Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Light Sensitivity?

It is interesting stuff especially the study mentioned that Emil Wirostko did at Columbia University where they took bacteria from the eyes of people with chronic eye inflamation and injected them into mice and the mice developed chronic uveitis...

NorCalJim

That is definitely an interesting result, might lead to something that could be put on the eyes as a preventative, to counteract whatever it is that the eyes are producing

I have the same problem with my left eye. In my case the left eye is permanently dilated. In my case it does not react to light at all. It happened the one time they dilated my eye using both types of drops. After 2 years it has never returned to normal. At first my eye would hurt when an intense light struck it, now nothing. Your Ophthalmologists does not seam to know much. You need to find a new one. It can be caused by the iris sticking to the lens or to an inner structure of your eye. Did he try giving you drops to reduce your iris size to try and break it free. That is the first step. The longer he waits the greater chance it will never be corrected. If it is sticking to the lens Cateract surgery can fix the problem assuming you have cateracts. If the nerve is dead it can be caused by a brain hymerage or Herpies in the eye which can damage the nerve. If you are still flaring the iris can push against your lens until the pressure is reduced. If you have a clogged duct this can also cause the iris to push against the lens. I have not found any cases of the dilating medication causing this. Shoot! Anyway, dump that $%^^%^ head you have now. A good Ophthalmologists should be able to find the problem unless you are like me and no longer have Iritis or contact with any structures in the eye but still nothing responds.

Time is very important. My old Ophthalmologists kept saying lets wait and see. Well now that I waited I cannot see.

Tim

Hiya,

not read all the replies but there's dry related problems the cornea gets inflamed spd or sph keratitis not very nice different from typical iritis uveitis but very painful and can lead to ulceration of the cornea and blindness.

SPH or keratitis can be diagnosed and needs a different formulation of eye drops and down side 10 days.....milder steroids with a artificial tear gel/liquid etc...

None are very nice as we all know!

Dave

Hi George, I also suffer from photosensitivity, although I've only had iritis once, I have the light sensitivity always but it seems to worsen when I'm flaring...my Mother had Lupus and Sjogrens and she had chronic dry eye, she used artificial tears to help with that...I wear sunglasses outdoors and I keep the house dark...also, overhead lights kill me, so I keep lamps on...good luck!!

Dow,
Yes also suffer from a dry mouth too.
How long have you been photo-sensitive? Do you have any idea why?
My eye probs only started after a days fishing in bright light.
Thanks.
George.

Tim,
Thanks for your reply.
The affected pupil seems to react to light, as it should. Expanding & contracting to differing light levels. Just doesn't seem happy when contracting to bright light conditions. Have had my eye's checked a few times now by the head Ophthalmologist down at my local hospital. He has said that there is no inflammation present now behind my eye, but can see previous traces of my initial iritis flare. He can't explain why I'm now suffering from light sensitivity.
Don't think my lens is sticking or that I have a cataract.
Just recently had my lower tear ducts plugged, due to dry eyes. Light issues atill around the same as previously.
I am sorry to hear about your eye problems. I know exactly where your coming from regarding poor information from the so called professionals.
Best wishes.
George.

Michelle,
Sorry to hear about your photosensitivity. Perhaps it's something I'm just going to have to learn to live with. Just like the good old AS.

Hi George

So with both dry mouth and dry eyes, seems like it might be useful to know that you have classic Sjogren's symptoms, and wonder if the dry eyes could have made them more vulnerable to the bright sunlight when fishing, that makes sense to me

For me, there wasn't any precipitating event, only thought was that I had played some video games the night before, (not an unusual event..) and did experience some eye strain, they were a bit uncomfortable, I remember that. Not able to speculate as to whether if it was the beginning of the iritis, or if it could have been helped bring on the iritis

The onset of the iritis was written up as "idiopathic" and I just considered that to be good comment on some doctors in general... ("idiopathic" meaning medical language for "we don't have the slightest idea")

My photosensitivity ended after that nasty 3 or 4 month iritis attack, fortunately. Once the major symptoms ended, I was left with some scary-looking and uncomfortable red eyes, with occasional blepharitis, that is mostly gone now, it's been like 5 years

Also had a lot of floaters, some times so bad that I wasn't sure if they were real or not, would see something moving nearby, and would look up-and of course the floaters would move too, so could never catch up to them. But there were definitely a few times that I'd wonder if it was a giant bug on the wall-

They were still very visible when I was able to start swimming again, the solid bright blue color of the pool floor really showed them up very nicely, and since I can only swim in the summer months, I have a way to compare the difference each year

And still, even now, when I shift into reverse in the car, I try not to turn my neck very far to look behind, because even after the iritis, it was those extreme positions that resulted in some very bright flashes. Haven't tested to see if that might still happen if I would turn that far even now, it has become a habit to just avoid doing that!

The retina specialist that treated me said that some of those after-effects could be explained by the prednisone being administered hourly for months, with the big finale of the direct injection

Hope to at some point hear about you getting seen by a specialist over there!