Eye symptoms driving me crazy!

[moose185]

I've had severe eye symptoms for over two years now. It's driving me crazy and completely taking over my life. the symptoms are really bad, two year ago I was diagnosed with posterior uvieitis it was that bad I had to wear sunglasses all the time as looking at any sort of light was too painful,

The eye doctor said I had bleeding at the back of my eyes and needed laser surgery so I got it done two months after being diagnosed with the uvieitis. It helped a bit with being able to look at the light however the pain in my eye was still severe.

My eye symptoms are - reccurent epesciliritis, intense pain inside the eye, swollen gritty feeling under the eye lids, dry eye feeling, sinus pain, blurred vision, floaters, flashes,

I've been seeing my eye doctor for many years who is unable to do anything or find the cause to my long list of symptoms.

I was recently diagnosed with crohns disease about two months ago and have been on prednisione but it hasn't really helped.

my question is, are these eye symptoms related to Crohn's disease?

is there any way to get relief from these symptoms? i've tried a lot of treatment such as steroid eye drops, artificial tears, none of have helped.

does anyone experience any of these symptoms?

I am really desperate to find relief from this it's making me really depressed and prevents me from doing a lot of things.

 

[ellie]

Hi Moose - you definitely have my sympathy and understanding!! I have Crohn's colitis, and my initial presentation was with iritis.
In my experience, the eyes became rapidly better when I was on oral prednisolone. Have you had your intro ocular pressures checked? Certainly steroids (either oral or eye drops) can lead to increased pressure within the eye


HD

 

[Traumanurse]

I'm with ya Moose!

Went to the clinic yesterday with a swollen red eye. This is the third time. Antibiotics don't seem to help much. It gets better or worse on its own over the last few months.

They think its uveitis, but cover all the bases. Hard to diagnose. I'm just really tired of it.

Anyone else on here found a treatment for this? Moose and I are looking.....

 

[moose185]

Thanks ellie I've had the eye pain before I took the steroids and the eye pressures have been completely normal. There is definitely something wrong with eyes its like a constant pain, dry gritty burining feeling, however whenever a doctor looks at my eyes they look normal to him it's crazy as my vision is really bad because of all of it. I really pray for relief I just want to have some quality of life. I can't read very much or watch tv because of this.

 

[Clash]

Uveitis is an EIM of CD here is link to a slide that talks about EIM's(extra intestinal manifestations) of CD.

I'm not sure about treatment for it but hopefully someone will be along that can help with that.

 

[moose185]

yeah it seems that uveitis is linked to crohns but I can't find relief of my symptoms, if anyone has had treatment which has worked can they let me know.

 

[Clash]

Just searching through pub med and other sources of info I found most often this as the treatment:

Local and systemic steroids along with immunosuppressives in select cases are the mainstay of treatment of non-infective conditions of posterior uveitis

source

Are you on any immunosuppressives for your CD?

I also found a study where they had used infliximab(Remicade) to treat posterior uveitis, my son has episcleritis it isn't painful or cause any symptoms and flares when his CD flares, as some EIMs do. He is on Remicade for his CD and doing well right now.

Results

Within 2 weeks of the first infusion of infliximab, 4 of 5 patients showed marked improvement in vitreous haze and visual acuity. By the 6-month follow-up, the same four patients had achieved remission of posterior uveitis and had successfully withdrawn all other immunosuppressive therapy. Further infusions of infliximab were required in 3 patients. One patient developed ocular and systemic tuberculosis, which responded to antituberculous treatment.

Conclusions

Infliximab is effective in the treatment of sight-threatening refractory posterior uveitis. However, patients should be thoroughly screened for tuberculosis before treatment and followed up closely during and after therapy with infliximab.

source

 

[mish2575]

I get a mild episcleritis. I was using Pataday drops but my health insurance stopped covering it because there are allergy eyedrops sold over the counter that do the same thing. . . supposedly.

I've been lucky enough that one of the otc drops works for me - as long as i over use it. I honestly have pushed it to the back burner to deal with other issues for now.

 

[Traumanurse]

Thanks all. My problems cleared up after 5 days of Tobradex last week. It was uveitis and the Tobramycin and steroids together in the eye drops worked.

I still have the same basic question though.

Do extraintestinal manifestations like uveitis, skin rashes, and arthralgia indicate active disease processes going on? So can you be in remission in the bowels and still have these other problems? hmmmm.

 

[mish2575]

I don't think so. I seemed to have been in remission during most if my eye problems but recently found out I have complex fistulae in the anal area so I don't know if those issues had overlapped.

 

[Clash]

Traumanurse, some EIMs run independently of an active flare:

EIM such as axial arthritis, pyoderma gangrenosum, uveitis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis run a clinical course independent of IBD disease activity

source

And others run concurrently with active disease:

Type 1 peripheral arthritis is pauciarticular—involving fewer than 5 joints—and is strongly associated with IBD activity and other EIMs

The occurrence of Eryatherma Nodosum parallels intestinal disease activity, and lesions frequently resolve when bowel disease subsides; thus, treatment is usually aimed at the underlying bowel disease

Episcleritis flares characteristically parallel intestinal activity and resolve with treatment of the intestinal disease.

Source

The source site above lists other EIMs of Crohn's Disease and whether they run independent or concurrent of active flares.

 

[PositiveThoughts]

I too suffer from very blurry, fuzzy vision and sensitivity to light. It is directly linked to GI inflammation and Crohn's activity for me personally, both my eyes and my intestines get better or worse in conjunction with each other.

Depending upon the severity of the flare or inflammation in the GI tract, relates to how bad my eyes get. My prescription glasses only make it worse, the eye Dr said there isn't really anything they can do. My vision returns when everything settles down.

I've not tried steroid drops yet, although it sounds like it would be worth a try to see if that helps until the flare stops.