Brianna Laplante

During last night’s lecture, I quickly became interested in glaucoma.  Glaucoma is sometimes called the silent thief because it can slowly steal your sight before you even realize anything is wrong.  Glaucoma often occurs in animals, as well as humans.  Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of vision loss.  The most common form of glaucoma is primary open-angle glaucoma, which develops slowly with no warning signs.  Other types of glaucoma include angle-closure glaucoma, low tension glaucoma, primary glaucoma and secondary glaucoma.  Many people are unaware of their vision problems until their vision is extensively compromised. 

Symptoms of glaucoma include blurred vision, halos around lights, reddening of the eyes, severe eye pain, nausea and vomitting.  Glaucoma is caused by too much intraocular pressure inside the eye.  Intraocular pressure is like air in a balloon–too much pressure inside the balloon affects its shape, and may even cause it to pop.  In the case of the eye, too much pressure can damage the optic nerve. 

Not to worry..there are many prevention methods for glaucoma.  People who have elevated eye pressure should use glaucoma eye drops on a daily basis, this reduces te risk of developing glaucoma by 22%. Cholesterol lowering medicines also reduce the risk of developing glaucoma, along with frequent monitoring/regular checkups.  Regularly monitoring is the best way to early detect and prevent glaucoma.  Remember to go for annual eye exams to keep your eyes healthy!!

I never realized exactly how fragile the spinal cord was until last night’s lecture.  Last week, I watched NFL player Kevin Everett interview about his spinal cord injury on Oprah.  I soon became very interested in spinal cord injuries.  A spinal cord injury is a serious condition that affects lives dramatically.  

The spinal cord is often injured when vertebrae are broken or fractured and axons are damaged.  Damage prevents messages from getting through, causing many problems.  The body’s chemical responses along with bleeding and swelling can cause additional damage that can continue for days, even weeks after the injury.  The prognosis depends on the location and severity of the injury.  Some patients recover, while others may be paralyzed for life.  About 52% of spinal cord injuries result in quadriplegia and tetraplegia and about 42% result in paraplegia.  The severity of the injury gets worse depending on how high the injury is on the spinal cord.  Remember, C3, C4 and C5 keep you alive!

Spinal cord injuries are labeled complete or incomplete depending on the amount of spinal cord damage.  With a complete injury, messages cannot travel to and from the brain and there is no feeling or movement below the injury.  An incomplete injury is less severe.  An incomplete injury allows for some messages to get through and for limited sensory and motor abilities.  Injuries can also be classified as traumatic or nontraumatic.  Traumatic injuries are sudden, often from a strong force that causes immediate damage.  Nontraumatic injuries tend to develop more slowly from conditions such as arthritis, diseases, cancer, bleeding, infections or degeneration of the vertebrae. 

 Approximately 11,000 people suffer from spinal cord injuries in the U.S. each year!