I had an appointment with my Rheumy at 4 this afternoon, just a normal routine visit that was made last November. On Monday I had a two text alerts from the hospital reminding me of my appointment today, never had one of those before and at first assumed it was an accidental double text. I was going to delete them yesterday and at the last minute thought I would check to see what they said exactly. One was for 4 today, the other 11.30! I called and was told it was a follow up with the Opthamologist!
After waiting nearly two hours past my appointment time I went in to see him, he was pleased the scleritis was pretty much gone from a combination of steroid drops and the Prednisolone I was prescribed to cover me while I'm off the Humira.
He was surprised I hadn't had my MRI head scan yet, so we went down to radiography to find out what was going on and was told I had an appointment for one at 2.15 that day! I was starving (good old steroids!) so we dashed home, stuffed ourselves with fast food and dashed back.
The MRI was weird and space-agey, I've only seen one on the TV before! I was also surprised how long it took, nearly half an hour just for my head to be scanned. I'm not the claustrophobic type but by the end I wanted out!
Luckily I didn't have to wait too long to see my Rheumy. He explained that the MRI and stopping the Humira was to investigate the slight chance the unusual looking nerve in my right eye might be from the Humira which can cause nerve demyelisation (MS). He was surprised about the scleritis as Humira usually corrects autoimmune eye problems. Also apparently Humira with most people works really well almost instantly. It barely had any effect on my massive flare up. I must be some sort of mutant. Anyway, pending blood tests and results from MRI I'm off the Humira until further notice, just relying on a reducing dose of Pred for now and back to see Rheumy in 3-4 weeks.
Rheumy also told me the hospital has a brand new appointment system that is much better than the old one though lots of people haven't been getting their appointments since it has been brought in!
I'm finally home now but every time I close my eyes all I can see is hospital corridors!
XXX
PS Rheumy told me scleritis is a very serious autoimmune problem that must be looked after quickly as eyes can get permanent damage from it -if you have a sore or achey eye don't just leave it, get it checked!