Eye problems and Restasis | Arthritis Information

 

Well, even though I worked for a well qualified optometrist I had my yearly medical eye exam at my ophthalmologists office this morning.

My eyes have just been hurting, all the time, even when my uveitis is not acting up. I knew my vision has been blurry but to my own surprise, I am only just barley seeing 20/30, which isn't awful by any means but I have always been able to see better than 20/20. Apparently this is from the start of cataracts, I'm 36 so its likely from the steroid use. Luckily, even if the cataracts progress quickly, its a pretty easy surgery.

My eye pressure (glaucoma) has always run on the high side but it keeps creeping up and the doctor noted some changes in my disc which can also be a sign of glaucoma. He took some photo's, labeled me as glaucoma suspect and said we will watch it.

Despite not having an active flare up of uveitis, he could still see some inflammation. I also have chronic blepharitis (sp?) which is an inflammation of the little glands around the base of the eye lids. I have been using a solution of 1/3 baby shampoo to 2/3 water morning and night to wash my eyes but he said almost half of my glands looked irritated or plugged.

I have been using otc moisture drops like systane and blink for a long while as well as a lubricating ointment at night. Than I go to fml steroid eye drops when the uveitis flares. The new plan is to try Restasis. Being in the optical field, I have heard of it and knew it was used for dry eye but wasn't sure why he was suggesting it for me since my eyes aren't necessarily that dry, just irritated.

Well, Restatsis is cyclosporin, which is an immune suppressant. They don't exactly know how it works on the eye but it actually helps to reduce inflammation in your eye. In some people this reduction in inflammation can lead to better tear production but more importantly for me, he is hoping it will reduce some of my eye pain.

He also prescribed me an antibiotic ointment to use every night to help the glands clear up. He said the next time my uveitis flares up, to go directly to his office for him to take a quick peek and he will likely prescribe me pred forte which is a stronger steroid drop which will hopefully shorten the length of the uveitis flare up.

The good news is that he did not see any granulomas(granulomas would be a product of my sarcoidosis) in my eyes! So I just thought I would toss this out there as a reminder to everyone to get there eye exams regularly and for those of you who also have uveitis or eye pain, ask your doctor if Restasis would be right for you. I was told it would probably be a month before I see improvement and may take up to 3 months but hoping it makes my eyes feel better!

Just a reminder, I have sarcoidosis and not ra as previously thought but having inflammatory or immune diseases, such as ra, lupus and sjorgens can all cause inflammation of your eye which may be helped by Restasis.  Restasis is a prescription eye drop so you would have to see a medical eye doctor to see if it might help you.
It was a year ago when I had my Opthomology checkup, diabetes(40 years) and glaucoma(36 years), and I asked the dr about dry eyes. He gave me OTC drops because he didn't feel the prescription drops worked better and once you started them you couldn't stop. Of course he didn't feel my dry eyes were bad either. Hope you have good results.

Hi Michele,

If Restatsis works for you, yes, you have to continue taking it forever or it stops working-its not necessarily a cure.  I'd much rather put drops in twice a day than want to gouge my eyes outta my head! 

Technically yes, if your eyes get red again, you would have to see the eye doc again.  Its to make sure there isn't anything else besides just episcleritis or in my case uveitis-the only difference is which part of the eye is inflamed.  I am a bit luckier in that I work for an optometrist who can look to see its nothing else and he can also follow my eye pressure as any steroid eye drop can cause a rise in eye pressure.

Inflammation of the eye can be very stubborn.  I have had flare ups last for over 3 months in the past.  Depending on which steroid eye drop you are using he may prescribe a stronger one or have you us it more frequently.  Sometimes if you taper off too quickly, it will just come right back-its hard to know when its ok to taper.  If it gets real bad and won't go away, sometimes they give you oral steroids for a period of time.

No, you shouldn't have rebound redness after stopping the steroid eye drops.  If you do, you tapered off too soon or wasn't on a high enough dose.  Obviously, I think the restasis is worth a try but its not going to cure a flare of episclertis in your eyes so you need to get this flare under control first.

Why do they think you are seeing double?  Sorry if you told me before, I have terrible brain fog!!!  We occasionally give people prisms here but it depends on the root cause of the problem.

In really hard to treat cases of inflammation of the eye, even when the source is unknown, there have been documented cases of using remicade for treatment!  I guess someone forgot to tell my eyes that though as I have been on remicade since February!  LOL!!! 

Oh, and just for the record, I am 38 and not 36 as I posted above-no idea what I was thinking??????? LOL!!!!!  The last couple of weeks the brain fog has been terrible, its like someone flipped my stupid switch and its stuck! Hehe.
Oh, and I still work for the optometrist, I see I typed "worked" instead of work in the above post.  STUPID SWITCH definitely stuck, anyone know how to unstick it????? hey michele.. sorry to hear of your eye woes.. pop off the key and wipe down the insides and the prong with alcohol? Hi Michele,
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