Iritis = IWRONGis….an update

Finally got some good news regarding my eye. And let me say one thing before I get started. I am a FIRM believer in shopping local when you can and getting services local when you can, but this time, what a difference going out of town made. I DID try to get my eye care in town, and just ended up needing a bit more and my eyesight is just not something I’m willing to sacrifice. So with that said, I’ll get to the update.

I found this doctor through http://www.iritis.org. This is a great site that gives a lot of good information on my condition, which I not-so lovingly think of as iWRONGis.

The doctor said all is quiet and CALM with my eye at the moment and that I need to stay on one type of medication for a period of time to get it to take effect. Over the course of the past nearly three weeks, I’ve been on about four different meds, which actually hinders the healing.

Basically what has happened is this: the cells that normally float around in my eye clumped up into what he calls muttonfat (lovely term, right). When the iris got irritated, it slufffed off a lot of these cells and they clumped up. That’s what is quite alarming to some eye professionals, basically I have large clumps of cells floating around in my eye (which kind of freaks me out). He did say the medication takes a while to dissolve these clumps of cells and it won’t happen overnight. And switching from one med to the other does not help it heal faster as I mentioned above.

My doctor is going to start tapering me off the meds and monitor my eye in case of a flare-up, which will require me to travel about an hour and a half for a bit until this problems clears up. But it’s a small price to be doing better, right?

He did not say this would be chronic. He is hoping it isn’t. All my blood test results came back clear (all except blood sugar, which I will have to work on now too). And now I have to learn to recognize the signs of flare-up and keep track of it. No waiting until it gets unbearable.

So, it’s been a long few weeks. A frustrating few weeks. And three doctors later, I have the answers I need, the education I need and hopefully am on my way to recovery.

So there you have it….good news….FINALLY. And oh yeah, my co-workers will be estatic to hear I am allowed to quit using the eye dilator now. I will be finally able to see my page proofs!!