MY FRUSTRATION!!!!!!

[kingfisher610]

Update of Ongoing frustration

Hi Everyone

Just an update on my situation. First the the good news. Its been two years now since my first and last bout of iritis. I did have a minnor flare up that is now regurarded as a rebound of the first case due to premature tapering off of the steroid drops a few weeks after the initial case. Life woud pretty much be rolling on as usual except for the carear consequences I have been facing. I am a Sailor in the Canadian Navy and due to my bouts with Iritis I have been made medical unfit to sail and have been placed on a permant medical category. My file was sent to Ottowa for medical review which took about eight months. All told I have been held back from sailing with the exception of very limited sails for two years now. The medical board in Ottowa has now imposed the following two medical limitations on me. One that in the event of another bout of Iritis that I have to see a specialist in 24hrs and the seccond is that I have a less then 10 percent chance of having a reoccurance in the next ten years. These restrictions have been sent of to a carear review board and they now decide what they are going to do with me. There is chance of Release, Remuster or retention. The problem is that Our Military has a clause that if we cannot be deployed we cannot be employed. Therefore due to the 24hr restriction I may be in real big trouble. I have already seen two seperate doctors and they both have said that I should be regurded as fit sea but I am worried. I now have to sit back and weight for anothr three to nine months for the carear people to make thier decision. Scary times and I have no say in any of this. The only real health problem I have these days are related to a collar bone break injury from three years ago. It has given me constant pain and has never been the same since the break. Seven months after the break my bout with Iritis happend. While searching for answers for the Iritis is was discovered by accident in a chest xray that the collar bone was still broken and there was a full bony width seperation between the fragments. Though I have complained about the pain to my DR he seems to think this is normal and to be expected. In reviewing my medical file I have noticed that on at least two occasions when I have felt really unwell my CRP was HiGH at one point as high as 25. I understand a High normal range is 3. So its clear that I have inflamation somewhere. Whenever i do even moderate lifting with it or on a more personal note spend time with the wife I find I am in great pain. The last couple of months I have been doing allot of heavy lifting at work and the pain finally became to much for me and I had to go in to the Hospital emergency room. I was really frightend that they were just going to send me away again or that I would end up seeing the same DR who keeps telling me its normal. When I went in the Corpral at triage took a look at my shoulder with my shirt off and was shocked at the noticable slump in that shoulder. Thankfully she immediately called Physiotherapy who promptly came up and suggested I try immediate physiotherapy and I have been doing it at least twice a week since. Physio does not think that they can fix it on thier own and I am now waiting to meet with an Orthopedic surgeon. Inthe meantime the Physiotherapist wrote a letter to my GP who thinks the pain is normal and had him do an xray. He says the shoulder is healing well, but It has been three years now and i know the pain is not normal. My shoulder often feels inflammed and I have been putting ice and heat on it for three years. I strongly belive there is something real wrong going on with it. I think there may be some type of nerve or tissue dammage. I guess because of all this my question is, Is it posiable that the Iritis may have been caused by the shoulder injury? Seccondly What are your thoughts on the 24hr clause? Thanks so much for this fourm, I feel like I have been muzzled without a voice for two years and that this is the only place where people may understand my frustration.


Thanks so much

Steve

[Mike Bartolatz]

hi Steve,
sorry about the so called doctor you have ass a GP. any chance of getting in to see a REAL doctor? your shoulder should have re set by two years ago. this is insane to put you through this ordeal. inflammation anywhere in your body has the potential to set off another bout of uveitis. your shoulder problem isn't from an autoimmune disease so it shouldn't have been the cause of the iritis. as a child you may well have had a bout of 'pink eye' which in reality was a bout of iritis mis diagnosed which could explain the means of getting renewed inflammation after the collarbone break.
I would think that 72 hours would be appropriate to see a specialist. you could take a bottle of pred forte with you just in case keeping it in the ship pharmacy. if inflammation appears starting at the iris and proceeding outward toward the corners of your eyes then that would indicate uveitis as a cause and not conjunctivitis as a precautionary measure. your ships doctor could put dye on the surface of your eye and use a slit lamp microscope to look for active inflammation. you could also take NSAIDs orally too as a precaution while at sea.

thanks for the update as well. I was just thinking about you a couple of days ago, hoping your would stop by.
just thoughts,
Mike

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