Is the glaucoma medication you take Cosopt?

First I want to emphasize something. You have to be very honest with your doctor. Saying you are doing something when you aren't creates a lot of confusion. The difficulty was deciding if Cosopt reduced my intraocular pressures or if stopping prednisone resulted in normalized eye pressures.

Furthermore, Side effects from Prednisone don't resolve as soon as you stop Prednisone. I was off Prednisone for 2 years before things gradually normalized.

Cosopt is another medication I no longer take since I stopped prednisone. There was some controversy because my ophthalmologist for 25 years said I could tolerate higher intraocular pressures. The goal was to keep my eye pressures under 30. When my intraocular pressures were over 30 - I was always on Prednisone. I was called a steroid responder, which is someone whose intraocular pressure (IOP) increases significantly when using steroid medications. This rise in IOP can eventually lead to steroid-induced glaucoma if not addressed.

When I tapered off Prednisone my eye pressures stayed under 30 and were closer to 20. My current ophthalmologist wanted to treat intraocular pressures over 20 which is the more common practice. My current ophthalmologist actually said I had glaucoma instead of "steroid induced ocular hypertension."

I wasn't very diligent with the Cosopt drops after I stopped Prednisone based on what my first ophthalmologist told me for many years. At one visit with my current ophthalmologist, my intraocular pressures were under 20 when I wasn't doing Cosopt drops. I confessed to not using Cosopt so my current ophthalmologist agreed that I didn't need Cosopt anymore.

The same thing happened with each of three blood pressure medications. I had extremely high blood pressure when I was on Prednisone. My high blood pressure caused other cardiac problems so my primary care doctor was reluctant to stop my blood pressure medications. I thought my blood pressure was getting too low after I stopped Prednisone because of frequent dizzy spells and blackout spells without passing out. My primary care doctor agreed to stop my blood pressure medications one by one instead of all at once to see what happened. Two years after stopping Prednisone ... I finally got off all my brood pressure medications.

Something similar happened with atorvastatin for high cholesterol. When I stopped prednisone, my cholesterol level was gradually getting too low so atorvastatin was stopped. After atorvastatin was stopped, my cholesterol level increased again and was mildly elevated. My endocrinologist said I was "extremely sensitive' to statins even though I had been on atorvastatin the entire time I took Prednisone. My endocrinologist recommended a different medication to control my cholesterol level that wasn't as strong.