Aloha

[bmats16]

My name is Brent and I am 49 years young, I live in Honokaa, Hawaii (that's the Big Island) and work for the Hawaii Fire Dept. On February 22 while driving home from a paddle boarding training session. I noticed that my eye was geting irritated. The next day I had a full on red eye with eye pain. I called in sick thinking that if it didn't go away by the next morning I would seek medical attention. Well the next day on Feb. 24 it didn't go away and I went to the Emergency room thinking that I had something in my eye or conjunctivitis. The doctor there tried to flush my eye and when i couldn't take the pain any more he said that he woul treat me for conjunctivitis and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. Also my mom who was in a care home right next to the E.R. died that day. He also said that if the symptoms didn't get better to call him. I tried to call him the next day on Feb. 25 and he did not answer his phone. I left a message for him to call me. He didn't, so I just decided to wait and see if my eye would get better. By the next day it wasn't geting better and I finally tracked my Dr. down, he said that he had trouble with his phone. He made me a appointment with a eye specialist on Feb. 26 and when I went to the specialist it didn't take him more that five minutes to diagnose me. He gave me a prescription for prednisolone acetate ophthalmic suspension and said to take it once every three hours. He also prescribed atropine sulfate and said to take it once a day. Well I did not like this certain doctor because he did not explain to me what was happening and when I tried to ask him questions he basically backed out the door while answering, like he was so busy. So after another visit a few days later ending with the same attitude of not answering my questions, I went to another eye specialist. He basically answered my questions and gave me some literature to read about iritis. Since then I have searched myself on the internet about iritis and the question that I have and I found your site. Anyway I was told to take the prednisolone every hour since there was a lot of imflamation, and apply a dose of FML ointment before I sleep so that I wouldn't have to wake up every hour to apply the prednisolone. This lasted for a week. Then I was to apply prednisolone once every three hours for a week because my doctor said the imflamation was getting better. The next week it was once every six hours. My last visit was on tuesday and the doctor told me once every eight hours and to lessen it every week by a drop a day. He said that the imflamation was pretty much gone. I am to see him on April 23 again. I read that it takes a long time to heal since there was a lot of imflamation. My question to you is that my eye sight is still very blurry. Is this common? Will I be permanently disabled? I cannot go back to work with this kind of vision. And also is this a relatively new eye disorder? Since my initial doctor did not even consider that I might have iritis? Sincerely, Brent Matsuda

[Mike Bartolatz]

Brent,
welcome to the group.
Iritis has been around probably since the beginning of time, it is a bit rare however and it is often mis diagnosed as 'pink eye' by family practice doctors because they cannot see the inflammation inside the eye. a slit lamp microscope is required to be able to see it. the main thing is that you have gotten treatment and it appears to be your immune system and not a bacteria or other pathogen causing this as it is responding to the steroid eyedrop. the dilating drop is the primary cause of your blur of vision. they type your opthalmologist prescribed can take a couple of weeks to totally get out of your system so your vision will be blurred for awhile.
make sure you shake the bottle of prednisilone acetate for THREE minutes before putting the drop in. it takes this long for the generic steroid to be suspended properly in solution. also press in on the inside corner of your eye to plug the drain so that the steroid is absorbed by the eye and tissue surrounding the eye. this will also prevent the terrible taste you get if you don't do this.

please join us in our General discussion forum. we are here to help in any way we can so click on BOARD INDEX on the top left side of this page to be redirected to our list of forums. then ask any questions you may develop, nothing is too trivial to ask.

wishing you quiet eyes,
Mike