What causes the blurry vision?

[marilyn1229]

Hi,

I am going through my first bout of acute anterior iritis. I was diagnosed Jan 7th, and had some good progress, then a set-back. I am currently on oral prednisne 20mg and Lotemax drops every hours, plus Cyclogyl once at bedtime. The redness has gone down and I feel like the inflammation has also subsided but my vision is still blurry, as if opening your eyes underwater. What causes this aspect of iritis? Does it last a long time? Can it be from the drops? Thank you.

[marilyn1229]

forgot to mention above, it is just affecting my right eye. My left eye is fine.

[Hudsongrl]

The inflammation and the drops cause the blurriness.

[marilyn1229]

Thanks. Once the tapering from the drops begins...I know everyone's situation is unique...but does the blurriness clear up quickly? Did you have this too? Thanks.

[Hudsongrl]

Once i got off the cyclogyl things improved.

[vancouver]

The white blood cells and proteins in anterior chamber can completely block vision.
Edema,synechiae,drugs are other things that reduce vision. It took me months to get vision back
(After going off drugs)even with no cells in ac. I got vision 100% back despite permanent
Synechiae.

[marilyn1229]

Last visit with doctor he said everything looked great, no synechiae, cells, etc. and told me to begin taper from 20mg pred to 10mg. He said to expect, in a couple of days, that my eye would probably get red and feel a bit achy for a couple of days as my body adjusted. It has been 2 days and beginning to see a bit of increased redness and that achy feeling. I am still on Lotemax every waking hour. I have been off Cyclogyl for about 2 full weeks now, having only used it once during that time when my eye felt heavy and sore.

I still do not have my vision back. To me, I can describe my vision capability in that eye as if opening your eye under water in a pool. This is the most frustrating. This journey began about 8 weeks ago.

[vancouver]

Thanks for update. I would not worry about vision. It normally is restored 100%. Cyclogyl's
Main purpose is to prevent or reverse synechiae. It has other benefits including reduced pain.
I assume your cells were nongranulominous which means less sticky(less chance of synechiae)
And not related to systematic disease like arthritis or AS etc. Anyway, cyclo essential when you
Have cells in ac to discourage synechiae.

Its Interesting that you are still on steroids hourly despite no cells or synechiae. When I finally
Went to eye Doc after 17 days my cell count was down to 1+ but I was still on steroids
Hourly for month. Have to find out why. Other people take much less steroids. Maybe you
Went to doc late like me or because of the acute nature.

Inflammation can still exist with zero cells so they do continue steroids past the point of zero
Cells. The next stage is Maintenance to trains immune system lessening chance of reoccurrence. Ie one drop pred forte daily. At some point u want to switch to nsaid like celebrex.

[Hudsongrl]

I am tapering off oral pred and down to 7.5 mg/ day. I started at 40 mg. i have that dull achy pain in my right eye about once a week and then it passes. I have zero cells present in either eye and am off steroid eye drops. This is bothering me. Making another appoitment to find out why this is so. I do see a uveitis specialist. Any thoughts?

[marilyn1229]

Thanks for the info Vancouver.

As for the Lotemax, he said I would be on it for a while. He wanted me to taper off of the oral first, then work on the drops.

The achy eye is bothering me though. And I feel the lid is getting "heavy" and making me appear swollen. I am going to make an appointment to see him. I don't want to risk thinking all is ok and then wind up back where I was. I put a drop of Cyclogyl in it this morning and it felt instantly better. If you take your index finger and hold it away from your nose then bring it back while focusing on it, I felt pain in my right eye. After taking the drop of Cyclogyl, all better.

Take care for now...

[Hudsongrl]

Marilyn, my eye was bothering me a lot yesterday, but today it feels ok again. I am going to see my doc Friday. If I learn anything about the intermittent achiness I will post. Hope we all improve. This whole eye thing has worn me out:(

[marilyn1229]

Hudsongirl,

It sure is such an emotionally and physically draining condition! I feel like my body can turn on me at any moment and attack my eye Not a good feeling to say the least.

I hope your doctor is able to shed some light on this for you. I just emailed my doctor letting him know how the taper is going...hope to get in to see him this week. I might just be too paranoid though.

[vancouver]

I think the eye focusing has to be recalibrated in both eyes because of changes in iritis eye.
I had slight intermittent aches in both eyes. Cyclo would relax tired focusing muscles. Good idea to see doc.

[Hudsongrl]

My iritis is bilateral, so both eyes are screwed up. I feel like anything can happen at any moment. We were supposed to travel to Italy in May. We are cancelling our trip, as I am afraid to fly that distance and fearful of being away from my doctor if something gets worse. I have so much anxiety now. I feel badly for all of us with this condition.

[marilyn1229]

I know exactly how you feel...so sorry. This really is a horrible thing. I wish there were some miracle cure discovered.

One good thing is I started a new diet since this all happened. I had been whooping it up over the holidays eating lots of sugary treats and over indulging all kinds of bad foods in general. I feel like this was a wake up call in a sense to get me back on the right track. I no longer eat sugar, and have cut down 99% on carbs and bread...and have started eating much healthier. I have already lost about 20 pounds. I was not overweight prior but I did need to trim down a bit, and started exercising too. My body was stressed from all of the processed food and junk I was eating for so long. I am not saying that it directly caused the iritis but it could not have been good in any way for me I feel a lot better!

I am being very diligent in doing the eye drops and everything that my doctor orders...but I just get so frustrated and want it to just get all better already, so that I can put this in the past (hopefully). I pray (for all of us).