaker 5: What should they expect.
10:53
Speaker 3: So it's nothing scary, although sometimes people come in and
10:55
Speaker 3: are scared. Honestly, I don't like the dentists, so I
10:58
Speaker 3: kind of akin it to that, Like I'm like they
10:59
Speaker 3: probably like I do in the dentist dentist chair.
11:02
Speaker 4: So that's what when you come in.
11:03
Speaker 3: We're gonna check your vision, We're gonna give you a
11:05
Speaker 3: numbing drop and check your pressure, and we're gonna dilate you.
11:07
Speaker 4: So that's where the pupil does expand.
11:09
Speaker 3: And that's a little onerous, like you're gonna be dilated
11:11
Speaker 3: for three to six hours, so you're near vision's a
11:12
Speaker 3: little blurry, but your distance vision is fine. And then
11:15
Speaker 3: i'm're gonna take a picture that nothing's scary with the picture.
11:18
Speaker 3: You don't even have to smile. I tell my patients
11:20
Speaker 3: it's not scary at all. And we're able to actually
11:22
Speaker 3: look at the thickness of the optic nerve to the
11:25
Speaker 3: micron because when you look at the optic nerve sometimes
11:28
Speaker 3: we can't tell how thick it is, and the optic
11:30
Speaker 3: nerve in glaucoma is being strangulated so it thins. I
11:34
Speaker 3: always say it's like getting choked off. And my treatment
11:36
Speaker 3: is to loosen the collar.
11:38
Speaker 4: It's like much of Kenning.
11:39
Speaker 6: I don't know.
11:39
Speaker 3: I don't wear a tie. So you boys, when you
11:41
Speaker 3: get home, you take a tire off. It's like girls
11:43
Speaker 3: kicking off our high heels.
11:44
Speaker 4: Right as we want the optic.
11:46
Speaker 3: Nerve to feel less stressed because there's a genetic signal
11:49
Speaker 3: in glaucoma. The DNA is saying to the optic nerve, die,
11:53
Speaker 3: die die every day, right, So we've got to shut
11:57
Speaker 3: that down so the optic nerve. We make it more
11:59
Speaker 3: comfort for the optic nerve to go. Well, the signal
12:01
Speaker 3: is saying to die, but I think I'm going to
12:03
Speaker 3: live for another day. And that's what my treatments do.
12:06
Speaker 3: So even though this signal, I can't shut off your DNA, man,
12:09
Speaker 3: I could wish I could give you a shot in
12:11
Speaker 3: arm shut your DNA signal off. And that DNA signal
12:14
Speaker 3: blossoms as we age. The older you get, the louder
12:17
Speaker 3: it gets.
12:18
Speaker 5: Right.
12:18
Speaker 3: So that's why glaucoma's relatively rare in your teenageyeers. Although
12:21
Speaker 3: I have done surgery on teenagers. As we age, and
12:25
Speaker 3: I always tell patients, well, if you would have died
12:26
Speaker 3: at thirty five, this wouldn't have been your problem.
12:28
Speaker 4: But congratulations your living. So we want them.
12:31
Speaker 3: To live, and then we just help that optic nerve
12:34
Speaker 3: stay alive even though that signal in the DNA is going, going, going,
12:38
Speaker 3: I've got that optic nerve comfortable and destressed. And that's
12:41
Speaker 3: what my treatments and all of our treatments do in
12:43
Speaker 3: the world of glacoma.
12:44
Speaker 2: And what are incredible information piece that was You're an
12:47
Speaker 2: amazing communicator. I mean honestly, I mean your explanations there
12:51
Speaker 2: really resonate, like I understand you know as much as
12:53
Speaker 2: simply Canada. I understand exactly what you're talking about. So
12:57
Speaker 2: a lot of these discoveries about glacoma the have been
13:00
Speaker 2: relatively recent as far as the ability to treat, the
13:03
Speaker 2: types of procedures that can treat it, and things like that.
13:06
Speaker 2: So if somebody had a grandparent perhaps that suffered, and
13:10
Speaker 2: that's what they have in their mind that they would
13:12
Speaker 2: go through if they got that's not the case, what
13:14
Speaker 2: would be ahead of them?
13:15
Speaker 4: That is not the case.
13:16
Speaker 3: And a lot of people come in that get diagnosed
13:18
Speaker 3: and say I don't have any family members, And I
13:19
Speaker 3: was like, well, we did a crappy job fifty years
13:21
Speaker 3: ago diagnosing.
13:22
Speaker 4: So I'll actually go back and ask.
13:24
Speaker 3: I said, when you were a little boy or girl
13:25
Speaker 3: and you went to a holiday party of or a
13:27
Speaker 3: family reunion, was there an aunt or an uncle or
13:29
Speaker 3: grandparent where they were like.
13:30
Speaker 4: Don't run around, uncle Joe, he can't see well.
13:33
Speaker 3: And I was like, that's the guy that had the disease, right,
13:37
Speaker 3: because we just didn't know.
13:38
Speaker 4: We didn't know.
13:39
Speaker 3: And a lot of our grandparents, great grandparents, they didn't
13:42
Speaker 3: have healthcare, so they died early before the disease would hit.
13:46
Speaker 3: Like if your dad died at fifty two of a
13:48
Speaker 3: massive mi well, then we don't know if he had
13:50
Speaker 3: the genie fredg glock hooma.
13:51
Speaker 4: More than likely it was going to hit after that.
13:53
Speaker 2: So yeah, man, that's a great information. This morning with
13:56
Speaker 2: us this morning is doctor Amy Armstrong with WESTERINGI I
13:58
Speaker 2: consultants were talking about I know that that could be
14:01
Speaker 2: something that strikes a lot of you out there. I
14:03
Speaker 2: am getting some text messages and we'll get to that
14:04
Speaker 2: when we come by. Threeser of four non three, five
14:06
Speaker 2: fives zero zero eight threes are a four non three
14:08
Speaker 2: five fives zero zero eight for text. You can also
14:10
Speaker 2: call threes are A four three four five fifteen fifty eight.
14:12
Speaker 2: Three four, five fifty eight fifty eight is a number
14:14
Speaker 2: you can get a hold of us on the phone lines.
14:16
Speaker 2: If you'd like to give us a call this morning,
14:17
Speaker 2: you're more than welcome to do that. Doctor Amy Armstrong
14:19
Speaker 2: as here from West Virginia. I Consultants talking about glaucoma treatment,
14:22
Speaker 2: diagnosis and things along those those lines this morning. Give
14:26
Speaker 2: us a caller a text if you have any questions.
14:28
Speaker 2: We'll take a break and be back right after this.
14:29
Speaker 2: You're listening to ask the expert on five a ewchs the
14:32
Speaker 2: Voice of Charleston.
14:33
Speaker 7: The springfaw in West Virginia can only mean one thing.
14:37
Speaker 7: It's truck Month that Walker Chevrolet in Nitro. There is
14:41
Speaker 7: no better time to pick out a new truck than
14:43
Speaker 7: right now. And not only are you gonna find the
14:45
Speaker 7: truck that you want, but you're gonna find it at
14:47
Speaker 7: the price you want soon. Gene and Ryan have packed
14:50
Speaker 7: a lot in Nitro with both new and pre owned
14:53
Speaker 7: inventory to make sure that they have the perfect truck
14:56
Speaker 7: waiting on you, and you know that you're gonna get
14:57
Speaker 7: the best deal possible at Walker because g and Ryan
15:00
Speaker 7: built their business the old fashioned way by making friends.
15:04
Speaker 7: There are no gimmicks or games at Walker, just honest,
15:07
Speaker 7: fair deals, and don't forget if you've got a vehicle
15:09
Speaker 7: to sell. Walker is buying cars too, That's right. All
15:12
Speaker 7: makes and models are welcome at Walker, and they'll buy
15:15
Speaker 7: yours even if you plan to buy somewhere else. That
15:18
Speaker 7: new truck, though, that you've been dreaming out, is waiting
15:21
Speaker 7: on you right now during Truck Month at Walker's Chevrolet
15:25
Speaker 7: in the shadow of the Interstate Bridge, just off the
15:27
Speaker 7: Nitro exit of I sixty four Walker Chevrolet, making friends,
15:31
Speaker 7: one deal at a time.
15:33
Speaker 8: If you've been injured, you need a lawyer who knows
15:36
Speaker 8: West Virginia because they live in West Virginia. Tom and
15:39
Speaker 8: Harvey Peyton were born and raised here. They've spent decades
15:43
Speaker 8: fighting for injury victims, and they know how to get results.
15:47
Speaker 5: At the Peyton Law.
15:48
Speaker 8: Firm, you get straight talk, strong representation, and local attorneys
15:52
Speaker 8: who care. Call seven five five fifty five fifty six
15:56
Speaker 8: today or visit Peyton Law Firm dot com. The attorney's
15:59
Speaker 8: reforen this ad or lifelong residence and our licensed to
16:02
Speaker 8: practice law in the state of West Virginia.
16:04
Speaker 6: Some stories change lives, and some remind us what's possible.
16:07
Speaker 6: Join Goodwill Industries of the Summit as we celebrate seventy
16:09
Speaker 6: five years of hope, resilience and second chances at the
16:12
Speaker 6: annual dinner Thursday, April second at Embassy Suites and Charleston,
16:16
Speaker 6: experience powerful, real life stories of individuals who refuse to
16:19
Speaker 6: give up and the community that stood beside them. It's
16:21
Speaker 6: an evening that honors the dignity of work and the
16:24
Speaker 6: lives transformed because of it. Cocktails at six, dinner at
16:27
Speaker 6: six forty five, program at seven. Tickets are seventy five
16:30
Speaker 6: dollars at Goodwill Summit dot com slash Annual Dinner.
16:33
Speaker 4: Be there and be inspired.
16:48
Speaker 2: It is twenty minutes to the top of the hour
16:50
Speaker 2: you're listening to. Ask the expert wchs. The Voice of Charleston,
16:53
Speaker 2: Omdel Cooper. Thanks for tuning in on this Friday afternoon
16:56
Speaker 2: or Friday morning. If you're getting ready with it, I'm
16:57
Speaker 2: trying to get us out of here for here today.
17:00
Speaker 5: Hey, it's five o'clock. As soon as the show's over,
17:02
Speaker 5: I think that works right.
17:03
Speaker 1: Everybody, Love you now.
17:05
Speaker 2: As doctor Amy Armstrong that you're hearing sheet is from
17:07
Speaker 2: West Virginia I Consultants. We're talking about glaucoma and other
17:10
Speaker 2: things this morning, but primarily about glaucoma, about its diagnosis,
17:13
Speaker 2: it's treatment, and exactly what glaucoma is. As we've come
17:16
Speaker 2: to find out this morning, there's been a lot of
17:18
Speaker 2: discovery over the last several decades on glacoma, the treatment
17:21
Speaker 2: of glacoma, and the diagnosis of it. So if you
17:23
Speaker 2: hear about glaucoma more now, it's not that people are
17:25
Speaker 2: getting it more often, it's that people are getting diagnosed correctly, yes,
17:28
Speaker 2: which is always nice. There's always that thing within the
17:31
Speaker 2: medical industry where people wonder, well, how come autism is
17:34
Speaker 2: more popular now than needs to be.
17:35
Speaker 5: We know how to diagnose it now. It's a big difference.
17:38
Speaker 3: Well that's interesting. So I love history. I read a
17:40
Speaker 3: lot just because I'm a nerd. I'm a giant nerd.
17:42
Speaker 3: I tried to be a closet nerd for a long time.
17:44
Speaker 3: It's okay, I'm just a nerd. But we actually go
17:47
Speaker 3: back to the thirteen hundreds and fourteen hundreds, and we
17:49
Speaker 3: can look through the Hangman's diaries, so hangman's were interesting
17:52
Speaker 3: in the time of the medial age because they did
17:55
Speaker 3: a lot of medical care because they tortured them and
17:57
Speaker 3: they had.
17:57
Speaker 4: To keep the people alive.
17:58
Speaker 5: Well, that's fascinating.
17:59
Speaker 3: They did bunch of medicine, right, So we found out
18:02
Speaker 3: then that they would go people would go to the
18:04
Speaker 3: hangman in their town when the eye was so painful,
18:08
Speaker 3: and that was glackoma. Some glackcoma becomes very painful, certain
18:12
Speaker 3: types of glackhoma, especially associated with diabetes or a stroke
18:14
Speaker 3: to the eye, and they would gouge the eye out
18:16
Speaker 3: with a spoon. That's how painful glackcoma could become in
18:21
Speaker 3: that time period, especially because they had no treatments, so
18:23
Speaker 3: the hangman would take a sharpened spoon. Isn't that I
18:26
Speaker 3: think that that blows my mind that it's like they're
18:28
Speaker 3: literally documented that many hundreds of years ago.
18:31
Speaker 2: That is that's fascinating And also, wow, it makes my
18:34
Speaker 2: eye water a little bit.
18:34
Speaker 4: Just history. We come from hard, hard people.
18:38
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, there's no question about that. That's
18:41
Speaker 2: that's outstanding stuff.
18:42
Speaker 3: Oh.
18:42
Speaker 2: I did have a couple of questions that came through
18:44
Speaker 2: right before we went on the air. We'll get to
18:45
Speaker 2: more questions in just a moment, but we had let's
18:47
Speaker 2: see from the six eight none four three one. I've
18:50
Speaker 2: been using steroid drops for allergies for years. My pharmacists
18:53
Speaker 2: mentioned it could raise AH pressure. How worried should I be?
18:56
Speaker 3: So yeah, I do not like steroid eye drops. This
18:59
Speaker 3: vim right, But that's okay, man. Steroid eye drops, steroid
19:03
Speaker 3: nasal sprays absolutely are helpful and we prescribe them commonly. Actually,
19:08
Speaker 3: steroid ey drops, I think are the number one prescribed
19:10
Speaker 3: drug in all of the United States, so it's not
19:12
Speaker 3: like they're evil, but they can raise your pressures. So
19:15
Speaker 3: with that, if you're using them, you need to be checked.
19:18
Speaker 3: Your eye pressures need to be checked once a year.
19:19
Speaker 3: So that's it's just about knowing. And I had a
19:22
Speaker 3: patient in Columbus, Ohio when I was at Ohi State University.
19:25
Speaker 3: He had used a nasal allergy spray was had a
19:28
Speaker 3: steroid in it. He came in his pressures were forty six.
19:31
Speaker 3: Ten to twenty two is normal, so at forty six
19:34
Speaker 3: and then we had to do some surgery and some
19:35
Speaker 3: lasers for him and told him, hey, stereoidis steroid nasal
19:38
Speaker 3: sprays aren't your friend.
19:39
Speaker 4: And we put them on different nasal sprays for his allergies.
19:41
Speaker 2: But just getting checked, knowing and and this is just
19:45
Speaker 2: something in concert with your doctors. Make sure that everybody
19:48
Speaker 2: knows what's going on. Tell your odd doctor tell you.
19:49
Speaker 2: Don't make sure that everybody will tell.
19:51
Speaker 3: Your doctors what you're using over the counter. I always say,
19:53
Speaker 3: as a pharmacist, herbs do things like herbs are medicine.
19:57
Speaker 3: That's what we used in the seventeen hundreds. So make
20:00
Speaker 3: sure your doctors know what herbs, what over the counter
20:03
Speaker 3: medications you're using. Yep.
20:05
Speaker 2: I think we have a caller that's come in this morning.
20:06
Speaker 2: We have the self screen here, so you're on the
20:08
Speaker 2: line collar. What's your first saing Bob, Hey, Bob, how
20:11
Speaker 2: you doing this one? What's your question for doctor Armstrong?
20:14
Speaker 9: Okay, it's a question that she's never had before and
20:19
Speaker 9: she will never get again.
20:21
Speaker 5: Okay, we'll see.
20:23
Speaker 9: I got shot with a shotgun in nineteen fifty. I've
20:31
Speaker 9: had about sixty lead shotgun pellets in my body now
20:37
Speaker 9: for seventy six years, about twenty in my face.
20:44
Speaker 1: Of their.
20:47
Speaker 9: Dentists have pictured about nine shotgun pellets in my upper gums,
20:56
Speaker 9: just below the eyes, and I got glack home about
21:00
Speaker 9: seven years ago, and my vision is really fading almost
21:07
Speaker 9: to nothing. And my question is do you think all
21:11
Speaker 9: of those lead pellets in my face have had anything
21:15
Speaker 9: to do with me getting glockom But.
21:18
Speaker 3: We don't like foreign objects buried in skin and tissue,
21:21
Speaker 3: and lead and whatever those pellets were made of can
21:24
Speaker 3: be toxic. Glackcoma typically is a genetic disease, although it
21:28
Speaker 3: can be related to blunt force trauma or any trauma.
21:30
Speaker 3: So if that had anything to do in ripping your
21:33
Speaker 3: drains and causing any trauma to the drains, it could
21:35
Speaker 3: be related to actually just the traumatic injury that you
21:38
Speaker 3: had so long ago. Yeah, it's hard to know, and
21:41
Speaker 3: I'm glad you're getting treatment for it and keep following
21:43
Speaker 3: up with your doctor.
21:45
Speaker 4: Very important.
21:46
Speaker 9: Okay, thank you.
21:47
Speaker 5: Absolutely, Yeah, thanks for the call, Bob. That's that was
21:50
Speaker 5: very unique. Yeaheah.
21:51
Speaker 2: If you have a question as well, you're welcome to
21:53
Speaker 2: give us a call, just so Bob did. Three zero
21:54
Speaker 2: four three four five fifty to fifty eight and also
21:56
Speaker 2: texting questions. We have some of those now three zero
21:58
Speaker 2: four non three five five zero zero eight threes are
22:00
Speaker 2: four non three five five zers or eighth.
22:02
Speaker 5: Let's see, my.
22:03
Speaker 2: Doctor told me I have ocular hypertension, but not gol
22:05
Speaker 2: cama yet, what's the difference in what do I do now?
22:07
Speaker 3: Okay, So normal eye pressures are ten to twenty two.
22:11
Speaker 3: We measure in millimeters of mercury. It's something set in
22:13
Speaker 3: the nineteen twenties by some guy. You know, it is
22:15
Speaker 3: what it is.
22:16
Speaker 4: It's like arbitrary. But that's okay.
22:18
Speaker 3: So ten to twenty two, so you probably have a
22:20
Speaker 3: high pressure higher than twenty two.
22:22
Speaker 4: Okay, So there are lots of reasons for it.
22:24
Speaker 3: Sometimes people just the way we measure pressures, I like
22:27
Speaker 3: to push that the applanation pushes against the corneas, so
22:31
Speaker 3: if you're corneous thicker than everybody else's, it can give
22:34
Speaker 3: you an erroneous high measurement. There's lots of reasons. So
22:36
Speaker 3: what they're looking at is multiple. I always say I'm
22:39
Speaker 3: a magnificent data collector because I'm looking at a bunch
22:42
Speaker 3: of things. There's a bunch of pieces of data that
22:44
Speaker 3: your doctor is doing, and you can ask. Doctors are
22:47
Speaker 3: happy to share that knowledge base if you want to
22:49
Speaker 3: know more, ask, But what it is is they're looking
22:52
Speaker 3: also at the optic nerve. They want to look at
22:54
Speaker 3: the thickness of the optic nerve. So your pressures may
22:56
Speaker 3: be running little high, but your optic nerve looks fantastic.
22:58
Speaker 3: Now that's fine. It's like you know, having big feet, Okay, fine,
23:02
Speaker 3: you know, buy bigger shoes, that kind of thing. But
23:04
Speaker 3: that's what I always say with Glockcoma. It's like having
23:06
Speaker 3: big feet, your size ten maybe, but the next year
23:09
Speaker 3: you come in and you're a size twelve. Wait a minute,
23:11
Speaker 3: we're adults. We're not supposed to be changing size of shoes.
23:15
Speaker 3: So that gives your doctors a heads up of Hey,
23:19
Speaker 3: and if you were tying your shoes every day and
23:21
Speaker 3: noticing that your size ten shoes are now feeling tight,
23:24
Speaker 3: we would know. But with glackom it's not like you're
23:26
Speaker 3: putting your shoes on you don't know your size is changing.
23:28
Speaker 3: The optic nerve will actually stretch and change.
23:30
Speaker 2: Yes, we quite a great explanation. I understand what you
23:33
Speaker 2: mean there. And we have another question that's come in
23:35
Speaker 2: and I think this is going to pivot nicely into
23:37
Speaker 2: us talking about treatment. So from the threes or four none,
23:41
Speaker 2: three eight, my husband was just told he needs glackcoma surgery.
23:44
Speaker 2: Can you explain what minimally invasive surgery means and how
23:48
Speaker 2: different it is from regular EE surgery.
23:50
Speaker 3: You know, I just dislike the words minimally invasive glockhoma
23:54
Speaker 3: surgery because I had a patient and Dayton. When I
23:56
Speaker 3: was back there, they were like, we want these zero
23:58
Speaker 3: risk surgery.
23:59
Speaker 4: I was like, well, yeah, yeah, me too, And.
24:00
Speaker 5: What does minimum mean?
24:03
Speaker 3: So when we do glockoma surgery, the bigger surgeries that
24:06
Speaker 3: I bring here to Charleston and Beckley is we're cutting
24:08
Speaker 3: a hole inside the eye literally, or putting a stroll
24:12
Speaker 3: inside the eye to drain the fluid like a drainage bypass.
24:14
Speaker 3: The drains are crunchy, the drains are dead, and it's
24:17
Speaker 3: crunching on the optic nerve and pushing down on the
24:19
Speaker 3: optic nerve. So we were cutting a hole, so minimally
24:22
Speaker 3: invasive means that we're not actually cutting a hole anymore.
24:24
Speaker 3: We're putting little valves or shunts in the drains, which
24:28
Speaker 3: is great, But I'm still inside the eye.
24:30
Speaker 4: I've still got a blade.
24:31
Speaker 3: I'm still going inside, which means risks of infection, risk
24:34
Speaker 3: of bleeding, risk, need for more surgery, and I think
24:36
Speaker 3: that's the hardest part with glackhoma is I had a
24:39
Speaker 3: patient two weeks ago he says, well, let's just do
24:40
Speaker 3: the big surgery to get it over with. Oh that's
24:43
Speaker 3: the total missover, there is no getting it over with.
24:46
Speaker 3: And what it is is this surgery will last for
24:48
Speaker 3: a while, and then the pressures will creep back up,
24:50
Speaker 3: and then we'll do another thing, and then the pressures
24:51
Speaker 3: are going to creep back up, and then we'll do
24:52
Speaker 3: another thing and the pressures.
24:54
Speaker 4: Will creep back up.
24:55
Speaker 3: It's constantly. We just monitor, monitor, monitor, and then offer
24:59
Speaker 3: the next thing. So minimally invasive just means that we're
25:02
Speaker 3: not actually creating a hole. We're putting us up some
25:05
Speaker 3: kind of stint or drain in on the side and
25:08
Speaker 3: the drains and we still have to go inside the eye.
25:11
Speaker 3: But the procedure is relatively easy, and bending and lifting
25:13
Speaker 3: can reoccur within a week.
25:15
Speaker 2: So it's interesting you say that because when you're dealing
25:18
Speaker 2: with things with your eyes, that does mean physical restrictions
25:22
Speaker 2: some because the one thing that I've noticed with different
25:24
Speaker 2: things that I've had over time, we don't know the
25:26
Speaker 2: stresses that put on other parts of I had a
25:28
Speaker 2: hernia surgery a couple years ago. It's amazing to me
25:30
Speaker 2: although it was here just where I felt that from
25:33
Speaker 2: completely different parts of my body when after I was
25:35
Speaker 2: having the surgery. So that stress in your eyes, that's
25:38
Speaker 2: a huge deal.
25:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're Cinderella for four weeks after some of the
25:41
Speaker 3: glaucoma surgeries, where I always say, you're not Cinderella working
25:44
Speaker 3: for the evil stepmom. You're Cinderella in the castle with
25:46
Speaker 3: the Prince. You got your corsot on and your ball
25:49
Speaker 3: gown on. So that's how they have to go through
25:50
Speaker 3: their day. They can curtsey, but they cannot bow before
25:53
Speaker 3: the assembly. So you can't unload a dishwasher, you can't
25:55
Speaker 3: mop or sweep, you can't shovel your driveway with snow,
25:58
Speaker 3: you can't mow your grass, you can't put must out.
26:00
Speaker 3: So it really does take you. It's you're in like
26:02
Speaker 3: a time out and patients always go, oh, this is great,
26:05
Speaker 3: I'll have a vacation, but by day three they're stir cruy.
26:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, so it does.
26:08
Speaker 3: Glack Homa is hard, and that's why we're here to
26:10
Speaker 3: cheer lead them through that moment. And not all surgeries
26:13
Speaker 3: are three to four weeks, we have lasers and the
26:15
Speaker 3: minimally invasive surgeries where you're only out out and you know,
26:18
Speaker 3: three to five days and you're back in life. Sometimes
26:21
Speaker 3: we can even return you to work the very next day.
26:23
Speaker 2: So is the disease a spectrum, and that would determine
26:25
Speaker 2: if you could do the minimum invasive.
26:28
Speaker 3: Right the earlier we catch it, the least minimally, the
26:32
Speaker 3: minimally invasive surgeries are more of an option. By the
26:34
Speaker 3: time you're so advanced, then we're looking at I need
26:37
Speaker 3: the pressures, I need to drop the bottom out, and
26:39
Speaker 3: that's when we take the patient for the larger surgeries
26:41
Speaker 3: where I'm like, okay, your pressures are thirty five and
26:44
Speaker 3: we need a pressure of six to eight, and that's
26:47
Speaker 3: when we have to bring out the bigger surgeries.
26:49
Speaker 2: The real advantage with westernio consultants and with you, doctor
26:53
Speaker 2: Armstrong is here is you have the full toolbox available
26:56
Speaker 2: to you here, so you can start with the menimaly invasive,
26:58
Speaker 2: you can go all the way up to one whatever
27:00
Speaker 2: the most major thing is, you can do all of them,
27:02
Speaker 2: so it's full service.
27:03
Speaker 5: You can do it all.
27:04
Speaker 2: And because this is a disease that's managed and not cured.
27:07
Speaker 2: That's actually a really important thing because I can imagine
27:09
Speaker 2: I don't know this one hundred percent for sure, but
27:10
Speaker 2: I'm sure that there's probably places that can take you
27:12
Speaker 2: up to a certain point and then they can't go
27:14
Speaker 2: any further and then they have to refer you off
27:16
Speaker 2: to somewhere else. So being at all in one shop
27:18
Speaker 2: is great.
27:18
Speaker 4: Yep, it does. It works well.
27:20
Speaker 3: My partners have been really amazing and they do a lot.
27:23
Speaker 3: They've been doing well the entire community. That's what I'm
27:26
Speaker 3: getting now reaching out to other optomologists and optometrists in
27:29
Speaker 3: the area. Everybody's been doing glacoma because they had to
27:32
Speaker 3: because there was no The only glackoma surgeons you guys
27:35
Speaker 3: have are in Morgantown at WVU. So it's just amazing
27:38
Speaker 3: and how smart your community doctors are. I mean really
27:41
Speaker 3: impressed with the caliber of optometrist and ophthalmologists you have
27:44
Speaker 3: here in Charleston and Beckley.
27:46
Speaker 2: We're getting questions here. That's kind of moving us along
27:48
Speaker 2: pretty well. So I think this one's pretty good too,
27:50
Speaker 2: because if you've had if you have, we've talked about
27:52
Speaker 2: how this is a managed disease. So this is from
27:54
Speaker 2: the six eight non three eight four. I was diagnosed
27:58
Speaker 2: with glacoma three years ago, and I feel like my
28:00
Speaker 2: side vision has gotten worse either though I take my drops.
28:03
Speaker 5: What does that mean?
28:04
Speaker 3: So that means the disease is marching on type typically
28:07
Speaker 3: means that even though we've got the collar loosen the
28:09
Speaker 3: tie loosened, it's not all the way off. So that
28:12
Speaker 3: means we probably need to watch you for progression and
28:15
Speaker 3: see how we can get you lower. And that may
28:17
Speaker 3: mean different drops, it may mean more drops. Now, as
28:20
Speaker 3: a pharmacist, you start giving people two and three and
28:22
Speaker 3: four bottles to use a day, two and three times
28:24
Speaker 3: a day. At some point they're not going to do it.
28:26
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just compliance is my biggest enemy.
28:28
Speaker 4: It's too hard.
28:29
Speaker 3: So that's why I like to keep the drops to
28:31
Speaker 3: a minimum if I can, and then move along with
28:34
Speaker 3: lasers and surgeries. So talking with your doctor, I always
28:37
Speaker 3: believe my patient. If the patient comes in and says,
28:41
Speaker 3: doctor Amy, my vision's getting worse, my side vision's getting worse.
28:45
Speaker 3: I don't care what the pressures are. I don't care
28:46
Speaker 3: if your pressures are twelve. I'm going to start testing
28:48
Speaker 3: you and we're going to start I double down, I
28:50
Speaker 3: double down. My patients know their bodies and I take
28:54
Speaker 3: them seriously.
28:55
Speaker 2: That's got to make you feel better if you're listening
28:57
Speaker 2: to that out there, by the way, more information about
28:58
Speaker 2: westerning Ali Consalta you can find onlins wvdashi dot com,
29:01
Speaker 2: wvdash i dot com. The phone number here locally is
29:04
Speaker 2: threes are A four three four three I is, that's
29:06
Speaker 2: three zerre a four three four three thirty nine thirty seven.
29:08
Speaker 2: Really easy to remember. There's offices here in Charleston and
29:11
Speaker 2: kanas Citi, Beckley Point, Pleasant, Ripley in Saint Albans, Westrina.
29:14
Speaker 2: Consultants all over the state and now all over the region.
29:16
Speaker 2: And that's always good news, and it's really something else.
29:21
Speaker 2: It's just amazing me as we're having this conversation about
29:24
Speaker 2: glucoma and the diagnosis and the treatment of it, that
29:28
Speaker 2: this is really something It's not a new industry, but
29:31
Speaker 2: it's something that almost all of this information is relatively
29:34
Speaker 2: within my lifetime anyway, I mean within the last fifty years.
29:36
Speaker 5: That's incredible to think about to some degree.
29:39
Speaker 4: Our imaging for the optic nerve.
29:40
Speaker 3: Since I started ophthalmology in two thousand, I graduated medical
29:43
Speaker 3: school in two thousand and two and started optimology you
29:46
Speaker 3: have to do an internship. And then two thousand and three,
29:48
Speaker 3: I mean just even in that time I was at
29:50
Speaker 3: Ohio State. The imaging like exponentially exploded with our technology.
29:54
Speaker 3: And now we've got a generation three Heidelberg over at
29:57
Speaker 3: West Virginia I and that thing is to the micron.
29:59
Speaker 3: It's a amazing the technology we have now available to us.
30:03
Speaker 2: That is incredible. Another question that we had that came
30:05
Speaker 2: in from the three zero four six two seven. And
30:07
Speaker 2: this will be interesting because I just read a study
30:09
Speaker 2: this week where there was a fairly substantial study done
30:13
Speaker 2: on the use of marijuana for certain mental mental issue
30:19
Speaker 2: but depression and different things like that, and basically they
30:22
Speaker 2: found zero help, like there was none. And this was
30:26
Speaker 2: a robust study. This wasn't it was robust. And so
30:29
Speaker 2: one of the very first things I ever heard about
30:32
Speaker 2: medicinal marijuana for was for glaucoma. Is there any correlation
30:36
Speaker 2: there at all, or not correlation, but any actual treatment
30:39
Speaker 2: there at all.
30:40
Speaker 3: I do not prescribe marijuana because it doesn't work. So
30:43
Speaker 3: that's the liberal media has definitely taken that and run
30:45
Speaker 3: with that. But that's what marijuana. Twenty three thousand studies
30:49
Speaker 3: have been done on marijuana, and we have very little
30:51
Speaker 3: medicinal evidence of anything. Sometimes some extreme seizure disorders and increasing.
30:57
Speaker 4: Appetite right in hospice.
30:58
Speaker 3: But with smoking marijuana, you can smoke marijuana, you have
31:02
Speaker 3: to smoke a joint every forty five minutes, twenty four
31:05
Speaker 3: hours a day to lower your eye pressure one millimeters
31:09
Speaker 3: of mercury on So I've got an eye drop that
31:11
Speaker 3: can lower your pressures nine millimeters or mercury with just
31:14
Speaker 3: one eye what dry drop a day? And you can't
31:16
Speaker 3: smoke a joint every forty five minutes twenty four hours
31:18
Speaker 3: a day, and it lowers your blood pressure, so then
31:21
Speaker 3: you don't have perfusion or the blood is not actually
31:23
Speaker 3: getting to the optic nerve head, so it actually blinds
31:26
Speaker 3: you faster. So do not smoke marijuana for the treatment
31:30
Speaker 3: of glaucoma. See a doctor to be treated for that.
31:34
Speaker 3: And I think in this state, you guys ownly you
31:37
Speaker 3: don't have legalized marijuana.
31:38
Speaker 5: Over here, there's medical legalized, but not recreationally.
31:41
Speaker 3: Ohio we have it all right everything, So that's what
31:44
Speaker 3: I spend a lot of time educating Ohioans that I
31:47
Speaker 3: do not want them smoking marijuana if they have disease
31:49
Speaker 3: of glackhoma. It robs the optic nerve head of the
31:51
Speaker 3: very important blood supply of nutrient.
31:53
Speaker 2: It's amazing because I go back to that conversation I
31:55
Speaker 2: remember overhearing over thirty years ago where a gentleman and
31:58
Speaker 2: his partner we're talking about his problem with glacoma, and
32:01
Speaker 2: he was basically explaining, I think the only treatment is
32:04
Speaker 2: is weed and it's not legal here. I don't know
32:07
Speaker 2: what to do, like he was, you know, he was like,
32:09
Speaker 2: I don't want to do that, and they're telling me
32:11
Speaker 2: or people are telling me that this is what I
32:13
Speaker 2: should go do, et cetera, et cetera, And I don't
32:15
Speaker 2: know that. That just sounded terrible at the time.
32:17
Speaker 3: No, you know, and that's what I just, I know
32:19
Speaker 3: what for my disease. Please don't do it. Yeah, So
32:21
Speaker 3: that's all Like, I'm gonna stick to my lane on
32:23
Speaker 3: that one. But that's why, please don't do it. If
32:25
Speaker 3: you have glackoma, don't do it.
32:26
Speaker 2: Probably the final text question we have tom for this one.
32:28
Speaker 2: You either try to squeeze one in three or four
32:30
Speaker 2: non three five five zers or eight three zero four
32:31
Speaker 2: non three five five zers or eight from the six
32:34
Speaker 2: eight non three non five. I have diabetes and how
32:36
Speaker 2: blood pressure. My primary doctor has never mentioned glacoma. Should
32:40
Speaker 2: those conditions make me more proactive about eye exams.
32:43
Speaker 3: So diabetes definitely can cause a type of glackcoma. So
32:46
Speaker 3: there's sixty six different types of glacoma and diabetes. As
32:49
Speaker 3: long as your hemoglobin a wou see is under control,
32:52
Speaker 3: you're going to do great. But it's when the hemoglobin
32:54
Speaker 3: am on seas are not under control or you don't
32:56
Speaker 3: know you have the diagnosis of it, and your hemoglobina,
32:58
Speaker 3: your sugars are running really high and you have a
33:00
Speaker 3: high hemoglobity, and see, blood vessels can grow into the
33:04
Speaker 3: drains and it becomes a very aggressive and high eye
33:07
Speaker 3: pressure and painful condition. So the biggest thing is you
33:10
Speaker 3: just want to talk to your doctor. How well are
33:12
Speaker 3: you controlling your diabet beetes and how well were you
33:15
Speaker 3: controlling it three to five years ago. That's what happens
33:18
Speaker 3: is three to five years ago the diabetes was out
33:20
Speaker 3: of control, but it's under control now. But that's when
33:22
Speaker 3: the bad blood vessels can grow in. So you just
33:24
Speaker 3: want to see your doctor to have that conversation, and
33:27
Speaker 3: your doctor may recommend seeing an eye doctor once a year.
33:30
Speaker 3: And actually, the American Diabetic Association strongly recommends all diabetics
33:34
Speaker 3: and pre diabetics to have an annual eye exam because
33:37
Speaker 3: if we can catch that earlier, we can stop it
33:39
Speaker 3: before it becomes a painful glacoma.
33:41
Speaker 2: We talked earlier about how glacoma can have silent symptoms.
33:44
Speaker 2: One of the final things I wanted to touch on
33:46
Speaker 2: before we get out of here. Are there symptoms that
33:49
Speaker 2: present and what would somebody be looking out for.
33:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, there are some painful types of glacoma.
33:54
Speaker 3: And that's when you're going to wake up in the
33:55
Speaker 3: middle of the night or early morning and you're going
33:57
Speaker 3: to have colorful halos around a light. You're going to
33:59
Speaker 3: have a head you're gonna be nauseated, you're gonna be
34:01
Speaker 3: throwing up. All those things should take a red painful
34:05
Speaker 3: eye on one.
34:06
Speaker 4: Side should take you to the er.
34:08
Speaker 5: Gotcha.
34:08
Speaker 3: Anything where you're actually having pain and visual symptoms, you
34:12
Speaker 3: need to be going to the er. And that's what Yeah,
34:15
Speaker 3: and those are rare. I've already seen one here in Charleston.
34:18
Speaker 3: It got referred over to me out of an emergency situation,
34:21
Speaker 3: and there are things we can do and we were
34:23
Speaker 3: able to.
34:23
Speaker 4: Help that patient.
34:24
Speaker 2: Is it possible just because at first, Blush, what you
34:26
Speaker 2: mentioned just there reminded me a little bit of a migraine.
34:28
Speaker 2: I get migraines sometimes. Is there's some crossover there as
34:31
Speaker 2: far as like pain, halo, you know, thing along those lines.
34:34
Speaker 4: You like a migraine.
34:36
Speaker 3: The one eye is going to be rare, pupil's gonna
34:38
Speaker 3: look funny, You're gonna have weird colored halo.
34:41
Speaker 5: There will be physical sometimes sometimes not.
34:44
Speaker 4: And it's so hard.
34:46
Speaker 3: So if your migraine isn't typical for your migraine, because
34:49
Speaker 3: some of us suffered with migraines. If it's not typical,
34:52
Speaker 3: you start watching. If it's not letting up like normal,
34:54
Speaker 3: like maybe you take a leaf for it, or maybe
34:55
Speaker 3: you take something over the counter. It's like, well this
34:57
Speaker 3: one seems weird. You want to at least call your family.
35:00
Speaker 2: Doctor man all kinds of great information from doctor Amy
35:03
Speaker 2: Armstrong this morning, and we make sure we get all
35:04
Speaker 2: the information out. Again, we've covered a lot of ground
35:06
Speaker 2: this morning. You might have been firstly jotting down notes
35:08
Speaker 2: and you might need to contact information, so we make
35:10
Speaker 2: sure that I get that information over to you. What's
35:12
Speaker 2: Shooting Eye Consultants you can find they have a great website.
35:14
Speaker 2: You can go to the website and find out all
35:16
Speaker 2: kinds of information include reading about doctor Armstrong if you
35:18
Speaker 2: would like to. The website is wvdash odd dot com.
35:22
Speaker 2: Wv dash odd dot com really easy to get to.
35:24
Speaker 2: There are six locations in Charleston, Canall City, Beckley Point, Pleasant,
35:27
Speaker 2: Ripley and Saint Albins and the phone numbers three zero
35:30
Speaker 2: four three four three ice three zer a four three
35:32
Speaker 2: four three thirty nine thirty seven. That's threezer a four
35:35
Speaker 2: three four three thirty non thirty seven. This show will
35:38
Speaker 2: be up on podcast at WCHS network dot com Slash
35:41
Speaker 2: Expert coming up here within the hour or so. So
35:44
Speaker 2: if you heard the back portion of it, you want
35:47
Speaker 2: to listen to the whole thing, You're more than welcome
35:48
Speaker 2: to do that. You can check that out over at
35:50
Speaker 2: the website. Doctor Armstrong, thank you so much for your
35:52
Speaker 2: time this morning. Thanks hope you had a good time.
35:54
Speaker 4: Yes, I had a great time.
35:55
Speaker 2: Good time on the radio. Surprise, that's doctor Amy arms
36:00
Speaker 2: Strong from West Virginia. I Consultants online WV dash i
36:03
Speaker 2: dot Com, WV dash i dot Com. Their phone number
36:05
Speaker 2: threes aer A four three four three thirty nine thirty
36:07
Speaker 2: seven three four three e's that's going to do it
36:10
Speaker 2: for us today. Coming up next is going to be
36:11
Speaker 2: Dave Allen on The Dave Allen Show five eighty Live,
36:13
Speaker 2: followed by Talkline with Dave Wilson and TJ