College student & Single Mother with Iritis

[viashvan]

Hello, I'm Victoria. I'm a 22 year old college student and single mother. I also have a home jewelry business & shadow in a physician's office. I never had vision problems until about 3yrs. ago. A year 1/2 ago I finally went to get glasses and was told I had iritis. It was assumed it was caused by an injury I somehow hadn't noticed, and after glasses I had no problems. Although the doctor had said the things happening with my eyes were somewhat unusual, I felt no reason to be alarmed.
Last week I woke up with completely sudden double vision. I was horrified when I looked in the mirror. If I looked anywhere but forward, my eyes were completely misaligned.
I went to the doctor immediately. My eye doctor, who just got out of school, said my iritis was very severe, there is a muscle under one of my eyes with issues, there is color pigment even more scattered across my lens, etc. It was hard to understand everything he said, but he made it clear there is an underlying condition causing such problems. He said I wouldn't be an effective student because of the dilating & steroid drops I have to use for the time being. I told him there was NO way I was quitting. I plan to be in the medical field (unless jewelry takes off lol) and I'm a semester away from my first degree (associates). For being a high school drop out and young mother I feel I have accomplished a lot.
It will be at least a week before I can get a CAT scan & blood tests done. I'm anxious and nervous.
Since using the drops my eyes are less sore and there is no misalignment, so I'm assuming that is a good sign.
I'm learning to adjust, using Magnifier & narrator when on the computer, running errands before I use the drops, etc.
I wish there was a way to know what could be wrong to cause all of this.
I will have cateract surgery sometime in the next year. They will treat the condition and then fix my eyes.
Thanks for this website. I hope it will help to find support and learn more about all of this.

[Mike Bartolatz]

First of all welcome to the group!
do you have inflammation BEHIND the iris as well as iritis? I ask this as usually it is intermediate or posterior uveitis that has no symptoms such as red eye and pain from light associated with it. the 'mis alignment' of your eyes isn't related to uveitis. I would ask what potential causes are being considered. double vision is sometimes related to optic neuritis. lazy eye could cause this too with muscleproblems but this could be a symptom of another disease going on.
the pigment thing needs to be looked into too and it might not be iritis causing this.
I assume this is in only one eye?
let us know how the blood tests go.

please post to the GENERAL discussion forum. click on BOARD index at the top left side of this page to get a list of our forums. ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them. nothing is too trivial to ask BTW. all of us started out without any medical knowledge.

Take care,
mike