[araymond]

Hi Everyone,

I now have a new symptom that has popped up to add to my long list of others. This actually happened to me a few months ago before I started taking Prednisone and I am now tapering off and I am wondering if this is my body telling me to go back up.

I woke up on Thursday with my right eye feeling sore and when I went to take a shower I noticed the whole right (outside) of the white part was blood red. It is hurting even behind my eye and is very sensitive to light.

What the heck is this now? It is not an eye infection because there is no yucky discharge or itching or swelling. Just pain and redness and only on one half of one of my eyes.

I don't have an eye doctor that I see. Should I do see my GP or my Rheumy? The last time it went away in a few weeks and I never thought it was related to my lupus, but now I am sure it is related since I am feeling awful again from going off the steroids.

Is there any drops they can give me even if I am on steroids right now?

Thank you again for helping me sort all this stuff out.

Andrea

 

[cad]

Hi Andrea,
i would definately say that this could be inflamation of your eye.
I found a link which describes uveitis which is inflamation of the eye and can be associated with autoimmune disease.

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40002388/

I would definately say first stop should be gp who made need to refer on if necessary

Good Luck i hope you get this sorted out soon.

Take Care

Cassie

 

[Maia]

There are lots of possibilities for what it could be, some of which can be serious. Whenever I had a very red eye, whether it seemed to be infection or not, the GP would send me to the opthamologist to have a better look at my eye through magnification to rule out the more serious possibilities.

Infection is still a possibility actually - some infections are viral and tend to produce little discharge to no discharge.

Good luck - let us know how it turns out.

 

[keebler]

I have been having eye pain this past week. The white of my eye was red and I had pain around my eye. I finally couldn't take it any longer and called my ompathamologist. He had me come in that afternoon and see the doctor that was on call.

He found a foreign object in my eye. Got it out, and I had to put antiobiotic ointment in it for a few days. Apparently I don't have enough tears to wash it out of my eyes. This is something I plan on talking to my regular ompathamologist when I see him next month.

Take care,
Lyn

 

[Maia]

I had a piece of glass/hard clear plastic in my eye one time too that needed to be dug out (after they placed numbing drops in my eye). This was years ago, and I went to Student Health at the University, and the guy just plain didn't believe me as he couldn't see anything. So started some of my general distrust in doctors! *lol*

Anyways, I kept insisting that I get referred to Opthamology and he acted like it was SUCH an inconvienence for him but I knew something was not right after 3 days of that pain. Almost immediately the gal spotted it with the microscope and gave me the numbing eye drops and asked if it was better. Then dug it out!

 

[Clare.T]

Hello Andrea

We shouldn't take any risks with our eyesight by self diagnosing even if the reason for the trouble is probably correct. I haven't checked to see what meds you are on but if you are taking Plaquenil you should be having your eyes checked now and then anyway.
I would first let my GP know and find out if he can recommend an ophthalmologist if necessary. If he can't, see if your rheumy knows somebody who is familiar with connective tissue diseases. It might be something relatively simple like a foreign body in the eye.
There are lots of possible reasons for eye problems. The eyes can be treated separately, with steroid drops if need be, rather than increasing total oral steroid intake with all side effects that brings.
I hope it is possible for you to get an expert opinion on the likely cause of the problem and the most suitable treatment

Good luck!
Clare

 

[Allerian]

It sounds like you could have Uveitis. It causes eye inflammation where your eye is red, painful and sensitive to light. You need to see a doctor ASAP whether it's an optho or not. And opthmalogist would be best. If untreated this condition could affect your eye sight. Uveitis runs in my family so I am very aware of the symptoms. Uveitis can happen as part of lupus. So please see a doctor ASAP.