How do I work like this??

[Chapps]

Well, I'm a typical case -- I woke up with a bloody red and painful eye the Sunday before last, got it mis-diagnosed as conjunctivitis (I *told* the doc that it wasn't itchy and there was no morning "crusties"), then had it correctly diagnosed as Iritis last Friday, when I was nearly blind in the affected eye.

*sigh*

I'm on the Pred Forte drops (every hour), and we're keeping my iris dialated -- all standard. But I'm having a very difficult time at work. Midway through the day, both of my eyes just stop working well. They're tired of overcompensating, I guess. The blurry eye actually now sees my computer monitor better *without* my reading glasses than my healthy eye (although that's not saying much), but it's very blurry for everything else, along with double images, halos, photophobia and still some pain ... but almost all of the bloody redness is gone. In other words, my reading glasses are making the vision in the affected eye *worse*. Aaarrgghh!

I just don't know if I can make it every day to 6 pm. I want to close my eyes and lie down with a compress on my face. How does everyone else deal with this at work? I don't want to jeopardize my job, but this is really tough to figure out.

Yeah, I know, it's only been a week. And of course, it could be worse ... I could have this in both eyes.



Chapps

[Mike Bartolatz]

if you are seeing halos around lights you need to get back in to see your opthalmologist.
steroid eye drops can increase the pressure within the eye and damage tissues inside the eye similiar to glaucoma.
sometimes we have to put a patch over the eye in order to see.

get some very good wrap around sunglasses that fit over your glasses. these can be found at drug stores and at sporting goods stores in the Fishing tackle area.
I use brown tinted ones inside while on the computer. the fit over sunglasses have colored side shields and they fit tightly and prevent sunlight or back light from reflecting off of your glasses. glare is what really bothers us as well as the intensity of the lighting in the 'room'
yellow tinted driving glasses help too at night while RIDING as a passenger.
Dark green for bright days works very well too. you have to just try and see what works best for you.

if you increase the font size on your computer at work it should also help you.
sometimes we can have bulbs removed from overhead lighting and change to an incandescent lamp to gut glare.
get some refresh tears and put them into your eyes abour fifteen minutes after your prescriptions. this should help sooth your eyes. remember to blink too as we forget to do this while staring at the computer.

we have a pamphlet that you can print entitled: Uveitis: a Guide for Teachers and parents.

this pamphlet outlines coping strategies for kids but the information is also very useful for adults.
instructions on how to increase the size of characters on your computer is outlined in a sticky note at the beginning of this forum.

I hope this helps,
Mike

[Chapps]

I hadn't had much opportunity to log in here recently, but I thought I'd give an update.

My eye doc was very happy with the way that I'd been responding to the Pred Forte (the red was entirely gone and the eye was gaining acuity), so I've been scaled back from hourly to every two hours and now just four times a day. My eyesight is still not normal -- I now appear to be nearsighted in that eye and can actually read without my eyeglasses with just that eye open. However, that now makes my reading glasses useless for that eye and of course makes seeing distant objects iffy.

*sigh*

And then I started to get pain in the eye again, along with a whole mess of floaters (I called it a 'skeeter swarm') and bizarre arced flashes of light.

So, back to the doc, who told me that I now have photopsia. My vitreous has detached from the retina, although it's tugging at the retina, causing the flashes of light. The vitreous detachment is permanent and not uncommon (in old folks -- I just turned 45), but he's concerned that I may get a retinal tear or detachment. We're watching it very carefully. Retinal tears or detachment can be fixed, if caught early enough.

Oh, boy. It's certainly not a dull disease, is it? But I keep my sunglasses on when I'm outside, the shades are pulled in the office ... but the photopsia is actually worse in low to dark lighting. I've increased the font size of my computer apps, which helps, even though I have to practically keep my nose to the monitor when wearing my reading glasses.

I just want something to resolve, one way or the other. It's difficult being in this grey zone. But I really shouldn't complain -- my sister-in-law just went through stage three breast cancer last year, including a double mastectomy, reconstruction, chemotherapy, et al. That's *really* scary.

Chapps

[Mike Bartolatz]

Glad your uveitis is getting under control. yes, detachment of the vitreous from the retina does occur in all of us but at a much later age, usually in the 60's.
hopefully you will not have detachment of the retina or a tear. should you see a veil across your vision or black globs (blood) get into the ER., the best results of surgery to reattach a retina occurs within the first hour or so after the detachment.

Wish you the best,
Mike