New to Iritis

[aussieiritis]

Hi everyone,

I found this site yesterday and was hoping to share my story for some more light on iritis. I'm 25, live in Australia and am a contacts wearer. On Wednesday (23/01/13) morning I woke up and my left eye had a dull achey discomfort and was slightly teary but clear. I thought my eye may be irritated to my long-wear lenses so removed both. Immediately after I removed my contact from my left eye it became bloodshot and the discomfort worsened. Later in the day I noticed that I was incredibly sensitive to light. I was unsure if I should consult someone or not but made an appointment for the next day at my optometrist. I woke up on Thursday to a worsened condition: my eye was severely swollen (at best I could open it halfway), even more sensitive to light, the colour of the eye was more pink than red, and has a slight mucusiness about it. At the appointment my optometrist quickly diagnosed it as iritis and said that it is likely that it is viral & on the inside of the membrane (?) and prescribed me with two drops of Prednefrin Forte four times a day and Isopto Homatropine (2.0%) twice a day.

The Prednefrin Forte drops have helped reduce the redness of my eye as well as reduce the swelling. However, there was a problem with the Isopto Homatropine drops. My optometrist failed to specify if the homatropine eye drops should be one or two drops but as the pharmacist put two drops on the label so I followed those instructions. My pupil dilated drastically to almost the whole of the iris. I administered the eye drops yesterday (thursday) afternoon - approximately 6pm - but my pupil is still highly dilated (it is almost 4pm). I did not administer any more of the homatropine eye drops this morning as I am concerned about the length of time that the pupil is dilated.

I am visiting my optometrist again tomorrow morning but I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this length of time is normal? Should the pupil be dilated this much and/or for this length of time?

Also, I saw on this site that most people recommend seeing an specialist eye doctor. I wasn't sure if this was necessary to visit one on top of my optometrist as it appears that I have acute viral Iritis?

Kind of scared about this so would really love to talk to some other people who have gone through anything similar :)

[Mike Bartolatz]

First of all welcome to the group! the dilating drop is given to open the iris so that the inflammation doesn't glue the iris to the lens. it also relaxes the muscle that opens and closes the iris. pain occurs when there is adhesion between the iris and the lens putting the muscle into spasms. so it is doing it's job by keeping your iris in an open position. wear polarized wrap around sunglasses while dilated inside and outside to help with glare. if you are wearing regular glasses now, they make them that 'fit over' your glasses. often available as 'cataract' sunglasses at a drug store.
if the herpes virus is suspect, you need to see an ophthalmologist for this as antiviral meds needs to be prescribed along with steroid eyedrops. you should be under the care of an ophthalmologist anyway as they are medical doctors. an optometrist is there to prescribe glasses not treat eye disease.

it may take several weeks to get this bout of iritis under control. if it keeps on returning, get in to see a specialist ophthalmologist called an Ocular Immunologist who is trained to treat this with modern methods in a corticosteroid sparing approach. as long as you are on steroids of any kind, you need to get the pressure checked inside the eye. they can cause glaucoma and cataracts to form which are a couple of reasons for a steroid sparing approach to treatment. the specialst can do testing to find out why you have iritis and the can treat it appropriately.
make sure you put in the eyedrops as indicated. with your head tilted back, put in a drop of medication, then close the eye and press in over the inside corner of the eye so that the drain is plugged off and the drugs are absorbed by the eye. wait about 45 minutes between medications so that you don't wash out the first drug before it is totally absorbed by the eye and surrounding tissues.
Iritis doesn't cause swelling of tissues surrounding the eye. you need to figure out why this is happening. discharge is not a symptom either so you may have an infection as well as iritis going on and it is imperative to figure out what is causing this and then treatment can be initiated. Please get to an ophthalmologist right away.

please join us in the general discussion forum. click on board index in the top left corner of this page to be redirected to our list of forum. then click on the forum you choose and then start a new thread.
wish you the best,
mike