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Cataracts from Iritis + Steroid Treatment or Something Else Entirely?

I got diagnosed with Iritis about 4-5 weeks ago and have since been on steroid eye drops (as well as pupil dilators which I finished a couple weeks back).

I started off on steroid eye drops once every hour for one week, then reducing to every 2 hours, then 4 x daily, 3 x daily, and now I'm on 2 x daily.

I last saw the eye doctor 5 days ago and she said I'd made great progress, and that the majority of the inflammation had gone (despite my mild eye pains last weekend) and said that my eye basically looks fine... though I need to continue tapering the steroid drops over the next couple weeks before returning to the docs.

However twice since then, I've woke up in the morning and found the vision out of my Iritis eye has been tinted yellow. The second time this happened was this morning and lasted for about 45 minutes before suddenly returning to normal. I noticed this the most when looking out of the window or at my computer screen, or at my white ceiling / walls.

Once my colour vision returned to normal, I could then see faint white specks moving about in some kind of jerky circular motion when I looked at white / bright things. This lasted for about 5-10 minutes. I googled 'floaters' and they seem to be very different to what I saw.

Then my vision went back to normal, however I was left with a headache for a few hours which left me once I'd had a paracetamol.

Does this sound like something to worry about? It certainly doesn't seem normal. But I've been the eye doctors 5 times in the last month and my eye has been getting steadily better. I've brought a few other things up and they've said it's all to be expected (e.g. blurry vision etc).

Also I can't find anything online that sounds like what I've experience lately, and doesn't seem like Iritis symptoms.

The only thing it looks like it could be, is cataract formation due to steroid treatment. However that only seems to be caused by long-term steroid use and not just a few weeks. As well as that, would cataract formation symptoms last only for an hour and then suddenly return to normal??

The most similar thing I've found online would be issues with blood pressure, which probably would explain a lot seeing as I've been so busy / exhausted / sleep deprived lately... but who knows

Reply 1

TashTLM

Please stop googling and go back to your eye doctor! The googling will do nothing to allay your fears but the eye doctor (opthalmologist?) will be able to investigate or reassure.

Reply 2

dannyj88

I could really do with holding fire for another 5 days before going back to be honest :/ I have so much going on at the minute and my ambitions have already suffered considerably over the course of the last month with all these hospital visits.

Thankfully my vision was normal this time when I woke this morning, let's just hope it stays that way!

If this happens again or any other wierd stuff, then I'll be straight back to the hospital, as my eyesight is more important to me than my ambitions after all

Reply 3

dannyj88

actually I think I may go back to the doctors tomorrow morning, something called 'Central serous retinopathy' sounds a bit similar to what I've had and can be the result of steroid medication... better safe than sorry!