Read $1 and $1 and $1 and $1.

Now that you know you must check your eyes every six month, you are actually at lower risk of losing your vision from glaucoma than people who don't have routine eye exams. Just keep monitoring your eyes and IOP, and hopefully you will be safe.

Hello there. A few quick thoughts.

losing your current source of income due to a possible disability is a totally understandable fear. You could loose your sight, and this might result in you not being able to create art in the same way; anyone who says otherwise is only hurting you. It's better to face and prepare for things, , instead of hoping they will never happen.

However, if you do lose your vision, it will probably be a very slow and long process, so you will have time to learn to adapt and adjust. I'm sure you love art, and I hope you wil always be able to enjoy it, no matter what your eye balls do, but there are countless alternative careers out there that you could thrive in as a blind person. I have known many people who lost the ability to do one career, due to vision loss, only to go back to school and end up in another career that they were much happier in. If your vision is still really good right now, I don't think you have to worry about these things, just keep tracking it and be willing to do what you need to do if you lose enough vision.

A few last thoughts about my own experiences that I hope might help. I was born with Glaucoma. I slowly lost my vision, starting at age 2. I had to use stronger and stronger glasses, magnification, and other tools, until I lost all of my vision at age 18. When I lost all of my vision I did not really have the skills a blind person needs, so I went to a training center to learn everything I needed to thrive as a blind person, braille, assistive technology, cane skills, orientation and mobility, independent living skills etc. I then went on to college, and now I have a great job, a happy marriage, and a cute cat. I am very content as a blind person, for the most part. I believe a lot of the good things in my life would have never happend if I had not lost my sight. My biggest regret is that I did not learn blindness skills at a younger age, when it was clear that I would way day need them. I believe this was, in part, due to me, my parents, and my doctor refusing to be honest about the situation. I want to help keep other people from making this mistake of refusing to face reality until they have no choice. I have known dozens of people who have had to adapt to blindness and in my experience almost everyone makes the change and goes on to live a full life.

PS, I also know how much it sucks to lose an art you care deeply about. I use to work in audio editing and podcasting. It was my passion, but a year and a half ago I lost some hearing which made me have to go into a new type of work. The emotional side of this was really hard for me, and I still get a little sad about it from time to time. Life goes on.

Good luck,

If you see the doctor every 6 months to monitor it, that would greatly increases the chances of catching it before it starts causing damage. It normally takes years before it causes damage. The reason why people don't notice is that it doesn't cause any pain, so they don't bother seeing a doctor about it.

Even if you did get glaucoma, there are a fair number of pretty good treatments as well.