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[katemeyer8]

Hi my name is Kate. I've suffered from iritis for about 7 years now. The first time I had a flare up was Spring of 2003. At first I thought it was pink eye & unfortunately went to a horrible eye doctor that misdiagnosed me & said I had a scratched cornea. After being treated for 2 weeks with antibiotics, my eye kept getting worse & worse. Finally that doctor referred me to a specialist in Washington DC who is an expert in retina diseases and iritis/uveitis. He is the most wonderful doctor in case anyone needs a reference in DC/Northern VA/Montgomery Co. MD. I would get about 1 or 2 flare ups each year, only in my left eye and always in the warmer months (May-August). I went 2 years without a flare up (between Sept 07-June 09)then I got a flare up in July of 09 and then went almost a year flare up free. Just a few weeks ago I started a flare up in my right eye for the first time ever. My dr put me on Predforte drops every hour & dilating drop at night before bed. 2 weeks ago he had to give me the injection because the drops weren't enough....it has finally started to quiet down. The redness is gone & the pain/light sensitivity less severe. However, just as it's almost completely gone, now I'm feeling pain in my left eye. I don't see redness yet, but the undeniable iritis pain is there when I touch my eye. Good thing I have a follow up appointment with my eye dr tomorrow am, because I need him to confirm my suspicion. 7 years ago when I was first diagnosed, I tested positive for the HLA-B27 gene. All the other tests (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns, TB, lymes disease, etc) were all negative. My father suffered from iritis for about 20 years of his life...usually in one eye, but sometimes in both. All of a sudden when he approached his 50s, he stopped getting flare ups and has not had one in about 15 years. My dr has told me most people that have HLA-B27 iritis typically get between 5-30 flare ups in a lifetime and at some point, there body stops the flare ups. Has anyone else heard of this? Also, has anyone else noticed their flare ups are only in the warmer climate months? I suffer from seasonal allergies as well (only since moving to the DC are....also have only had iritis since moving to DC) I often wonder if there is a link between the 2? Please share what you have heard about "seasonal iritis"? I have recently started a "Low-inflammatory" food diet in hopes it might help lower inflammation in my body. I pray it will help since as we all know, suffering from iritis is truly unbearable!!

[Mike Bartolatz]

First you need to treat this in a steroid sparing way to prevent long term consequence of cataract formation and possibly glaucoma. adding an NSAID such as Celebrex, Dolobid or naprosyn works in about 70? of autoimmmune (HLA B27 Positive) pateints. a six month trial would be worth it then if no flare up of the iritis, then stay on it for TWO years before halving the dose for six months.
if Nsaid therapy doesn't work for you then DMARD drugs such as Methotrexate, cellcept, cyclosporine etc would be used. you can only get SIX injections before they have to stop. they can lead to week blood vessels which can burst on the surface of the eye as well as inside the eye too.

just as many people over 50 get uveitis as any other age group. it is impossible to say if your case will 'burn out' but you can end up with very serious vision loss or even blindness if the uveitis isn't brought under control and put into REMISSION, yes REMISSION is possible by the proper specialist. I stronly urge you to get an Ocular Immunologist involved there is a lady in DC now as well as DR Nguyen in Baltimore and DR Nussenblatt at the national eye Instute in Bethesda, Maryland. their contact informaton can be found in the PATIENT INFORMATIONS Section of the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation site at http://www.uveitis.org


wishing you the very best,
Mike Bartolatz