(Today: one day after)
The day of..... there are more pics if you scroll down....
Pars Planitis Ever heard of it? I hadn't 5/6 years ago when I was diagnosed with it. (Wow, I'm making it sound really bad ;). The above picture looks like I hate life and I really didn't :D.
It all started when I was newly married and camping with my inlaws. We had those cute "environment-friendly (not)" white styrofoam cups to drink from. I filled mine with water and sat there drinking when suddenly I noticed dirt floating ALL over in my cup!! "Who put dirt in my cup?!" No one fessed up. Finally Trevor looked in it and said "There's no dirt in your cup." WHAT?!?!?!!?
So to the Shopko eye doctor I went.
He dilated my eyes, took one look at them and said, "You need to get yourself to an Optometrist."
I headed to the Optometrist....wow...they were a lot more "eye-ish". Well this doc dilated my eyes and said, "You need to see a Retina Specialist"
A what? I didn't even know Retina Specialists exist.
So in I went.
My retina specialist gave the "pars planitis" diagnosis. It is simply an autoimmune response in your eyeballs and your eyes make all these antibodies that float all in your eye and can inflame it and blur the vision and even cause blindness cuz they rest on the retina, so you have to keep up on your checkups to try and prevent blindness if at all possible.
Ok. well that was fun. He had me get all sorts of tests to check for all these other diseases that can cause pars planitis, but all were negative. I guess this disease can also happen on its own.
He was debating giving me steroid injections behind my eye and then I got pregnant and we moved to Boise. So I ignored the whole "pars planitis" thing.
We moved back to Utah and I decided maybe I better contact my retina specialist and get a check up since it had been years....3 to be exact. He told me I better come in at least every 6 months because waiting longer could get me blind.
I used to have 20/20 vision but the pars planitis (which was more severe in my left eye) had decreased my vision to 60/20. So doc decided a month ago to give me my first steroid shot.
It was A LOT worse than I could have imagined!!! The two pictures on the bottom of me in the green shirt were after getting the first shot. The rest of the pictures are just from yesterday after getting my 2nd shot. The steroid shot is supposed to help break up the floaters and decrease the bluriness.
Description: the doc lifts up my eyelid and jams a q-tip up as far as he can to get it numb.....then repeats with a new q-tip. (oh and also gives my eyeball numbing drops). Then he holds up my eyelid while I look down as far as I can and he injects a needle up underneath my eyelid and in all the way behind my eyeball! then he says I'll feel some "pressure". Yeah okay, my eyeball felt like it wanted to dislodge!! Well, afterwards, my eye was droopy for a few days and it only felt like I got decked in the eye. (oh yeah and I got a migraine from it)
The first shot totally improved my vision. My left eye went from 60/20 to 25/20!!!! Wow!! I hated that shot but had to get the second one. The second one actually didn't give me the 'gag and throw up sensation' so I think my anxiety was more under control about it. But it sure was worse getting over it round two. My eyelid was bleeding underneath hence the bloodshot look.
Below are the pictures of the first shot about a month ago: (really not too bad....)
very dilated eyes :) but my eye didn't bleed like it did with the second shot shown above.
you can barely even tell...just looks a little droopy.
WOW! OUCHY! Hopefully if it prevents you from being BLIND it's all worth it :)
ReplyDeleteAwwww. I feel for you. I'm so glad when my retina was screwed up they put me under to fix it. You're a tough woman to go through that.
ReplyDeleteEewwww! Not fun. But keeping your vision defently a priority. Being mostly blind 20/60 sounds good. :P I hope your future shots are better. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't know. Just reading about it makes me want to throw up. Aren't you grateful for modern medicine, though? Is it something that will ever go away on its own? Or will you have to have these shots all the rest of your life?
ReplyDeleteDude that made ME nauseated. I can't imagine what you felt! I really feel so bad for your! ICK. I pray that doesn't have to happen again.
ReplyDeleteOnly you would post such a graphic and disturbing post. And I LOVED it!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are on top of it, and when it comes to your eyes, don't be a slacker girl!
xoxoxo
Aunti M
That turned my stomic just reading it let alone going thrugh it. Let me know if you need anything
ReplyDeleteAaaaah-EEEEGH!!! I am SOOOO sorry that you're going through that!!! Good to know what happens, and our thoughts & prayers are definitely with you!
ReplyDeleteAnd that you thought to catalog your adventure in photos is very cool. :-) Also gutsy. :-) Very informative! :-)
That doesn't sound fun. I hope that the shots help.
ReplyDeleteoh man, you're tough. I hope you don't go blind :(
ReplyDeleteHi. My name is Teri and my son Jackson was diagnosed with this in his rt eye 1 year ago. He is now 9 and went back yesterday for a 4 month follow up the disease was back active and now in his Lt eye. He also has the idiopathic kind (thankgoodness). He has 2 perm floaters in the rt eye ('larry and gary') and now he describes the Lt eye as the 'army' light brown cluster of dots in the center of vision. he now requires glasses for the Rt eye and the Lt. eye is still 20/20. It is just so hard as a mom to see your son go through this alone. Do you have any advice on things i could do or say for him. Reading is difficult for him as the cluster in the middle and the fact that larry and gary are constantly dancing around..but i am the mean mom and make him read 1/2 hour each night anyway.. am i being too hard??? I am sorry to you, please as a new mom...don't let your apts slip by. take care of your vision to see your little one as clear as can be forever. We are in rural Missouri, we go to Children's Mercy. They are still giving eye drops. I am reading that is no longer the standard of practice... so we are going somewhere - anywhere to get the second opinion. that is how i came across you today. good luck, grayteri@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteteri
Hi, I've had pars planitis for nearly 30 years. This is not something to take lightly. I have permanent vision loss from the pars planitis, and I also have vision loss from the complications of CME and detached retina in one eye and glaucoma in the other eye - caused by the steroid shots that I also received (2 in each eye). I've also had laser surgery for the detached retina and glaucoma, and was told how lucky I am in my overall outcome. Mine has been in remission for probably 15 years now, and although it 'probably' won't flare again, there is no guarantee. I continue to worry about detached retina in the other eye and now cataracts have begun to form much earlier than a person with normal eyes, which as I understand it will not be the 'simple' surgery for me that it is for normal eyes (always the potential complications, which I've come to expect will happen to me because they always do!). I used the steroid drops (and many pills) for years, but I'm not sure what the current standard of treatment is anymore, as I'm only actively treated for the glaucoma at this point. I continue to have regular visits with my retinal specialist and wouldn't take the chance of missing something by not continuing to go. Good luck to both of you.
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ReplyDelete