How long did your Iritis last?

[afidz]

How long did your Iritis or Uvetis last? How long where you on the drops? Did the inflammation come back after you started your taper?

Went to the eye doctor on Monday, he said that all was clear and he wanted me to start tapering so I did. the last few hours I have felt like my eye was getting swollen. Sure enough I look in a mirror to see that it is puffy and red. Fantastic. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[ellie]

For me, iritis was a very long haul issue. I hadn't been diagnosed with CD initially - in fact the GI aspects of my condition were relatively unremarkable apart from an initial 2 week bout of unexplained diarrhoea, associated with an ankle arthritis.
So the pressure to get a colonoscopy done was theoretical rather than symptom driven. Hence it got put on the back burner for several YEARS... (With a working diagnosis of Reiter's Syndrome - I still think aspects my presentation fit with this. )
The iritis was a bit more of a challenge. Over a period of 3-4 years I had numerous attempts to totally discard the pred forte drops, down to once every 10days!! for several months, before there would be a recurrence of the iritis. Managed a few months "drops free" before another definitive flare -> CD diagnosis.
Since then, 3 years ago, with decent Crohn's management, the eyes are quiet (no white cells or flare on follow up) And my vision, touch wood!!!, is unimpaired
I did read something (med literature) that implied that ocular involvement tends to parallel gut symptoms.
My advice would be to be reassessed sooner rather than later. If you've had iritis already, it's better to be safe than sorry. Untreated, iritis can be a sight threatening condition, but there are good treatments available


HD

 

[Cross-stitch gal]

My iritis never really has gone away. Sometimes it gets a bit better, but never really disappears. I've put drops in my eyes 2 times a day for years. Every year my eye doctor checks my eyes to make sure things are alright. But, I've never tapered down on the drops. Sometimes I do forget though...

 

[Kimberly1967]

My iritis only lasted a couple of weeks and then cleared up. It came out of the blue and was not proceeded or followed by an intestinal flare. It was very odd.

 

[Starlight]

I went for months with it flaring up then going away, then coming back, etc. I blamed it on pink eye until I finally went to the doctor and was diagnosed with not only iritis, but also uvietis' keratitis and conjunctivitis at the same time in the same eye. Once I started the eye drops, it go better pretty quick, but it would flare up sometimes, I went to the eye doctor three more times after the first within like 3 months until I just went ahead and just started the drops myself when I have the problem. I'm still not really sure which one of the 4 things is the one that keeps returning. *knock on wood* I've actually havnt had a problem in a few months now.=)

 

[afidz]

THanks! all of your posts have been helpful! I am hoping that all this is happening because I am in a silent flare. Hopefully once I can get back on meds the Iritis will calm down. Going to call on Monday and see if I should continue taper or stay on the drops for a while, atleast until I am properly medicated

 

[Cross-stitch gal]

Yes, usually the iritis calms down for me when my flare does. It does get worse as the rest of my body does. Good luck & hope things start calming down for you afidz.

 

[afidz]

Usually my skin takes the beating, but I guess it help up this time. I was so annoyed the first time I went to the eye doctor. I asked of he thought it was related to Crohn's, and he went on explaining what Crohn's is, what it does to the body and what it meant to be auto-immune just to conclude that it was in fact related to Crohn's. Thanks. didn't know. Thanks for the super long answer instead of just saying "yes"

 

[Cross-stitch gal]

I research everything. So, when my eye doctor told me that I had it in 2001 he waited to see if I'd look into iritis. When I came back to him next time, we talked about it and he pulled out a pamphlet about iritis that he had me take home. Got to be thankful for these doctors of ours