Red eyes

[ch1982]

Hi, I have now had quite red, hot, uncomfortable eyes for over a month. I’ve been to the hospital and first they gave me antibiotic drops for a week (in case it was an infection) which did nothing. Went back and they said they couldn’t see any inflammatory cells so they didn’t think it was uveitis and that I have very dry eyes. This has come on quite suddenly. My eyes were always a bit dry but never red every day. I’m on immunosuppressants so I wonder if they have caused the very dry eyes? I wear contacts but haven’t worn them much recently and my eyes are still red wearing glasses. Could it be a kind of low level uveitis? I’ve been using artificial tears constantly and they make no difference. One eye is worse than the other and I feel like the sight is not as good as it was in that eye now. Any ideas? They are a little better if I’ve had a lot of sleep the night before but this is rarely possible.

[Shankly73]

Same for me Iv got high pressures in my eyes and inflammation but they reckon it's not uveitis been given same artificial tears and cream for night blood shot eyes which is getting worse got to go back in 6 weeks and had a call from rheumatologist after 3 months check my bloods showing kidney function is really low been told to drink loads of water and go for bloods again next week Iv recently started on 6 Myfenax a day wonder if it's that ? X

[gillianTS]

Usually immunosuppressants help dry eye, I have Blepharitis posterior eyes diagnosed by the optician, ruled out uveitis plus I'm taking Prednisolone which would help apparently. I would suggest you get your eyes checked by optician, I got prescribed eye gel 2 types in tubes I don't get on well with them so reverted back to a good eye drop called systane dry eye relief. My eyes have also improved more since I stopped taking Omeprazole I was getting huge amounts of abdominal swelling which has now thankfully stopped now I removed this tablet. I used to wear contact lenses all the time for years and years and got dry eye then and was advised to use as hot as I could stand flannel over my eyes for 5 minutes and then gently squeeze together the upper and then the lower eye lid rims several times and do this a couple of times a day, you should find this comforting, it stimulates the oils in your eye lids to moisturise your eyes, these are what are not working correctly causing you dry eye so if you can get these stimulated and working properly again you are better off than having to rely on drops forever. Had laser eye treatment in 2013, I had to stop using contact lenses 10 years prior to this because of dry eye the pores that produce the oils had debris building in them which irritated my eyes and built up on the contact lenses even daily disposable one.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Gillian

[swanseakev]

Hi ch1982,

I have had really bad problems similar to yourself

I started about 9 months ago...very sore eyes, felt like i had stones in them

Was referred by my optician to eye dept in hospital where i was told that i have very very dry eyes...i was prescribed hylo forte eye drops ..which did nothing i was then put on Xailin Ha eye drops which were a bit better

I use these every hour...

in the last 2 months my left eye was very bad and my rhuemy sent me to emergency eye clinic at hospital where they discovered an ulcer on my eye , i was treated with steroid eyedrops which cleared it up

Only last week i had a burst blood vessel in both eyes which was both painful and didnt look the best

My local hospital are great and keeping close tabs on me as the eye consultant and Rhuemy are of the opinion its all probably linked with this Behcets

My rhuemy is hoping Humira will help eyes when i resume back on it....had to stop after 2 injections due to other issues

Hope you find relief

Kev

[gillianTS in reply to swanseakev]

Hi Kev

That sounds awful and very painful. Makes me wonder when spoke to my rheumatologist about my eyes being continually very sore nothing was said about seeing a optician in the eye dept at the hospital I simply had to make my own appointment with a high street optician who had heard of Behcet's but did not know too much about the disease other than uveitis and said he did not think I had this but my taking prednisolone should help.

Hope your eyes are feeling much better now it must have been quite scary.

Gillian

[swanseakev]

Hi Gillian

Thanks for your reply, as you know this dry eyes is very painful and annoying

As i said my Rhuemy and his specialist nurse are marvellous and were very concerned when the eye problems first started

As he believes it is all connected and the eye involvement is concerning

At least its being well managed at the moment by both specialists

Cheers

Kev

[lovenothate]

Hi all,

I’ve been reading this thread with interest. I know that ‘uveitis’ is the officially recognised eye issue in Behçets, but I’ve had schleritis twice and ulcers on the eye ball twice, all at different times too. I think that Behçets affects the eyes in many more ways than is widely acknowledged.

Good wishes to everyone,

Will 🙂

[ch1982]

Thanks for the replies. My eyes have finally cleared up by themselves, interestingly, only after the recent work stress in my life has reduced. I wrote to the COE and they said it may have been an allergy, over-use of contacts (even though I stopped wearing them the moment my eyes got red and they remained red for over a month wearing just glasses) or dryness. All very odd....

[ch1982]

To add, they also didn’t think the immunosuppressants would cause dry eyes.