New To This Group

[positivity7]

Hi Everyone,

I am so glad to find this group. My name is Charles and I recently got inflammation in my right eye in the beginning of November 2012. The Opthamologist put me on cortisone drops (ratio-prednisolone) in which I slowly tapered off and I was free from inflammation by the beginning of January this year. However, by mid January, the inflammations came back again, and I had to go through the same eye treatment again with the same eye drops.

Now in mid February, during my checkup, they found that my eye pressure was starting to get high. So the opthamologist also put me on Combigan 2 drops a day. The problem is that I'm starting to get side effects from Combigan. I notice that I had problems breathing, my pupil started to get smaller, my eye was starting to feel a bit numb, and I was starting to get a little sensitivity to light. Is this normal? Should I just try to tough it out? Or does anyone know if there are any other "alternate" drops that I can take to relieve of my eye pressure?

In my last checkup last week, I had no more inflammation, and so I am in the process of tapering off. So do you think it is okay if I “stop” the high pressure eye drops for now? I am already down to 4 cortisone drops a day, so I should be taking a drop less for each consecutive week, and I should be fully free from my drops in 4 weeks. So is it okay if I totally stop taking any high pressure drops for now? After all, my high eye pressure just started very recently, the doctor said that it wasn't even that high yet (he however did not give me a specific measurement of the pressure). So I really hope I can omit those high pressure drops, I am very scared of its side effects! Especially my trouble breathing!

As for my background information, I am 36 years old, I have had colitis for 7 years now, I have been taking Salofalk (Mesalazine) for it orally. I also had my gall bladder removed in September of 2004 (not sure if this is relevant or not, lol). I am allergic to Penicillin and general allergies (pet fur, dust, ragweed). I had a little bit of asthma for a little brief period when I was born, but it never recurred later on in my life. Anyone can give me advice about my eye pressure issue? Any alternate eye drops? Or can I perhaps stop the eye pressure drops for now? I am quite worried about this issue. Please help me someone! Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestion.

Best Regards,

Charles

[Mike Bartolatz]

Charles, please contact your Ophthalmologist right away. there are other types of dilating drops that you can use to replace the combigan. hopefully pressure will be under control by the time you taper off the steroids. that said you mentioned that you have colitis.
have you been tested for ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease both linked to uveitis? do you have HLA B27 gene linking them?
when uveitis is linked to a systemic illness such as mentioned above, it is treated systemically in a STEROID SPARING manner.
by this I mean once the inflammation is controlled with the steroids, other drugs are introduced to keep the inflammation throughtout your body controlled. DMARD drugs often work or other classes of drugs.
you need an ophthalmologist experienced in treating systemic disease linked to iritis to properly treat this so that it doesn't progress beyond the iris causing additional damage to the retina and optic nerve. a list of these specialists can be found at http://www.uveitis.org in the PATIENT information section of the site.

a very slow taper off the topical steroids will often be required to prevent renewed inflammation. but there are other causes of elevated pressure such as cells from the inflammaton plugging up the drains for the eye.
the dilating drop is important in preventing the iris from sticking to the lens. it also helps the muscles that control the iris to relax which in turn stops spasm from adhesion between the iris and lens.

follow your doctors recommendations regarding discontinuation of any medication.
wishing you the very best,
Mike