Hi, new to the forum...

[angelar]

Hi my name is Angela.
I just joined this forum. I have found it extremely helpful to browse when searching Google for help in iritis-seems to always link me to topics on this forum. I am currently in my 2nd bout with iritis. Not fun. I have found it to be the most frightening and confusing thing I have ever dealt with in my life this far. I am 35 and my first round of iritis was over a year ago in my left eye. My husband and children and I had gone through trials for a year and a half leading up to our move out of state-full of stress and woe. We excitedly moved to a new home-without all our belongings...but it was a home at least! Just after the long awaited sale of our home and move-for my husbands job...a series of terrible events happened-one of which my husband lost his job which we moved here for in the first place! To say the least-it was STRESSFUL and terrifying. I am trying to make sense of a CAUSE for my iritis-this is why I share my story. It is all so confusing and doctors aren't very helpful...or just don't know how to help. I was having extreme tooth pain as well around that time-in my back top left molar. It was definitely a filling going bad, cracked. I avoided dealing with it for weeks and months because of our situation. It was around 1 month or so after the events, tooth pain and move that I started having pain in my left eye. I had also dealt with allergies in this new area of the country-itchy eyes. So I thought perhaps the redness and pain was from scratching my eye. It was a weekend so I went in to the med center-because everything else was closed. I was sensitive to light, and it felt like something was in my eye. I have never had any health issues my whole life. No glasses. No sickness. Nothing! I was ignorant. The doc there said I had a corneal abrasion, and as he didn't have any eye equipment, put me on drops to help with that. My husband thought all was well, and headed out of town for the weekend. After a day or so, I woke up to the most excruciating pain I've ever felt. (And I have given birth to 3 girls naturally-no drugs!) It got steadily worse and I couldn't bare to even be in a lit room. I had to hide under the covers, shades drawn, just crying. Hoping that the drops were slowly healing this issue. By the 2nd day of this I was screaming in pain. I was near ready to get a fork and pull out my eye for the pain was at its worst. My husband was out of cel phone range, my family and friends 2 states away, I couldn't drive and my 3 young children staring at me not knowing what to do. I didn't know a soul in this new area. I felt so terrified and alone. My husband thankfully called from a pay phone later that day and rushed home from hours away. We all raced to the nearest ER hospital which was 40 min away. The eye specialist there was able to get me in right away and see me-she was rough around the edges and wasn't very sensitive to my fears...just kept pouring drops of things in my eyes. She couldn't get my eye to dialate she said. I was so scared. She told us that my iris was stuck to my lens, and I had an eye disease called iritis. I felt I was going to pass out-panic...heart pounding. What was I to do? She had me go home after hours of trying to get my eye to dialate to come back the next day and see the progress-if it dialated. It had....thankfully-so she could get a look in my eye. I was told that most cases of this disease are unknown. But I was so confused. WE did all the asking, and research we could. Long story short, the worst happened to my iris-getting stuck to my lens. The time gone undiagnosed had been terrible. But thankfully it took 6-7 weeks and I had regained all my site back, and it had healed. Lots of steroids and eye dialating drops. I had this LURKING fear of getting it back. I took normal eye twinges and pains to heart...every ache and pain.
About a month later I got pains in my right eye. Fear of the iritis-I headed into the opth. again and it was diagnosed as episcleritis. He said "it was just bad luck". I wasn't convinced. He said most cases of iritis were for unknown reasons, and that when it recurs often-they usually order blood tests-to check for underlying diseases, but even then most results come back with unknown reasons. I wasn't too worried about that because I was otherwise healthy and had never had any other symptoms for disease. The epi-scleritis cleared really quickly. I am convinced that it was caused by eye strain-my right eye was so strained trying to make up for the almost blindness in my left. It constantly stung and felt strained during the healing process of the iritis in the left eye.
I had a holistic doctor back in my home town see me upon a visit last Christmas-after both iritis and scleritis were clear. Just to see what she thought about my overall health. She said that I had inflamation in my body, and that I should go on some detox drops etc. She said she detected mold in my system. That was confusing until we realized that there had been a bad flood right when we moved in and the cealing in the house we were renting was leaking. But we didn't see or smell any mold. Confusing. Then a whole new set of fears set in-were we/I being contaminated by toxic mold hidden somewhere in our rental house? My husband didn't want me to go back until he had found a new home, or researched it. So I stayed at my parents out of state for 2 weeks. That was depressing in itself. This disease and its after affects never seemed to go away. The house tested free of mold of any kind. It was so confusing. I headed back there with the kids and we eventually did move around 4 month later to a different house. I did everything to keep myself healthy. I have always had a great diet, I am healthy, thin, strong, go outdoors,avoid soft drinks, take organic everything. Overall great health. This was so confusing to me. But mold and allergies was all I had to go on-I am still not convinced that was the cause at all. But it was all we had to go on.
UNTIL-2 weeks ago. I was having pain in my RIGHT eye this time. That all too certain fear of iritis set in-My husband just by chance was away on business again...great. It was red and a bit sensitive to light, but I thought at the least it was eye strain or maybe scleritis at the worst. I kept it easy and watched it for a few days. Took some ibuprofen...it seemed to help. But a few days later it got worse, not terrible but noticibly red. My hubby came home and we decided to head into the opth. again. She confirmed it was iritis. I was so terribly disappointed. NOT AGAIN! At this point she said it was a red flag and raised all these questions and fears in me. She wanted to do blood tests to rule out other undlerlying diseases but I asked her how it could be the cause as I had NO OTHER SYMPTOMS of disease. I told her I had been under ALOT of stress lately. The last time I got IRITIS was when I was under EXTREME STRESS as well. She kind of blew me off on that I think. Just waiting for blood tests, not even knowing what they were testing for was nerve racking. So a week later she said they all came back negative...accept 1. Some HLA B27 gene. She didnt' really tell me what to do at that point or what that even meant. She said maybe start at a gastro-specialist, then go to a rheumatologist...to check of those disorders. WHAT? I was not convinced...I did research and asked my Mother in law-(who is a doctor) and she said HLA B27 should NOT be tested as a screening procedure, but ONLY TO CONFIRM when all symptoms of a diseases are present. I am showing NO SYMPTOMS of any of those underlying diseases! What would these specialists treat me for anyway? I would go through all sorts of expensive tests, time, money spent-going on NO symptoms...so what could they treat other then my iritis? I don't have any other health pains or issues. So I wasn't going to investigate that further at this point. At least until something presents itself. I started trying to RESEARCH and CONNECT THE DOTS myself.
WHAT COMMON THINGS DO BOTH OF THESE IRITIS CASES HAVE? Well, the 1st time I had EXTREME STRESS. I had TEETH pain/infection. Allergies.
This time-2 weeks prior to getting this iritis bout, I had EXTENSIVE TOOTH WORK done to that SAME molar in the back. Root canal, crown prep. It was so painful that it left my face in pain for 2 weeks! I had an outbreak of cold sores all in and out of my mouth...terribly painful. It was awful!
It was also a stressful past couple months leading up to this. Family issues, relationships,financial. etc. SO> STRESS, TEETH, COLD SORES (herpes simplex?)
I am so sorry this is so long. But I felt compelled to share my WHOLE story-as to explain in detail my iritis process, and also to connect the dots in some way-to present all the information. Doctors seem to blow off my whole "stress, teeth pain/infection, cold sores" explanation. The opthamologist doesn't really know why I have this either, as she admitted its strange I don't exibit any of the symptoms of those underlying diseases. But here I stand...this round of iritis not as bad as the first, but very stressed and confused by the whole thing. Resting in my faith in God to be honest. Only He knows me in and out. Doing all I can to keep myself healthy, strong immune system, and nutritionally fueled.
Swishing with coloidal silver to keep any teeth/gum/herpes-cold sore infection at bay. I sure can't know the reason behind this but I DO NOT WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN!
Anyone out there feel like I do that: stress, or teeth issues or even the cold sores could be to blame??????
Thanks! This site is a real help.
Angela

[Mike Bartolatz]

welcome to the group!

the HLA B27 gene can present with JUST iritis, no other problems just be vigilant and if you start having signs of arthritis, psoriasis or Irritable Bowel disease, then get to a Rheumatologist or dermatologist.
NSAIDS are the first drugs to be used in a STEROID SPARING approach to treatment, cellebrex, dolobid or Naproxen are given at prescription strength as you are tapered off the steroid eyedrops. you stay on them for two years once your eyes are quiet off all steroids. then a taper off of the NSAID is done.

your herpes virus on your mouth is probably not linked as it doesn't trigger HLA B27 related uveitis. it might be that you had a bout of iritis as a child and didn't know it and it was diagnosed as 'pink eye'. then the tooth infection triggered a renewed bout of iritis. (this happens all the time BTW).

it is good that you got out of the Mold situation too as they can trigger renewed inflammation of the eye.
an infection or inflammation anywhere in your body can now trigger a new bout of iritis. it is very important to try to not use steroids any more than you have to as they can lead to cataract formation and to glaucoma in some individuals (steroid responder).

if your eyes are dry, use some high quality lubricating eyedrops such as refresh brand or Theratears etc to make sure that abrasion between the eyelids and the eye doesn't occur as this can lead to infection and ulceration etc which is not a pretty picture.

if you have episcleritis it is treated with NSAIDS. if you have Scleritis it is treated with DMARD drugs such as Methotrexate, Cellcept or Imuran to retrain the immune system to stop attacking your eyes.

join us in our GENERAL discussion forum by clicking on BOARD INDEX at the top of this page, ask questions and share as you wish.

Wishing you quiet eyes,
Mike