Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion General Message Board for Ankylosing Spondylitis and Related Diseases Daughter has iritis.

Hi everyone. My 35 yr old daughter has been having pain and blurriness, light sensitivity etc for 2 weeks now. She literally had all the lights off in her office at the middle school she is the secretary at. She could only stand the lamp behing her. I told her she needed to get in now, as she had an appt next week. I told her it could be serious and so she got in yesterday. Sure enough, Iritis. Now my question is, do you know if a lot of people get this with no connection to any inflammatory disease? You know, just out of the blue? I am really really hoping she will not have problems with any of these spondyloarthropothies.
She said,oh no, does this mean when I get older I am going to hobble around like you? ...... Very funny =( She, of course was kidding but I sure hope she doesn't. There must be other reasons people get iritis?

Gail

Hi Gail

Sorry to read about your daughter having iritis but am really glad you persuaded her to get seen more quickly. What I do know is that the stats are that 40% of AS patients will get one or more iritis attacks in their lifetime. I do not know the reverse statistic as in how many people who get iritis are likely to have AS or another auto-immune disease causing it.

I do know that some infections can cause iritis and similar symptoms so hopefully that is the case and this is a one-off bout caused by infection rather than auto-immune in nature.

Warm Regards
Oliver

This webpage has a good description of the causes of iritis. It is associated with a number of autoimmune conditions and other health problems like infections - but not always (no numbers are given).

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/iritis

Does she have any other autoimmune conditions, or symptoms?

A close friend had Iritis as the first thing in her illness with AS> If I were her I would have things checked out. The earlier the better-

My eye doctor told me that everyone gets one "free iritis attack." A second episode warrants deeper investigation or reveals an underlying disease. Prayerfully, this is her one and only attack! If you have AS, I would probably be prompted to look more into it if I was her.

Wishful thinking aside regarding it not being AS, I agree with Jean.

My first concrete signs pointing to AS were actually severe iritis attacks when I was 14. Up to that point I had lots of non-specific aches and pains in my lower legs and an osteoporitic toe that had fractured in a rugby match, but nothing concretely pointing to AS except for significant family history.

It was the iritis attacks that made my rheumatologist at the time monitor me much more closely and then my diagnosis was completed aged 16 after x-rays of my sacroiliac joints.

Warm Regards
Oliver

Thank you all for your advice and comments. We are really hoping that this is a one and only case. If not, I think she will be seeing a Rhuemy!
Gail

Regarding iritis: Does one need to see an opthomologist, or can an optometrist diagnose?

See an opthamologist. An optometrist might be able to recognize iritis, but they cannot write the prescription(s) needed and are not trained to treat it.

Brenda

We had forgotten about this!.....On Holloween, my daughter was hit in the eye with a small soft toy football (her little ones). Her eye was open and it really hurt. We THINK this is around the time this started. I read that blunt trauma can also cause iritis, so hopefully this will be all.
I saw her last night and her eye was really bugging her. She is on the eye drops her optomologist prescribed her. She said it wasn't so much painful last night as it was blurry, and she could "feel" her eye. She has been on the drops now since last Thursday evening, today being the 5th day. She has a follow up appt on Thursday. I hope they can say this is probably a one time thing. I will let you know what the doctor says, and thank you all for so much support and input. This place it great for getting help!

Gail