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

Hi George:

Yes, the photosensitivity was my first symptom, couldn't even look out of the window, and went to the emergency room that night, they knew it was iritis, but didn't start getting prednisone drops for days later, and then it was likely that I wasn't given enough (even though took the drops every hour) and things still continued to worsen for a while

Ultimately, I had to get a prednisone injection directly into the eye, and looks like you won't be needing that! (But it did work, now I am mostly symptom-free, haven't had another episode since)

If you're like me, you may have noticed that the light sensitivity will happen even if you have the troubled eye closed or even wearing an eye patch. When the light comes into either eye, since the irises of both eyes do not work independently, and the pain comes from the iris closing down nonetheless in the inflamed eye

Best of luck to you, wonder if you have some degree of iritis that is still untreated?

Mig will likely correct me here, but I think she has stated that the only way you really know if any iritis is still present, is when an ophthalmologist looks behind the eye. I call it the "big white light test that feels like you are looking into the sun and you wonder if you will ever see anything ever again" test. I think they have a different name for it

Jan,
OOPS! (No more tear product), meant artificial tears. I need more, not less :-)

Phillip,
No hasn't stopped me from fishing, only wish I'd have warn my sun glasses the first time round. May have then avoided my initial iritis flare. I'm sure in my mind that the over exposure to the sun light started the flare, specialist's seem to disagree. I have heard of others saying the same too.

Norcaljim,
Thanks for the info. Hope your eye pain never returns & your treatment keeps working well for you..

Jesse,
I am under an opthomologist too. Have seen him a few times now, I had the usual pred drops treatment for the iritis. He has now stated that the iritis has cleared & that there's no inflammation left. Since then, I've been left with light sensitivity probs within the right eye.
Have just bought myself a pair of pre-tinted glasses, which help me whilst at work under normal indoor lighting conditions. At the moment I'm trying to manage the prob, opthomologist does not have any real idea's to why.

Dow,
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.
My ophthalmologist has ruled out any inflammation within either eye.
Perhaps the light sensitivity may be related to Sjoren's? I also suffer from dry eyes, only since my initial iritis flare around a year ago now. My iritis treatment was very slow coming. Took around a week before I started the pred drops. 3 months later the redness within my eye lessened. Now left with light sensitivity within my right eye & dry eyes.
The pain within my right eye seems to increase when my pupil contracts, seems happier in low light level conditions. Since the iritis flare, I have now noticed that my right pupil under normal light conditions is slightly larger than my left. My ophthalmologist has no explanation for this, stating that perhaps it's always been that way. I know differently. Basically he has no idea why, neither does he know why I'm suffering from light sensitivity now.

Wow, your pupils are different sizes, that does sound unusual.

Possible to find a specialist?

iritis specialists (with a few UK listings)

I was treated by a retinologist, glad for that, because the ophthalmologist I was seeing for a few weeks, just kept saying keep using the standard doses of pred-forte, and they didn't know what else to do when my eye wasn't getting better, at least thankfully they recognized that it was time to refer me to someone else.


Not familiar with Sjogren's until you mentioned it, now have read that the symptoms are dry mouth and eyes, but see that it is also auto-immune, as iritis usually is considered to be, so could be, like AS, another aspect of a similar condition (like many people here have had both iritis and another menu selection from the family of spondy diseases)

but just to be thorough, didn't see Sjogren's listed as a possible cause for light sensitivity:

Photophobia wiki

and I also noticed that iritis is usually considered either acute or chronic, with acute usually healing with treatment after a few weeks, but chronic can last longer

So maybe the combination of having iritis, with the dry eyes from the Sjogren's has been affecting your recovery?

Please keep us posted, the fact that you can even spell "ophthalmologist" correctly is a great sign!

(I have to look it up every time)

Dow,
Yes find it difficult when answers not available from the so called professionals.
I do suffer from dry eyes, which I believe are caused by Sjogren's, suppose a bi-product of AS. Not a total expert, well 1 year on with eye probs, 20 with AS. Ready for a badge. All my eye probs started together (year ago). Had no eye probs, before the initial iritis flare.

I was even considering that my Anti TNF treatment may have cased my eye probs, so being a typical male. Have stopped all meds for 5+ months. Kind of an eradication plan, not diet, meds :-) AS pain fairly high now, eye probs the same.

Conclusion, prob long term use of Anti TNF blockers have not caused my eye prob. Very close to having a Humira injection now. Only been waiting 5 months or so :-) The eradication diet is killing me.

In my opinion, think the bright light reflecting from the lake for 8 hours whilst fishing (without wearing sunglasses), prob caused my initial eye prob. Damage now done. Can't get my Ophthalmologist to support that theory though. That would be too easy.

At least now managing eye prob, have a pre-tinted pair of glasses for work & numerous sunglasses for outside use. Was wearing sunglasses at work for around 10 months, until I realised I could go & buy a pair of pre-tinted glasses.

As far as I can gather the main guy from the UK to see regarding iritis & associated probs would be a Dr Foster, according to iritis.org. Based at London.

Thanks for your support.

OOPS! 2 am UK time, will have to hit the sack.

Hi George:

Do you have the dry mouth symptom of Sjogren's as well?

Not sure why I am asking, maybe it would help to figure out what is the strongest issue, since it seems like you are dealing with more than one

I sure remember what it was like, adjusting to life with being photo-sensitive all the time.

I am a night-owl anyway, but during that time it really gave me more reason to be more active when the sun went down.

We used to walk our dogs in the neighborhood then, so doing that at night in the dark was much more comfortable

But some of our neighbors have those proximity-activated lights, as you passed their houses, these big powerful lamps would go on, and I'd suddenly get blinded! Owww! So I mapped out a little path for myself, cross the street to avoid one house, cut across the lawn for another, must have looked very strange!

And I remember when I was better enough that I could start watching TV a bit, I was actually thinking about what shows or movies would be brightly lit or not, was wishing there would be a ratings guide for them like "NB" (not bright) or "QD" (quite dark)

Thanks for the interesting link.