Recently diagnosed with glaucoma and having allergic reaction to drops

@humming00birds
I literally turned 60 about 4 1/2 weeks after being diagnosed. I've always had sinus problems and have been on antibiotics, decongestants, and antihistamines since I was a teenager. I had sinus surgery when I was 22 and it greatly helped, but about 15 years ago, I was almost killed by a guy I was dating and, as a result, my septum is now deviated again although I don't have nearly as many problems now as I had before my surgery.

When I did a Google search about narrow angle glaucoma, it specifically said that the largest group of people who have it are Asians! I'm white and apparently it is rare for while people to have it; according to the same search, only 3.8% of white people have it.

I was never told that I have dry eyes, but it seems to be par for the course because I have had dry skin and hair since I was in my early teens. I also have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, but I don't know if that would cause the dryness or not, as the searches were not conclusive about that. I do think that it makes my eyes sensitive to light, as I hate the "cool" bulbs and fluorescents ones too; they drive me crazy and I end up with a headache.

I also have puffy eyelids which have gotten worse in the last few years.

When I went to the doctor last Friday, he finally gave me Travoprost PF drops and that seems to have done the trick. Travoprost is in the same family as Latanoprost, so perhaps your doctor can prescribe that for you. I hope the nurse will have good news for you!

I've never met anyone else who reacted the same with diphenhydramine. I don't think we're common.

@kwgriff Hi again.
I appreciate the response. That's interesting on narrow angles and Asians having it more than other people. I did find one or two links that, though the studies were not official, that there has been a rise in Asians that have taken certain antidepressants causing glaucoma, and that's why I stopped taking antidepressants last year as I wanted to see if my eye pressures would go down. Since I've been taking them since the late 90's, I thought for sure this was the cause. It even says it's a rare side effect for Effexor XR in my pharmacy drug information book that was written back in 2000. It didn't say what type of glaucoma, and I'm only now learning a bit about the different types. The studies on Asians included Pakistanians and Koreans and well, my mom's side of the family is Hungarian, and I had an uncle that looked like he was from Mongolia, so I thought, too, maybe there was a DNA connection for the reason. I only know that my doctor said I have small eye sockets, small eyes, and there's only so much room for my changing eye shape due to far-sightedness that that is the cause. If it were only due to being far-sighted, I think there'd be a whole bunch more people with narrow angle glaucoma.

I did ask my pharmacist about the Iyuzeh drops by Thea Pharm and he said, "they're expensive", so when I got a call back from my doctor, he didn't recommend it, but switched me to something the Travaprost you suggested. I'm waiting for the prescription to get filled. If I still have the same side effects, then I'll skip a day between using the drops and see if that works okay for me and continues to keep my pressures low.

@humming00birds I'm replying to my own post to correct something. I just got my replacement prescription and it isn't Latanoprost as I had thought, but Timolol.

@humming00birds I tried both latanoprost and timolol and broke out in hives with both of them; that's why I suspected the preservative used in them. Now I'm on Travoprost and don't have any problem with hives at all.

Yes I went thru the same thing with itchy skin and red welts on my check and back. Also my eyes had puss coming from
Them. I checked the ingredients of the lantanprost and discovered it has a Toxic preservative in it. It is. Called BAK! It’s Toxic! I stopped taking the drop and informed my doctor about what I found out also contacted Costco where I got the drug. The pharmacist wasn’t even aware of that toxic chemical being in latanoprost, but later came back and said I was right it is toxic. After taking myself off that drug my skin issues cleared up.