My Story So Far

[clferg01]

I am so thankful that I found this very informative and supportive site. Reading some of the posts has already helped to assuage some of my fears and anxiety and given me some answers I wasn't getting from my doctors. Here is my story so far:

My name is Craig and I'm a 31 year old male livining in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am currently on day 25 of my worst flare up yet. It is also my first official diagnosis of iritis as this bout was bad enough to finally send me to a doctor, but it is far from my first occurence. I have had a handful of episodes over the past year but never knew what it was. It would always come on suddenly with a lot of pain and redness and sensitivity to light affecting one eye only at a time although I have experienced episodes in both eyes. I always just contributed it to severe eye strain as my job at the time required me to stare at a computer screen for 8-10 hours a day. I never went to see a doctor as it would usually clear up on its own inside of a week and my yearly eye exams never revealed anything out of the ordinary. The past few months have seen the episodes becoming more frequent and lasting longer. As I mentioned earlier this current flare up was bad enough for me to finally see a doctor after 2 weeks of no improvement and steadily worsening symptoms. My first plan of action was to try and get in to see a primary care physician. I am still relatively new to the area and had no established PCP to date and the few offices I did call weren't seeing new patients any sooner than 3 weeks. That was when I decided to go to a quick care clinic. The doctor there took less than 30 seconds to look at my eye (currently my right eye) diagnosed it as bacterial conjunctivitis and prescribed me moxifloxicin antibiotic eye drops. This was on a Tuesday. By Saturday night into Sunday morning, the pain was so unbearable I wound up going to an emergency room. The doctor there tentatively diagnosed it as iritis, prescribed me Pred Forte drops and referred me to follow up with an opthamologist that next day, Monday. I could already tell a slight improvement in the pain/pressure from using the Pred Forte drops by the time I saw the opthamologist that Monday afternoon. He confirmed the iritis diagnosis and increased the Pred Forte to every 2 hours and also prescribed me Atropine drops for dilation twice a day with a follow up in 2 days. By the time Wednesday had rolled around for my follow up appointment, the redness and sensitivity was completely gone and it had started to feel like a normal eye again. However, my vision in that eye was still very blurry and cloudy. The opthamologist said it was looking better but that there was still 'significant' inflammation. He decreased the Pred Forte back to every 4 hours and instructed me to follow up again in another 2 days. However, due to scheduling conflicts, I was not able to get in to be seen until the following Monday, which was yesterday. I was worried as I hadn't seen any more significant improvement since the initial improvement seen from the loading dose of Pred Forte. If anything, it actually seemed like my vision was getting fuzzier. Whether this was from the dilation or not, I could not say. This concern was later realized as I was unable to read the eye chart using that eye as good as I had on the previous Wednesday. This did not seem to concern the doctor as much as it concerned me, but it did and still does concern me greatly. He said he still saw 'quite a bit' of inflammation and that I had responded to the Pred Forte 'ok, but not great'. But that the pupil was still very dilated which was good. He has now taken me completely off the Pred Forte drops and has put me on Durezol twice a day and backed the Atropine off to only once a day. Is this a normal course of action? Is there anything else I could/should be doing for treatment or asking my doctor? The fuzzy vision fluctuating between getting clearer and getting cloudier still has me very concerned. It is also something I never experienced in any of my other flare ups before. The doctor doesn't want to see me back for another week. I work in a science lab and have to focus in on very small instruments throughout my day and it's really starting to effect my job. Not to mention the work I've had to miss for all of these appointments and the bills I'm racking up for each office visit. Sorry to be so long winded, I just wanted to make sure I described in enough detail my experience and treatment up till now. I still am not experiencing any further redness or pain, just the blurry vision. Any advice or information you can share with me would be greatly appreciated.

[Mike Bartolatz]

welcome to the group! it sounds like you are proceeding normally with the dilated eye and Durezol. just make sure you get the pressure inside your eyes checked while on Durezol or any steroids as they can cause an increase in pressure that you will not be able to 'feel'. once the inflammation is extinguished and you are off the dilating drop for a couple of weeks your vision will most likely return to about where it was prior to developing iritis. you mentioned that this has occurred in BOTH eyes. was this 'ping ponging' between eyes? this is sometimes a symptom of a type of uveitis called HLA B27 gene related uveitis. one can develop forms of arthritis and GI problems if you have this gene. you could ask to be tested for this gene if the inflammation returns again.

you mention that you work in a Science lab. are you around pathogens? there are over 90 different things linked to uveitis which one can be exposed to. often a bout of the flu or flu like symptoms with GI problems precedes the first iritis event.

please join us in our ongoing discussion forum. ask questions and I will do my best to answer them for you. please know that you are NOT ALONE.

my best,
Mike