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Do any of you get inflammed eyes. For the past few months, one of my eyes will get very red and it looks like conjunctivitis. I will wake up with it. Usually it lasts for 2-3 days and then clears up. None of my four kids ever get it and no one in the house gets conjunctivitis so I don't think its contagious. I seem to be getting it all the time now though. Is this just part of this disease?
Hi Fran!!!
I am new to this myself, but in my travels and many ?'s I have asked many peeps, a speech therapist diagnosed with RA told me she had a case of it in her left eye. If I remember right, she said her Rheumy gave her some eye drops (maybe cortisone based?) and her 10 day dose got rid of it. Hope this helps and God Bless!
Gayle
Hi Fran,
So sorry to hear you're going though the R-wars again. 🙁
A few thoughts came to mind re: red eyes: very common in reactive arthritides, also in Sjogren's and infections (e.g. Lyme, especially if coinfected with bartonella), but can also occur with seasonal allergies.
My youngest (almost 18) has a problem with allergies affecting her eyes. If you pull down your lower lid and see a cobbled effect (tiny bumps) then this is usually an allergy. If suspected, it's easily confirmed by having a special eyedrops placed in the eye and having an ultraviolet lamp directed at the eye…the cobbled bumps are very visible then. We have no idea why my daughter gets this occasionally….she wears contacts, but the opthalmologist said it wasn't due to the solutions she was using, as he trialed different kinds. It's also not due to chlorine in the pool (she's a swimmer), as it comes and goes both in and out of swim season…but one eyes especially gets very red, like conjunctivitis. She uses an allergy eye drop.
Usually, with conjunctivitis, gunky stuff oozes out from the eye, but it is important to get it checked, needless to say, as vision is so important. 😉
Hope you're back on track again soon, Fran!
Peace, Maz
There is an easy test to see if it's sjogren's. It's just a thin strip of some kind of paper that the doctor puts under the eyelid. Fran, this is something that you need to get checked out ASAP. Eye damage from RA can be very swift and is often permanent. I had a friend who lost one eye and was legally blind in the other – I'm not trying to scare you, but the sooner you can get into an opthamologist, the better. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that when Dr. S finds out about all of these things happening at once, he's going to want to put you on something stronger for inflammation. Using the evil prednisone is OK even in my book if it prevents blindness.
Linda, did your friend lost one of her eyes due to RA or due to prednisone use. Use of prednisone causes glaucoma, cataracts besides other problems
I have the same problem with both of my eyes specially when I wake up in the middle of the night. Both of my eyes are bloodshot red. In the daytime, I have some eye discomfort as well as a little redness in them which I always thought were allergies. Then again allergies never did that to my eyes. I did have a check up with an opthamologist a few months ago and she did not find anything wrong. At the time, I did not have eye pain
I have been having this problem too for about 4 or 5 mo. I wake up in the morning and my eyes are beet red. I have been to the eye dr. twice. They said I have dry eyes. I am making an appointment with another dr. because I don't think that's what it is. If I had dry eyes they would be irritated and they would hurt. I have thought all along that it was related to my R/A. I have been wondering if anyone else had this problem. Lisa
She lost one eye due to sjogren's, and had a prosthetic put in, the other eye also sjogren's, the inflammation destroyed the blood vessels in the eye. It's not uncommon for those with RA to have sjogren's. Note: She had the most aggressive, severe arthritis I've ever seen. Confined to a wheelchair at the age of 35 with knees that looked like grapefruit, wrists that looked like tennis balls and blind. She went into a nursing home, and died 7 yrs later from complications, stomach bleeding, I believe, at the age of 42. I'm not saying this to scare you, just the opposite. Your dx is not that severe, you have time to act and the meds will help you. Lyn's whole body was just completely taken over. It was a blessing, truly, and I hate it when people say that, but in this case it was true, it was a blessing when she went. No medicine touched her pain, and her joints were so severely damaged that they couldn't be fixed,plus the blindness, she had a very small life filled with pain. We are NOT nearly that sick, thank whoever you want to thank for that.
Glaucomas and cataracts can be fixed without having to remove the eye, and don't cause blindness if fixed early enough. Sjogren's damages the blood supply to the eye, and the tissue dies, therefore the eye has to be removed.
It's something that can happen quickly and should be taken srsly. We all expect that we'll have to live with some residual joint damage, but eye damage is a whole different ball game.
I'm not a volunteer, it would be better to follow what they are saying b/c they have more knowledge, I just have one personal experience. Just so you know, I too have been a little freaked out lately b/c I've been waking up with my left eye being red, inflamed and sore several times a week lately. One more week of this and I'm seeing an eye doctor.
I had this problem myself for about two years. Every few days I'd wake up with bloodshot eyes in one or both eyes. It scared me too.
I went to the opthamologist and he called it uveitis and gave me antibacterial (maybe with some steroid in too) eyedrops. It helped, but never actually got rid of the problem. It would always come back whenever I stopped using the drops.
I then took something called MMS (google 'MMS Jim Humble' if you want to know what I'm referring to) for several weeks and that seemed to finally get rid of the problem altogether. It has been about 2 years now since I've had the problem.
I'm not suggesting anyone use MMS for this, as antibacterial eye drops would probably be just as good, but because of the way MMS works (antibacterial action) I figure it must have been an eye infection that never went away, and that in turn caused inflammation and irritation in the eyes.
So, my point is, as with all the other problems associated with RA, etc, it's just yet more bacteria I think. But I agree that the best course of action is to see an opthalmologist right away. Uncontrolled infection and inflammation can do bad things to all our bodily tissues.
My eye inflammation is weird. It will be in one eye for 1-3 days and then clear up on its own. If it were bacterial, wouldn't it only clear up with antibiotic eye drops? When I pull down the bottom eye lid, its very red inside. It comes every couple weeks. Sometime in one eye, sometime in the other. It never stays for more than 2 or 3 days. My eyes aren't dry—-isn't that a hallmark of Sjoreners? I don't know. I used to get the “red eye” along with a migraine, but now I just get the red eye and not the migraine. That leads me to believe its something inflammatory going on. I have a doctor appointment next week with my regular doctor. I will let her know this is going on. Thanks for all the info!
Hello all,
This is so weird for me also, for the past couple of years, I have had problems with my eyes, severly red, and severe watering, looking glassy, and feeling tired. I can't even wear eye make up because of the watering. If someone didn't know me they would probally think that I was on dope, or alcohol. I had no idea this might be connected to RA… I just figured it was my age or something. I finally went to the eye doctor this summer, and had to get reading glasses. He said my problems were dry eyes, but the drops that he suggested (Systane) over the counter, doesn't really help, nothing that I have tried has helped. Should I go to a doctor, specialist, or contact Dr. S. my AP doctor for further information? Any suggestions……..
Thanks,
Judy
Eye inflammation has been an ongoing problem for me too. Here is an interesting article stating that Vit B-1 may be helpful.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090423180237.htm
Fran, All,
I went to the old RBF Bulletin Board to see copy and paste some links from there into a post to you. For the first time, I am not able to access the Old Board messages. Am hoping these are being transferred some way so we can have better access to them.
Here are a few things I found when I did a search using “Dr Wirostko, Uveitis, Minocin” — am thinking these are the words I used.
Was able to access one article from RBF about Dr. Wirostko's work. Another is an article by Amy Proal in which she discussed eye problems/uveitis, etc. and organisms, and Dr. E. Wirostko's work, as well as B. Wirostko, and others. Minocin was Dr. W's medicine of choice for me when I was his patient.
Best to you,
AF
[Uveitis, Dr. Wirostko, Minocin, (AP & MP) …af]
https://www.roadback.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/education.display/display_id/106.html
[user=1504]judy cash[/user] wrote:
I have had problems with my eyes, severly red, and severe watering, looking glassy, and feeling tired. I can't even wear eye make up because of the watering.
Judy, just a passing thought, but have you been checked for thyroid? My Mum had Grave's disease, which also presented similar to this in the beginning….when it started for her, she had severe tearing and red eyes, too.
Peace, Maz
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