2nd Round of Iritis - HLA-B27 Positive
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:50 pm
Hi All,
I, 31 year old male, just recently (New Year's Eve) got my second case of iritis, my first one was in March of 2012 and I was told this was probably idiopathic and would not occur again. It took about a month back then for my first case to go away (prednisone and dilating drops) and didn't seem to affect my vivions at all once everything cleared up.
This second one has been rougher, it seemed to be getting much better last week but just flared up again this weekend as I was getting down to prednisone drops every 3 hours. My opthalmologist had me do some blood work and I did come back as being HLA-B27 positive. Nobody else in my family has ever had iritis so this was a little surprising. I've never had any back pain or stomach issues so far either.
After being told about this diagnosis, I did some research online and found this site and particularly the mention of getting away from steroids and using NSAIDs to control recurrences of iritis. When I mentioned this to my opthalmologist, she decided to try me on 50mg of indomethacin/ 3x daily as well as 1 20mg tablet of prilosec/day to protect the stomach, whilst continuing the prednisone at every 2 hours and a dilating drop "scopolamin" once/daily. I have found myself being quite drowsy as a result.
I live in Orlando, FL and while I think my doctor is doing the best he can, I would like to find someone who deals with iritis related to auto-immune disease more regularly. My doctor seems to think this will be a regular occurrence and steroids/dilating drops and eventually surgery for cataracts is the solution?
Any advice/comments would be appreciated. I feel this disease is a big annoyance but am worried that it could get even worse. Especially as a father of two young children, I worry that they may get this someday, too?
Thanks and good luck to all fellow sufferers.
I, 31 year old male, just recently (New Year's Eve) got my second case of iritis, my first one was in March of 2012 and I was told this was probably idiopathic and would not occur again. It took about a month back then for my first case to go away (prednisone and dilating drops) and didn't seem to affect my vivions at all once everything cleared up.
This second one has been rougher, it seemed to be getting much better last week but just flared up again this weekend as I was getting down to prednisone drops every 3 hours. My opthalmologist had me do some blood work and I did come back as being HLA-B27 positive. Nobody else in my family has ever had iritis so this was a little surprising. I've never had any back pain or stomach issues so far either.
After being told about this diagnosis, I did some research online and found this site and particularly the mention of getting away from steroids and using NSAIDs to control recurrences of iritis. When I mentioned this to my opthalmologist, she decided to try me on 50mg of indomethacin/ 3x daily as well as 1 20mg tablet of prilosec/day to protect the stomach, whilst continuing the prednisone at every 2 hours and a dilating drop "scopolamin" once/daily. I have found myself being quite drowsy as a result.
I live in Orlando, FL and while I think my doctor is doing the best he can, I would like to find someone who deals with iritis related to auto-immune disease more regularly. My doctor seems to think this will be a regular occurrence and steroids/dilating drops and eventually surgery for cataracts is the solution?
Any advice/comments would be appreciated. I feel this disease is a big annoyance but am worried that it could get even worse. Especially as a father of two young children, I worry that they may get this someday, too?
Thanks and good luck to all fellow sufferers.