My introduction

[Mwashimba]

Hello everyone
Before I start, thanks for this website, there is so much great info on here and I'm glad I found it.
Some background on me...I am 34 and have retinitis pigmentosa and had cataracts removed about 2 years ago, so my eyes are already a mess. Last week on Wednesday I woke up and my left eye was very red, felt very swollen with pressure behind it and had some yellow discharge in the corner. I figured it was pink eye and made an appt with on of the doctors at the place I went for my cataract surgery. My regular dr was not in that day. He did very thorough exam which involved dialating my eye. He said I had iritis and put me on prednisone drops 4 times day.
Later that night while watching tv my right eye suddenly got blurry and I went to check in the mirror and it was pink with the yellow discharge. I got nervous cause this eye was really blurry and was my distance eye (my dr gave me monovision during cataract surgery where one eye is for reading and thr other for distance). I called my dr office and my regular dr was on call so I got to speak to him. He told me I probably did have pink eye and that iritis usually doesn't come that suddenly or have discharge. He told me to use rewetting drops until Friday when I came to see him (I already had the appt set up)
So by Friday my left eye looks nice and white and my right eye very red. So after looking in both eyes he says I definitely have iritis in both eyes. He asks me about back pain and I have had lower back pain that comes and goes for years, but lately it has been occurring often. He ordered bunch of blood tests which I went for Friday afternoon. Now I'm just waiting I guess for the results. He increased the drops to every 2 hrs in both eyes
Every morning I wake up with the yellow stuff in thr corner, not a lot just a little and my eyes are red until I put the first drops in. They feel very dry now and weird. I still feel some pressure in my left one but at least the headache is gone. Every website I've checked said there is no discharge with iritis but 2 drs have both said it was iritis despite the discharge. The practice I go to is excellent so I don't doubt them. So we wait. I go back in 2 weeks for a follow up.

[Mike Bartolatz]

the discharge you mention may be related to blepharitis. do you also have scratchyness when you blink? do you have tear production? often dry eyes leads to blepharitis. this can be from infection of the meibomian glands located along the lash line that produce the lubricant part of the tear film. the glands can become plugged up. to treat this do the following? mix a solution of very warm water and baby shampoo. then genly massage along the lash line to try to unplug the glands. do this proceedure about 4 times a day. get some good quality OTC lubricating eyedrops and put a drop in your eyes prior to doing the eyelash cleaning and massage. this will help the plugs to be disipated and wash them off the surface of the eye. we frequently develop severe dry eyes and we have to replace the lack of tears and lubricant to protect our conjunctiva, cornea and sclera from becoming erroded, which can lead to infection and ulceration.

although discharge isn't linked to iritis, it can be related to severe dry eyes often seen in many inflammatory disease processes from inflammation of the lacrimal gland leading to blepharitis. have the ophthalmologist check your tear output with litmus paper to measure how much secretion of fluid the lacrimal gland is making.

do you also have dry mouth?

are you on a dilating drop to make sure the iris doesn't stick to the lens from cells from inflammation acting as 'glue'?

Please join us in our general discussion forum. ask any questions you may have. NOTHING is too trivial to ask and it might lead to an underlying cause of your iritis.

Wish you the very best,
mike