@CharlotteBrewer- Wow, what a nightmare! I am so sorry you are going through that! One moment at a time, right, sister! ❤️🙏🏻 God is my strength to get through the tough times!

My uveitis showed up as eye redness kinda like pink eye. Dry gritty and a sharp stabbing pain occasionally in my eyes. I had just had my yearly eye exam 2 weeks prior and there was no sign of it but 2 years prior my eye Dr found the inflammation inside my eye at the yearly eye exam and I didn’t even know it was happening. But this last time I saw the eye redness and called the eye Dr. Dr had me come in and she dilated my eyes and saw inflammation inside my eye like 2 years prior. She put me on steroid eye drops and made a referral to an eye specialist which I’ve been waiting to see for almost 3 months now. It took about 2 months of the eye drops to get the inflammation in my eye under control. So the bad thing is some times I know it’s happening and sometimes I do not.
The inflammation inside I have was anterior uveitis and it affects the iris ( colored part of your eye) and the ciliary body which is the part of your pupil that is the motor that makes your pupil open and close. The Dr told me the inflammation of the ciliary body can get “sticky” and then the pupil won’t close evenly in a circle and that’s a bad issue. Thankfully we got mine under control and mine wasn’t sticky. 😁. Posterior uveitis is a much worse diagnosis but mine didn’t go that far back .
I see the specialist June 27th and I am ready to get to that appointment. My eyes are light sensitive anyway but much more so now . My vision is more blurry even with my glasses too.

Thank you for your reply Jim123. I was initially put on Predforte but I have a sensitivity to steroids. The eye Dr told me it shouldn’t bother me since it’s only eye drops but in 3 days time I had a bad headache and my heart palpitations were keeping up at night. She switched me to Durezol eye drops which I was able to tolerate just fine and after about 2 months the uveitis was under control. I just can’t tell when I have it unless my eyes get red. I’ve always had light sensitivity.
Funny you mentioned winter time for uveitis as the 2 times that I’ve had it were in Dec and March.
Do you have to see your ophthalmologist every 6 months instead of yearly now ? My regular ophthalmologist said the specialist might recommend that.

I have been dealing with uveitis/iritis for over 40 years. You are right in needing to see a good eye doctor (optholmologist) to monitor the disease and prevent eye damage. I had similar experience with PredForte corticosteroid eye drops. They lessen the inflammation but it still took about a month or two for the inflammation to go away. Interestingly, generally the inflammation only chooses one eye randomly. I was also prescribed an eyedrop (scopolamine?) to dilate the pupil so this also caused blurred vision and light sensitivity but prevents the iris from sticking to your lens. You will probably need cataract surgery earlier than most people due to particles stuck to your lenses. The only good news, is that since I've been taking TNF blockers/biologics I've had only one or two flare-ups in 15 years and at 68years old, my eyesight is very good. Interestingly, my doctor said she sees an increase in uveitis cases in March. I've seen problems due to cold temperature stress. Also, my nasty food poisioning event caused an extreme uveitis in both eyes, despite being on Remicade/TNF blocker..

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