Imagine you are going about your daily tasks when your eye begins to ache and burn. Imagine this feeling comes on suddenly without any apparent cause, and worsens as the hours pass. Eventually, the pain is so intense that you can barely keep your eye open. This is how my experience with Iritis began two years ago. I thought I had gotten something in my eye. It felt like someone had dumped a small truckload of sand in my eye and rubbed each grain over my lens. Despite this pain, I was not concerned at first. I thought the pain would go away as soon as whatever object was in there worked its way out. Only there was no object, and the pain did not go away.
That evening, my eye began to throb. I was growing concerned but was primarily puzzled. I could not figure out what I could have done to my eye. I tried to look in the mirror to see if I could tell what was wrong –but the light was starting to bother me too. My eye did not want to open. It was not swollen shut, but light hurt
and the lid clamped shut of its own accord.
I went to bed early and put ice, wrapped in a cold washcloth, over my eye. The cold and the darkness seemed to help a little. I slept fitfully and the pain woke me in the middle of the night–it was pain strong enough to make me gasp aloud. I gave up sleeping and decided to raid the refrigerator in search of comfort food. This was a huge mistake. The moment I opened the refrigerator, it was as if the light reached out and stuck a dagger through my eye and all the way into my brain. I cried out from the pain.
Slamming the refrigerator shut, I covered my eye with my hand and hurried back to the darkness of my bedroom. There I crept back into bed and pulled covers over my face to block out any hint of light. I slept again in fits and spurts until the morning came–the morning with the sunlight.
In the morning, I cursed the dawn like a vampire and quickly took several ibuprofen tablets for the pain. I covered the two windows in the bedroom with blankets to block out the sunlight and went back to bed with my ice and washcloth.
The pain pills brought no relief. I thought about calling a doctor, but it was Sunday. I did not want to go to the emergency room and pay an outrageous amount of money for a problem I assumed was probably minor.
Finally, having suffered for at least two days with intense pain that never diminished, and having developed extreme photophobia, I called my doctor’s office. I was seen right away and I could tell by the way he looked at me that he was taking it seriously. He tried to open my eye with his fingers but stopped when I kicked him in the shin.
I did not mean to kick him. It was just a reflex caused by the pain of having anything touch my eyelid. I felt terrible about kicking him but he was very understanding. He brought out the special slit lamp to look at my eye and was not happy with what he saw. He told me he suspected “Iritis”
I would have laughed if I had not been in such pain. I thought he was saying “eye ritis” as some kind of joke. It sounded like a made-up disease. I soon learned he was serious and he explained that Iritis was inflammation of the iris. He sent me to an opthamologist that very day because he felt it was important that I got expert help right away. The ophthalmologist confirmed the diagnosis and sent me away with prescriptions for prednisolone drops and homatropine hydrobromide drops. The latter dilates the pupil and helps prevent the iris from adhering to the lens–a common occurrence in untreated iritis.
I had the presence of mind to ask the opthamologist what causes Iritis. He said that in my case it was unknown and that in most cases the cause is unknown. He also said that it would likely recur. Great.
What is iritis?
Iritis is inflammation of the iris of the eye–the colored part of the eye. Iritis is also called, “Anterior Uveitis.” A doctor can diagnose Iritis using a slit lamp to detect the telltale white blood cells that the eye sheds during inflammation
What causes iritis?
There are two types of Iritis: traumatic and non-traumatic. Traumatic Iritis is often the result of blunt trauma to the eye. Non-traumatic Iritis can be caused by autoimmune disease, bacteria, fungus, virus, Lyme disease, toxoplasmosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, Cat Scratch Fever, Tuberculosis, and many other diseases or pathogens. In most cases the cause is unknown.
What are the symptoms of iritis?
Iritis can cause pain, burning, and aching in the eye and surrounding area. Headaches are also common as is blurred vision and photophobia. Often the pupil of the affected eye will be smaller than the pupil of the unaffected eye.
How is iritis treated?
My case of Iritis was of unknown origin, so first they tried me on the prednisolone and the homatropine. I also wore dark sunglasses for several days. The drops worked and I recovered–though that eye is now more sensitive to irritants.
Antibiotics must be prescribed if the Iritis is determined to be caused by bacteria. Chronic or frequent Iritis is sometimes caused by pathogens or disease and so, in those cases,the underlying illness needs to be diagnosed and taken care of.
Iritis is painful and serious. Untreated iritis can cause irreversible damage to the eye and even blindness. Had I known how serious the condition was, I likely would have sought medical help sooner.
According to the web site http://www.uveitis.org, uveitis/iritis is the third leading cause of preventable blindness in the developed world.
