new member Gareth

[Mike Bartolatz]

I'll apologise first as this is a bit of an essay!!!)

Hi all, my name's Gareth. I'm a 29 year old teacher in London. On 8th July I went to the Marylebone Eye Hospital in London with what I thought was conjunctivitis. My symptoms were red left eye, eye pain and photophobia, and some visual blurring.

I was examined by the doctor and she diagnosed me with "Acute Anterior Uveitis" (Iritis). I was prescribed Mydrilate to take twice a day for 1 week ( to prevent iris sticking) and Maxidex to take for 6 weeks - every 2 hours for the first week, then 6 times per day for a week, then 5/day etc etc. I was told to make an appointment to come back in 8 weeks for a follow up.

So the Maxidex seemed to work, and my eye gradually cleared up. However, 3 weeks later I got married (all went great!) and then went on honeymoon to Hawaii (11hr flight followed by 5hr flight) on 30th July and I thought tht when I got off the plane that my eyesight wasn't quite right. But I put it down to tiredness and he recycled aeroplane air. But the next few days I kept noticing faint blurriness in my vision. But on Friday (Aug 3rd) night, I noticed that street lights and car headlights had lovely rainbow halos around them. I consulted Dr. Google and it screamed "get to A&E now!".

So I went to the ER in Honolulu at 10pm, where they tested by sight, asked 101 questions and eventually tested my eye pressure. My right eye was at 19 but my left eye was at 56!! I nearly fainted!! They immediately consulted the on call ophthalmologist, who made a preliminary diagnosis of steroid induced glaucoma and instructed the ER doctor to give me Diamox (a diuretic) tablets, along with 2 different eye drops. Within 4 hours my pressure had come down to 26, so they gave me another Diamox tablet to take and discharged me, but made me an emergency appointment with the ophthalmologist in a few hours at 8am the next morning (Saturday).

He tested my vision again, checked my iritis (inflammation was still there) and checked my pressures (right eye was at 12, let eye at 11), which he was happy with. He said he wanted to ween me off the maxidex quicker than normal, so said I should take it twice a day, approx 12 hours apart. He also prescribed me Timolol and Latanoprost eye drops, to be taken once a day. He said I was ok to fly though, which is good as we're off to Vegas today for the 2nd week of the honeymoon. He said I should see an ophthalmologist in Vagas on Tuesday or Wednesday to check the pressure and also the iritis, and also gain when I return to London on 14th August.

So, it's been a bit of a nightmare on our honeymoon but we've tried not to let it spoil it too much. I've been in touch with my travel insurance and hopefully they are going to pay the costs ($500 plus ER costs so far!!) so fingers crossed they do!!

My vision's now much better but still not perfect, I think it's all the preservatives in the 3 different eye drops (2 of them use benzalkonium chloride, which i understand is particularly harsh on dry eyes/corneal cells) I'm now taking upsetting my dry eyes. Hopefully it will improve when I stop taking the drops.

So - any advice anyone? I'm a bit lost with all this...

Thanks,

Garethgarmcqui

Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:18 am
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[Mike Bartolatz]

Gareth,

sorry you had this happen on your honeymoon!

If this continues to cause problems, please contact Professor William Ayliffe in London for a consultation. because of your violent response to corticosteroids you will need and expert in use of other classes of medications in a steroid sparing approach to treatment in the future should the iritis return. Glaucoma has no symptoms for most individuals as you now know until it is too late.
professor Ayliffe is the top expert in the UK and he will take you privately if needed. He also takes NHS patients. his contact information can be found at http://www.uveitis.org in the Patient information section of the site.

please respond to the GENERAL discussion forum.

wishing you the very best,
mike