10 days ago life was good...

[hayaam]

Hello,
I am a 33 year old mother of 3 small children. About two weeks ago, I was having day after day of headaches on one side of my face. Not too unusual, as I have had sinus/migraine issues in the past. A deep ache behind my eye and around the socket was also present. Overnight, these symptoms skyrocketed, and my eye became bright red. Went in to see the doctor last Weds., and was fortunate to see a doctor who had had some ophthalmological? training in her past - she immediately referred me to an ophthalmologist in the same building, who diagnosed iritis in my right eye. She started me on Pred Forte every hour. By Friday, 3 days later, I felt I could not control the pain with Pred Forte & Advil, and the doctor on call called in a dilating drop (Atropine). I used one drop last Friday night, and my eye is still dilated today, 7 days later. I saw her again on Monday, and she said the iritis had improved from a 3 to a 1.5. I felt like I was getting better, slowly...as far as pain. New symptoms of weakness & vertigo presented themselves this week, and I went back to my general doctor who started some blood work to see if they could find the underlying cause of those symptoms as well as the iritis.
Now my pain and redness had been going down all week, only to return this morning quite severely. I had been "down" to using a drop every 2-3 hours and Advil only twice a day. I feel so discouraged by this. I am barely able to care for my children & family. Also, this morning I started to have some tooth pain in one of my partially impacted wisdom teeth out of the blue. I've had this come and go in the past - not sure if this would have anything to do with it worsening today? No tooth pain was present at the onset of this. No dental ins. so that is one more thing to stress out about. Although, in the past the pain has just "gone away".
I go back to see the ophthalmologist Mon. Each day of being house-bound and largely unable to see (due to the pupil STILL being dilated) is really taking its toll on me.
Glad to find this board.
Jill

[Mike Bartolatz]

if you have NOt used additional dilating drops, you do need to get in right away for evaluation. the eye should have returned to normal by now.
do you get cold sores? sometimes the herpes sx virus can cause the iris to stay dilated.
the jaw pain and virtigo may need evaluation by other specialists other than a dentist. inner ear infection as well as sinus infection along with jaw pain need looking into as you have a history of headache too. often iritis is preceeded by sinus infection too.

please join us in our discussion forum and know that we are here to help if we can.

wish you the very best,
Mike