Introduction for Drew

[drew.smith3131]

Hello all,

It is so nice to visit the site and see that there are actually other people out there dealing with this crazy "issue"! I hope everyone has quiet eyes at the present moment. I have been dealing with iritis since March of 2005. I was a 19 year old freshmen in college. My first flare up got so bad that Pred wasn't touching it and I had to receive steroidal injections directly into my right eye. I continued to have flare ups into that summer and got more injections to calm the problem. This continued on and off for the next year but luckily know injections were necessary. I would attack the flare up with Pred at the first sign of a flare up and was able to manage the flare ups. The summer of 2006 came and all was quiet until one day I realized my right eye was hazy like I was in the middle of a flare up, but I wasn't. Went to the doc and he confirmed my worst fears... Cataract. So at 20 years old I was at the surgeon getting cataract surgery. All was relatively quiet for the next few years with the occasional light flare up. In February of 2008 the doctor that performed my cataract surgery wanted to try and clean up my lens with a laser. There was a pretty substantial membrane on the lens that was causing a permanent haziness in the right eye. The laser didn't work. The membrane was abnormally thick.

Fast forward to the summer of 2013. I have volunteered with my government agency to go do engineering work in Afghanistan for the Army and I'm required to get an eye exam before I go. My regular eye doc suggests that I go to a specialist to try the laser procedure again. Again, same result. A week later I end up at a retinal specialist with a knife in my eye cutting a whole in the membrane. Best decision I've ever made! Fast forward to last week, mid June 2014 and I'm preparing to return home and enter normal life again and trying to finish up a ton of work here in Afghanistan and I get a huge flare up in my left eye. I have a new unopened bottle of Pred with me and I begin using it. The flare is getting worse and I'm burning through the Pred. Luckily there is a German hospital on the base that I live on and they happen to have some. So currently I am fighting this flare up 9000 miles away from any doctor that I remotely trust with my eyes. It seems to have a stabilized somewhat, meaning its not getting any worse but not really any better either. I'm using the Pred about once an hour right now while I'm awake. I have severe haziness but surprisingly minimal pain and sensitivity to light. I have the option of taking medical leave and getting back to the states quickly if the flare becomes uncontrollable. But I'll be starting my trip home in a week and will be home for good July 8th. I feel pretty confident that I can manage it without having to pull the trigger on medical emergency leave. But I'll be keeping a close eye on it. Any thoughts Mike? Oh and yes I'm HLBA-27 positive. Was tested back in 2005/2006.

[Mike Bartolatz]

Welcome to the group!

please RUN, don't walk to the nearest Uveitis specialist available on the list of specialists at http://www.uveitis.org ABOUT THE SUPPORT GROUP section of the site, or tell me where you live other than Afghanistan and I will suggest the BEST specialist nearest to you. you might have to travel some distance but you MUST get to a corticosteroid sparing approach to treatment to prevent further damage to your eyes from repeated bouts of inflammation. it might be that adding an NSAID would stop the recurrent nature of the beast of HLA B27 Uveitis. you might ask if your GP now about this and implement treatment with one of the following, Celebrex, Dolobid or Naproxen at prescription strength and when you get to the States make an appointment. I am very concerned about your present eye health. I would hate to see you lose any vision that could be prevented if at all possible. DR Foster at Harvard has about a 70% success rate with NSAID therapy in his HLA B27 positive patients.

wishing you quiet eyes,
Mike Bartolatz