Sorry for the late reply, busy work week...
My starting pressures hit the low 30's when my optho and I caught it. I started with Xalatan (1 drop each eye at night) and that worked ok for most of a year then both pressures started to creep up again; added Timolol (1 drop each eye am and pm) about 9 months ago and my pressures are stable in the high teens so I guess you could say the drops are controlling everything. My optho said that if my pressures increase again (could happen, even odds) there are two more meds we'll work through before going with the laser surgery. My insurance (HMO) won't authorize going direct to the surgery so I have to exhaust all the Rx options first.

Long term prognosis is good if I remain compliant with the Rx. Since my general health is very good there isn't much I can do in that regard to reduce the pressures so I'll be using the drops for the rest of my life or until I get the surgery. I'm ok with all that because my pressures were so high before the Rx that I would have developed noticeable vision loss within 9 months or so. Although the drops are a bit irritating to my eyes the idea of laser surgery to my eyes (or any surgery to my eyes) makes me a little nervous. I get my pressures checked every 6 months now just to keep track.

I asked the Optho if there was something I did/didn't do that caused the increased pressures and he says no, just genetics. Lucky me! Because we'd been monitoring my eye pressure for a few years and watched it slowly increase we had set a "trigger" point of 25 for starting Rx treatment; all this helped prevent any damage to my eyes or optic nerve.

You'll get used to the drops very quickly and they'll become just another part of your bedtime routine. Make sure you go in for regular pressure checks (mine were every 3-4 months at first) to make sure the drops are working.

Good luck!
Sam