Anyone ever have Iritis?

Hello everyone I have a serious question. I was diagnosed with Iritis in September of 2005 I followed all the treatments that my eye doctor gave to the T. Now 4 months later I have Iritis again. I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has had Iritis before or after your RNY. I am becoming very paranoid, I think everything that goes wrong with my body is the cause of me having my RNY. To date all my bloodwork has been normal, I have had no complications since surgery which was on March 3,2005. I am just looking for some information. I googled Iritis but it really doesn't tell me much about it but the general. My eye Dr. is sending me for some bloodwork to see if there is anything wrong with my levels. If anyone has had Iritis or is going through it know please respond. Any info is appreciated. Thanks ] Tyshea 315/189/150

Hi! I'm sorry you are having problems with Iritis, it's really painful I know. I have chronic Iritis in both eyes. Sometimes the left eye, sometimes the right, but never both at the same time (thank goodness!). I have had all the tests and my eye doctor says some people just have it for "no particular reason". I had it before my RNY 3 1/2 years ago. Just stay in the dark, wear sunglasses, whatever it takes for you to be comfortable. Use the steroid eye drops. I don't know of anything else you can do to help it go away any faster. A cold compress helps me feel a little better. I hope you feel better now. Sandy

Dear Tyshea and Sandra, I have HAD iritis for many years. First in one eye, and then in the other. I was diagnosed many, many years ago (I'm thinking about 20) and here's what I have learned. I was told if I had it in one eye, it was just an allergic reaction, but if I had it in two eyes it was a precursor to rheumatoid arthritis and/and it might leave me in a wheelchair. Well, hearing that I wanted to throw myself out a window. Needless to say, I didn't and I'm glad. I further researched the "hell" out of this reading everything I could find and here's what I know now. Iritis is an allergic reaction to something in the body. They don't know what and they don't know why...however, after going from doctor to doctor and being asked some very strange questions I was able to deduce this... At the time of diagnosis, I was on one of my diets and was eating an enormous amount of "nightshade" vegetables -- tomato, potato, eggplant, green & red peppers, paprika, and tobacco (a former smoker, too.) There is a poison in these vegetables called "solanine" which stores in the body and never leaves. The amount we ingest on a yearly basis, if fed to a horse all at once, would kill it. That's how toxic a substance it is. Anyway, after many doctors kept asking me if I'd ever lived in the San Joaquim valley, because there is a huge incidence of iritis there, I did some more research and found out that -- guess what, that's where they grow all the nightshade vegetables. I immediately took myself off every one of them, and I mean COMPLETELY... and voila! no more Iritis. Just like that. I used the drops to get rid of the outbreak and kept myself nightshade free for about 3 to 6 months and only very, very slowly reintroduced them one at a time making sure there was lots of time in between eating them again. If I start eating them a lot, and get "stressed" out, I'll get an outbreak. But I would say over the past ten years...I've only had 2 or 3 "mild" recurrences. Obviously, I'm not a doctor, although I wanted to be one when I was younger and this is all anecdotal evidence, but it did work for me. And I think I learn more from people on these boards then the medical community. Of course, when I told the doctors what I had found out, they "poo-pooed" it, but I've been able to keep myself "iritis-free" for quite a while and you can't argue with that. So I hope this helps you both. I'm available by phone, if you want to talk. Just email me and I'll get back to you ASAP. I know how painful this is and how scary, too. Warmest regards, Fern B. (aka Dr. B)