LOSING her sight had never crossed Shirley Hodgson's mind - until she was within two hours of blindness.

Mrs Hodgson, 49, of Wheldrake, went to bed nursing a pounding headache, and spent a restless night raiding her bathroom cabinet for painkillers.

In the morning, the pain was too intense to bear and she knew she needed medication to take the edge off it.

But when her GP, in Escrick, recognised the symptoms of acute glaucoma and sent her straight to York Hospital, the problem took on a new dimension.

"I'd really got to the point where I needed painkillers that I couldn't get myself and I needed something to be prescribed," she said. "It was excruciating pain and I felt sick.

"My doctor told me I had to get to hospital straight away and when he offered to drive me himself, I realised how serious it was.

"By then the pain was much more intense, I couldn't sit up and I had to lie down. I went straight in to see the specialist and they gave me eye drops before I had laser surgery.

"They told me then that I was probably within two hours of losing my sight and the GP had picked up the signs very well."

Surgeons made a hole at the back of her right eye to drain the fluid away and lower her eye pressure before performing laser surgery.

"Your eye pressure should be in the mid teens and they get quite concerned if it's over that," she said. "Mine was 56 so that shows you how serious it was."

Mrs Hodgson, a married mother of two, said there had been no family history of glaucoma.

"It was a frightening experience," she said. "I couldn't hold my head up and the last few hours were really quite intense.

"It's only afterwards you realise how serious it was and what might have happened if I hadn't gone to the doctors that morning."

She has now fully recovered and suffered no loss of vision.

Gail Barnes, nurse practitioner at York Hospital, said early diagnosis and prompt treatment was vital.

"With acute glaucoma your eye pressure rises quite rapidly and you will have a headache and often nausea, which will generally come on in the evening.

"It happens when the pupil dilates and blocks off the drainage angle, so fluid can't drain out of the eye like it normally would. It comes on suddenly, which is why it is hard to pick up at routine eye examinations.

"Acute glaucoma is different to chronic glaucoma, which involves damage to the optic nerve and comes on gradually."

Gail said that two in every 100 UK residents over the age of 40 would develop glaucoma, and warned people to look after their eyes: "You should be going for regular eye test at the age of 40 and if you an immediate member of the family like a parent of sibling sufferers from glaucoma, then you will need monitoring."

Glaucoma fact file

What is glaucoma? A group of eye diseases that affect vision, and that, if left untreated, can eventually cause blindness. It is more common in old age, and happens when the optic nerve in the eye is damaged.

Who will it affect? The risks increase over the age of 40, although it is sometimes present from birth. It can be hereditary and diabetes patients are at a higher risk.

Symptoms: Chronic

glaucoma, or open angle glaucoma, produces almost no symptoms until it is at an advanced stage. Symptoms of acute glaucoma may include a red, painful eye, enlarged pupil, misty vision and a hard, sore eyeball.

Diagnosis: Glaucoma can generally be detected by an optician using short painless tests.

Treatment: Eye drops for chronic glaucoma and laser surgery for acute glaucoma.

Updated: 09:21 Friday, February 04, 2005