Oh gosh, the eye stuff. I try not to think about the eye stuff. Although none of my eye docs (and I see a retinologist, an opthmalogist and an optometrist) have ever directly linked my eye ailments to my Crohn's, my GI has said that it's possible my Crohn's aggravated already-existing problems with my eyes.
So, that said, please don't take the following story as being about a symptom of CD. I already had horrible eye sight before they diagnosed the CD (without glasses, I've been legally blind my entire life).
A little over a year ago, I suffered a retinal detachment in my left eye. Basically, I had somehow torn a hole in my thin retina (thin because of my eye sight issues) and it had begun detaching itself from my skull. Fun. It went undiagnosed for a few months because I thought that strange black spot would just go away.
Boy, am I stupid sometimes. I saw my optometrist first, who sent me to one specialist, who sent me to the retinologist, who got me in for surgery the very next day. They had to take my eye out of my head, drain some of the fluid, fill it up with gas, freeze the hole torn in the retina and then they clamped this big ol' buckle (a scleral buckle) around the circumfrence of my eye, and THEN they put it back into my skull.
Not. Fun. The only reason I mention it is not to alarm anybody--it's simply that no one knows why this happened, so my GI doesn't want to rule out the Crohn's. A retinal detachment in someone younger than 55 is practically un-heard of. So, if you do have lots of eye problems, or severe astigmatism like me, just pay attention to your eyes. The retinal detachment is an extreme problem but my GI doc has always told me that it's a good idea to keep my twice-a-year appointments with my eye doctor, just to monitor the situation.
So please don't let this story scare anyone reading this! I promise that it's an extreme situation that most of you will hopefully never have to face. But Crohn's is known for causing mild eye problems, and I had forgotten all about that until Nancy mentioned the eye infections. So, take care of your eyes! It can't hurt to make an optometrist appointment once a year, or every two years. They're pretty quick (especially if you don't need to worry about prescription lenses) and an optometrist can easily spot anything that might seem out of the ordinary.
Katie.