Uveitis (My Old Eyes)

It all started Monday September 19 when I woke up and my eye was sore. The kind of muscle pain like you slept on it funny/had a workout. But in my eye. If that makes sense. I didn't think much on it and thought I had probably slept on my hand funny which bothered my eye. I ran out to my moms and we canned tomatoes that day and kept pretty busy. 

Tuesday it was still pretty sore. Maybe even a little more so than the day before. I just attributed it to being tired/busy/exhausted/stressed. You know.. Life.

Wednesday when my mom asked me if my eye was feeling better and I said no. She said I should probably make an appointment with an eye doctor. I don't mind going to the eye doctor but that just means work in getting someone to watch the kids. So I made an appointment for Friday told my mom and well.. she pulled a mom card on me and called the Doctor office and got me an appoint the same day  in 45 mins. (She used to work at this clinic and apparently still has some strings to pull). So I found someone to watch the boys and raced to Visual Effects.

I got in with Dr. Ferguson pretty quickly. He checked my eyes out. Took some pictures and all that and said He couldn't see much. I remember he looked a lot too. Every time he was finished. He'd sit back and say there wasn't much to see. My tear ducts looked dry but that that didn't explain anything and then he'd look in them again. He sent me home with the artificial tear drops and told me to come back Monday or call in if things got worse. So I went home. 

Thursday same old same old. Still sore. tried to avoid moving my eye if I could. And by Thursday late afternoon I noticed it started turning red and it really hurt to move and look out the sides of my eyes. So I went with my gut and called and got an appointment Friday right after lunch.

was way worse than the picure shows

I went in on  Friday and the woman at the Front desk (who had known me since I was little) commented on how sore my eye looked. It was pretty red and felt super swollen. Dr Ferguson looked it over again and commented on the edema (swelling) in my eye and called it Iridis. (google it). I got some steriod drops that i was to use every 1-2 hours the first day and every 2-3the next day. and he told me he wanted to see me Monday.

Monday was the game changer. My eye felt better. Tender but not near as sore nor as red. I was kinda happy thinking YAY it's cured! (Naive me.)
I sat down in that good old chair that I was getting pretty familiar with and he started looking in my eyes. He looked for just a few minutes and said, this is no good. I'm done playing. My gut dropped to the floor and I just stared at him. He explained it wasn't any better but he wanted to take some more pictures and readings before anything else. So off I went for some more pictures and pressure readings. The swelling was still there in my eye. And my Eye pressure was 35 (thats super high just in case you were wondering). He started explaining to me that he wanted me to go to a specialist and he didn't feel comfortable monitoring me anymore. Which kinda frightened me but at the same time was nice to know he knew his limits and that was someone else higher qualified that could probably give more answers and help fix this.

He explained the eye pressure and that if it got to high it could mean lights out for my eye. He said Iridis could be an underlying cause for something else going on in my body like an autoimmune issue or he said it could be caused by stress and fatigue (Evan had been being a turd ball the week before this not sleeping at night so you could say I was a bit fatigued) and really we might never know what caused it. He called Dr Leishman while I was still there and set me up an appointment with him the next day. Dr Leishman wanted me to stay on the steroid drops (predinisone) and add to it Timalol (i found some humor in that last one when I realized it was glaucoma meds. I'm 25 and on old people meds. hahaha). 

Tuesday Dan got off work and we went to see Dr Leishman together. I figured I should probably bring Dan because who knew what Tests were going to be happening. Nothing to intense. They took some pictures. Numbed my eyes and did pressure readings and then Dr Leishman examed them. The pressure was still high but was lower than when I had been with Dr Ferguson. He saw the swelling in my eye and gave cause for concern but considering I was on meds already he just wanted to keep me on them and observe and come back in two days. 

                                           ******** I am so grateful to everyone who has watched my boys throughout all this! You have all been so wonderful!************

So we left and we figured since it was on a positive note we didn't have much to worry about. I came back Thursday Sept 29. Just me and he checked out my eyes again and they were showing improvement. My vision hadn't changed, my eye was no longer sore or red so things looked to be improving. The pressure in my eye had gone down significantly so they weren't worried about that any more but wanted me to stay on the pressure meds anyway. Things were looking good so he said he'd see me in a week. 

During that week I started seeing lines in my vision. kinda like when you have an eyelash in your eye and you can see it and it moves around when you move your eye. It was pretty trippy so I went back in and told them at that next appointment. They didn't see overly concerned by it which calmed my inner fears a bit. Said it was a side effect of the drops i was on and the swelling that was still in my eye. 

So I saw him once a week for a while. I don't even have to walk in and give them my name anymore when I check in. I just wave and sit down. I feel kinda special. :) 

By the end of October the floaters in my eye had gotten a bit worse and I noticed Dr Leishman was getting a bit more anxious. He wasn't surprised it was taking so long to correct but was figuring it should have gotten a bit better by now. I was impatient because it was pretty frusterating dealing with seeing weird floaty lines in one eye and having to rely on my "bad eye" as my good eye. It was crazy and stressful and I just wanted answers! I was seriously starting to think I was going to just lose my vision and would have to live with one eye. It was a terrifying thought but I was ever so grateful that my "bad eye" was being so good and having no ill effects.

Early November I had another appointment with Dr Leishman. He dialated my eyes to look into them better and it was after that he told me he wanted to send me to the specialists in Calgary. They would be able to look and do more tests and we'd get better results.  Yet again scary because Dr Leishman is the specialist down here. I figured he would fix this. Now I had to go to Calgary and had no idea what would come. They called me with an appoint for Nov 24. So I had just over 2 weeks till I went up to see them. Super nervous not knowing what was going to happen. I continued seeing Dr Leishman until that appointment. It was one of those appointments Nov 9 (ish) (thank you calendar for remembering dates) that my vision got real bad. Like looking out a foggy window bad. Dr Leishman started phoning Calgary trying to get me in sooner but they were super busy up there. I figured I would be blind before I got up there. Little bit melodramatic but hey.. this is scary! I kept seeing Doctor Leishman and he kept watching it. He started calling it intermediate Uveitis (google) Not doing much but increasing the dosage of the drops I was putting in my eye. Luckily on  Nov 17 at about 3;00 I got a call from Calgary. They had a cancellation for Friday Nov 18 @ 8:30am. I said yes without hesitating figuring I would figure out baby sitters and whatever I could to make this work. I had been praying for a sooner appointment and this was it! I hung up the phone and my Mom just happened to be at my house. When I told her the good news she said she would stay and watch the boys. I called Dan and he got Friday off. Everything just fell into place so beautifully! We even stayed with a family friend who lives 5 mins from the clinic I had to go to. 5 mins! I just know I am being watched over. There is no doubt. God heard my prayers and everything just clicked. 

I didn't sleep too much that night because Evan slept in bed with us. haha okay and I was a bit nervous. We go all checked in at the clinic. Had some more pictures taken of my eyes (seriously i should model now.), pressure readings and eyes dialated and then waited to see Dr Fieldman. When he came in to sit he asked a few questions and then got right in to looking into my eyes. holy bright lights. He asked more questions and looked some more and than said he wanted to get more pictures kinda like an angioplasy (spelling?) like they do with hearts. Basically, they pushed my head into this big giant camera and took so many pictures of my eyes. Then they put colored vegetable dye into me and took more pictures. Than waited a few minutes and took MORE pictures. (the only side effect of the veggie dye was neon pee. and do i mean Neon. I shoulda taken a picture... haha)
They showed me the pictures. The right eye was beautiful. Lit up like a christmas tree. (GOOD). Left eye... well.... nothing. Literally nothing. Except at the bottom of my eye where all the swelling was. and even that picture you could see the "fog" I was seeing. It was so crazy. I wish I would have gotten the pictures to put on here.

Went back in to see Dr Fieldman and he looked through the pictures and said good news. I think it's Uveitis. In fact i'm 99% sure. But it was that 1% that was making him cautious. He figured that 1% was a cold sore virius in my eye. Typically a cold sore viris in the eye is fast moving and its lights out for the eye in 2 weeks. and I've been dealing with it for almost 2 months at this point. But he wanted to rule it out because the "cure" for Uveitis would make the cold sore one grow rapidly and harder to come back from. quite the dilema. So they gave me some steroid pills to take for a week which would make more minor change that he would see and give my eye a better chance. They don't wanna keep you on steroids too long because it can cause a multitude of other issues in your body. If all went well with the Steroids then when I came back in a week he wanted to do a Steroid injection in my eye.
As crazy as it sounds I started praying to get that needle in my eye. Not even kidding. PRAYING FOR A NEEDLE IN MY EYE! They also had me get blood work and xrays done. 

I went home and started taking those steroid pills once a day and still using the drops 4 times a day. Following everything they told me to do. And just praying. He didn't think I would see any change in my eye in the week but that he would when I came back. But Nov 22/23 I woke up and realized things weren't so foggy anymore. By the time I got back up to Calgary November 25 I just had the floaters again (still pretty big and annoying but there were also clear spots and no fog!)

So that Appointment November 25 My eye looked better. He said he recommended the steroid injection. I just said lets do it. I mean really its what I was praying for. He told me the side effects would be my eye feeling bigger/swollen/sore for a few days. It could cause a cataract and maybe an increase in my eye pressure again. It was when I asked him to remind me what a cataract was that I realized I have Old eyes. lol First the glacoma meds and then cataracts. Cataracts are an easy eye surgery though. And he told me that basically my eye was heading that direction either way. That I would get cataract surgery before most people typically do. So I have an old and wise eye. bahahahahha. 

So eye injection is was. They numbed my eye really good. with just the "topical" drops they use. And they they used a little needle to add some more numbing behind my eye. Then i just sat there and waited about 10 mins while everything went sufficiently numb. Then he came in and turned on all the lights which was just a little bit rude considering my eyes were super dialated and I was expected to open my eyes. hahaha. I opened them as best I could but they lift your eye open even more and then insert the needle in "behind" the eye. I didn't feel/see a thing. Just felt pressure increase and then he was done. You know how after they numb you at the dentist you lips feel HUMONGOUS?? but they aren't? Thats how my eye felt. super weird. And I totally got Dan to take a picture. 

Now I get to go back in 3 weeks and they get to check it all out again. But my vision is improving so much.  I still have floaters but they are going away and I get more clear vision than not. 

So I have Uveitis  (click and it'll take you to a link) in my left eye. More or less it is swelling in the eye and destroys eye tissue. They still aren't sure what caused it as all my blood work and tests so far have come back normal. So its all still unsure as to what caused this and if it will keep happening from time to time. But hey. I got the answer I needed. It's not spreading to my other eye and even that is clearing up and healing. Hurray for modern medicine. Even though it does wonders to your body and does a bit of destroying as it heals.  I'm just very grateful my vision is clearing and I get to see my crazy boys antics every day. 

Thats all I know for now. I figured I needed to update this blog on whats going on in our world. Praying now that it all heals and maybe just stays away. :)