A blessing in disguise

Just the other day, a patient showed up in my office after accidentally spraying a chemical into her eyes.{{more}}

After checking her eyes, my initial diagnosis was a mild chemical conjunctivitis. I couldn’t do any more tests because her eyes were irritated so I prescribed eye drops and asked her to come back the next day.

On the following day, I discovered that she was extremely near sighted and also had very high astigmatism. As a matter of fact, both corneas of her eyes were irregularly shaped: a condition we call keratoconus. We also discovered that her eye pressures were very high.

We performed a comprehensive examination that included Visual fields, Corneal thickness measurements, Gonioscopy and dilation of the pupils to examine the retina. We concluded that she has glaucoma in addition to her other conditions. We discussed this and she realized that it was a blessing in disguise. Had she not accidentally sprayed her eyes with the chemical she would not have had an eye exam and for all you know she may have gone blind eventually. It does make sense to have regular eye check ups.

God works in mysterious ways. Have a blessed week.

Dr Kenneth Onu is a resident Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Beachmont Eye Institute/Eyes R Us Send questions to: Beachmont@gmail.com

Tel: 784 456-1210