Intro to Me

[Stonecypher]

Hello,
My name is Karen, I'm 35, and I've had iritis for about 12 years. It sounds like a long time, but I've really only had 3 flare-ups, severe though they are. My first was during the year before my first child was born. Then during my pregnancy, all was quiet. The second came shortly after he was born and took about 6 months to completely get rid of. I'm a steroid responder and so that added an extra layer of complication. I was on 3 or 4 different drops at once and a night time medication as well. I was putting something in my eye almost every hour. During this time I went to the Mayo Clinic in MN to have them look at my eye and they didn't have anything useful to say. Actually, they took the pressure in my eye wrong and said that I didn't have any pressure problems (despite the fact that every time I stood my vision would black out in that eye and when I returned home and my regular ophthalmologist took my pressure it was 49.) And, I took a trip to the University of Wisconsin to have their ophthalmologists take a look, but the flare up had gone away shortly before my trip and so there wasn't anything for them to see or say. That was nearly 10 years ago. Then recently, after my 3rd baby was born, here it is again! I had been hoping that I wouldn't come back since I had 10 years with no signs of it. I had thought maybe it was environmentally triggered because after we moved out of a certain town, I didn't get anymore flare-ups. But, here we are in a different state and it is back with a vengeance. This time around it has been about 3 months so far and we're still battling it. However, my pressure is much easier to control this time. The bad news is that my iris seems to have sustained permanent damage and is stuck dilated and won't return to normal. So, I'm extra sensitive to light now and worried that this is going to cause further damage to my eye due to too much light exposure. So, that's my story!

Karen

[Mike Bartolatz]

Welcome to the group!

maybe you can see one of the specialists on our list of specialists to do some testing for possible relationship to autoimmune or inflammatory disease processes linked to your iritis. I wil respond to your post in the GENERAL discussion forum.

once again, Welcome to the group!
mike