glaucoma and cup to disk ratio

I went to the doctor on march 8th 2006. the doctor is worried that i may be at risk of glaucoma and i am very concerned that i may lose my sight. i know this disease has no systoms at first and that it may be nothing at all. my right eye pressure is 22 and the left is 18, but two years ago it was less than 10 in both. my question is am i going to have glaucoma and will i lose my sight over a period of time or can it happen fast. I am only 31 and there is no family history of the disease.

[Forum-OD-MP]

well a pressure jump from under 10 to over 20 in 2 years is certainly somewhat alarming.  you need to be followed closely.

glaucoma is difficult.  difficult for doctors to decide whether or not you have it in the 1st place and diagnose it, difficult to treat, difficult to explain to patients, and difficult for patients to understand.  there is a lot of grey area.

the most recent studies show that intraocular pressure ("iop") is probably not as good of an indicator as we all once thought.  i mean a pressure of 65...that person DEFINITELY has glaucoma.  but 18 or 22 or 25...we now know that each person's "normal" iop range is totally different.  18 may be WAY too high for some people.  but some people can get away with an iop of 28 and have no damage and no glaucoma.  

so are you "going to have glaucoma?"... i have no idea.  you need doctor's appointments.  probably a bunch of them.  get 2nd opinions.  you need further testing for sure, i hope you're already getting that.  retinal scanning techniques like a "GDx", or a optical coherence tomography,  visual field testing, and careful evaluation of your optic nerve.  you need a glaucoma specialist probably.

it sure would be easy of a patient had an iop over a certain number we could say "YES! this person has glaucoma!"  and if it were under that certain number we would say "NO! this person does not have glaucoma!".  but its not nearly that easy.