IOP Very Up and Down

 

Today felt like an up and down down for my IOP. It seem like whenever I worked, I felt stressed and my IOP went up. But it also felt like my IOP also responded well to my efforts to lower it. In that regard, today does reinforce my conviction that I have some control over my IOP. I believe that the way I live and the way I think and feel have a significant impact on my IOP. A healthy lifestyle (a good nutrition and fitness program, for example) and healthy emotions are part of my program for managing my IOP. Doctors and other experts in this field have been telling me that these things don't influence IOP, but my experience so far indicates the opposite. It will take more work than what I've done so far to reach a sound conclusion, but today's data looks like an interesting part of the story.

My overall averages today were:

Left 12.6; Right 15.3 (differential 2.8)

Those numbers strike me as a bit strange. I haven't seen an overall average that low for my left eye. And even though the average for my right eye is good, my experience of the day left me feeling that the data wasn't all good.

There are a couple other numbers I can look at. Today is the first time I'm mentioning them. The first value is the range of IOP values for the day. This is simply the highest IOP minus the lowest IOP for the entire day. Today's range was 11.0 for my right eye. That's the highest range value in the recent data. More typical values are 9 or 10. (Lower is better.)

Another number I can look at is the variability over the course of the full day. (I use standard deviation for this.) Today's variability (SD) was 3.7 over 54 measurements for my right eye. Again, that's higher than recent days.

These numbers basically confirm my feeling that it was an up and down day for my IOP.

Another way to look at that is that my IOP would have just been up if I had not taken so many breaks to do the things that get my IOP down. Notice that at 3 PM my IOP was 22 (right eye) and after I played with my dog, worked out and took a shower, my IOP was 11. That's impressive in terms of how much of a positive impact those simple activities had on my IOP. Many people can't get that kind of response from the most power drugs available. I got the benefit while also doing stuff that was fun and healthy.

Here are today's IOP values (I included the standard deviation columns today, even though I recently decided to start leaving those out of the blog posts):

Time	Left	Right	SD L	SD R	Comments
9:58	19.7	20.0	1.528	1.000
10:20	13.7	16.0	2.082	0.000	After brushing teeth.
15:02	13.3	22.3	1.528	1.528	Feeling stress about business and finances.
16:53	11.3	13.0	0.577	1.000	After playing with my dog for 5m, 10m Bates long swing, and 5m Frisbee with my dog.
17:16	10.7	11.7	0.577	0.577	After 12m of weight lifting (back and biceps).
17:19	10.0	12.0	0.000	0.000	Repeated measurements.
17:44	10.3	11.3	0.577	0.577	After shower.
18:17	11.0	13.0	0.000	1.414	Cooking.
19:36	11.0	12.0	0.000	0.000	After eating.
21:59	13.0	19.0	1.000	3.606	Working at computer.
22:25	11.3	12.0	0.577	1.225	Relaxing.
23:17	12.0	15.2	0.000	2.950	After watching TV (The Amazing Race).
23:39	12.3	15.3	1.528	1.155	Working at computer.
23:50					Xalatan in each eye
0:07	13.7	21.0	1.528	0.000	After laying down.
0:46	15.0	17.7	1.732	0.577	Working at computer.
1:20	13.0	14.0	1.000	1.000	Working at computer.