Hey folks, my first bout with iritis is now 3 weeks old. After week of moderate symptoms, I woke in the middle of the night with a terrible pain in my affected eye. I went to my primary care doc who looked at the eye for all of about a minute then declared I had a viral infection in the eye. He gave me Ciproflaxin drops an and allergy med. Needless to say it did not get better. Within 3 days I was more miserable, so my wife called her eye doc, Dr. Cundiff in Peoria, IL. He got me in right away and within a minute or two of observation diagnosed the iritis. He did an awesome job of explaining the disease and how he planned to attack it. Fortunately no permanent damage has occurred, and so far it has responded favorably to the prednisone and cyclopentolate treatment.
I feel very angry with my primary care doc, as his poor effort caused me several extra days of misery. If he had the slightest question about what was going on, shouldn't he have referred me to a specialist? I am on the hunt for a new primary, that is for sure. I am hoping to get over the urge to go punch him.
Anyone else have a similar incident?
JEFF-Washington IL
PO'd at my primary care doc
Moderators: Mike Bartolatz, kwork
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Mike Bartolatz
- Posts: 6595
- Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 9:58 pm
Re: PO'd at my primary care doc
Jeff,
Welcome to the group!
your situation is NORMAL and usually people with a red eye are initially diagnosed with 'pink eye' by their GP, actually only two days to get the diagnosis corrected is pretty fast In the scheme of things.
the GP cannot see the inflammation inside the eye. the only clue he might have had that more was going on is if the iris was misshapen from the iris sticking to the lens or if the iris didn't function at all. then he might have sent you to an ophthalmologist.
hopefully you will only have this one bout of iritis. if it becomes recurrent or chronic, then we can discuss other options for treatment.
usually no systemic testing is done until it returns or stays chronic for a couple of months.
I do suggest that you get a pair of tight fitting wrap around sunglasses that are POLARIZED to help with the light with a dilated eye. if you wear glasses, then they make 'fit over' sunglasses that you can buy at any Walmart or drug store for about 20 dollars. I use dark green for sunny days and brown for overcast days and while on the computer etc.
please post to our GENERAL DISCUSSION FORUM. to get there click on BOARD INDEX in the header above. then start a new thread or join in any existing topic.
wishing you quiet eyes,
Mike
Welcome to the group!
your situation is NORMAL and usually people with a red eye are initially diagnosed with 'pink eye' by their GP, actually only two days to get the diagnosis corrected is pretty fast In the scheme of things.
the GP cannot see the inflammation inside the eye. the only clue he might have had that more was going on is if the iris was misshapen from the iris sticking to the lens or if the iris didn't function at all. then he might have sent you to an ophthalmologist.
hopefully you will only have this one bout of iritis. if it becomes recurrent or chronic, then we can discuss other options for treatment.
usually no systemic testing is done until it returns or stays chronic for a couple of months.
I do suggest that you get a pair of tight fitting wrap around sunglasses that are POLARIZED to help with the light with a dilated eye. if you wear glasses, then they make 'fit over' sunglasses that you can buy at any Walmart or drug store for about 20 dollars. I use dark green for sunny days and brown for overcast days and while on the computer etc.
please post to our GENERAL DISCUSSION FORUM. to get there click on BOARD INDEX in the header above. then start a new thread or join in any existing topic.
wishing you quiet eyes,
Mike
Mike Bartolatz
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