Question about eye pressure

Hi, I recently had a eye exam and my eye pressure was 40 something. I had an eye exam the previous month and it was 22. They did a cornea thickness test and my cornea was extremely thick and that probably rules out glaucoma. They gave me a followup appointment six months from now. My question is, if I have thick corneas and my eye pressure should thus be high, wouldn't it have been high the previous test that I had taken? And is it normal for eye pressure to jump up so high in a month? Thanks.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

It doesn't make any difference how thick your cornea is if you had a pressure of 40 you need to see an Eye MD ophthalmologist, ideally a glaucoma specialist. Besides cornea thickness you need a visual field, gonioscopy, stereo disk photos, optic nerve OCT. ONLY THEN can you be told that waiting 6 months for another check up is okay.

A THICK CORNEA DOES NOT RULE OUT GLAUCOMA.

If you saw an optometrist (non physician non MD limited care eye provider). You need to get in to see a Eye MD physician-ophthalmologist next week at the latest. If you saw an Eye MD I would get another opinion.  40 IOP is scary!

JCH III MD

[unarmed]

They did take photos of my eye using a machine (the receipt said "fundus photography.). Would this of ruled it out? The person who examined me was an OD.