During elementary school, my sister’s teacher scheduled a consultation with my parents. At this meeting, this caring educational professional talked with my parents about my sister’s potential eye problems. My teacher felt my sibling couldn’t see the board in the front of the classroom. My parents sat down with my sister and talked with her about seeing an eye doctor. Thankfully, my sister visited a trusting optician who knew how to successfully work with younger kids. After receiving her new pair of glasses, she began excelling in school. On this blog, I hope you will discover ways to prepare kids for successful appointments at an optician’s office. Enjoy!
Being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder can be extremely alarming and worrisome. Unfortunately, people who have one autoimmune disorder often develop secondary problems as well. If you haven't had your eyes examined since being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, you might want to change that. Here's why.
Autoimmune Diseases Don't Always Stay in One Place
Autoimmune diseases aren't restricted to just one area of the body. Your immune system has an impact on the entire body and travels everywhere through the body, which means that when it's malfunctioning, as it does with autoimmune diseases, it can damage cells anywhere. This includes the eyes.
Autoimmune Disease of the Eye
The most common autoimmune disorder of the eyes is uveitis. This is a condition where, similar to other parts of the body, the immune system starts attacking healthy cells that make up the eye. This can cause pain, vision blurriness, and if it's left untreated, even partial or full blindness.
What to Expect from Screening and Treatment
The good news is that getting screened for uveitis is an easy process, and treatment options do definitely exist. For starters, being screened for uveitis requires seeing an eye doctor. Your eye doctor will look at the surface of your eyes as well as the interior of your eyes by peering through your pupils with an ophthalmoscope. If they see signs of cellular damage or inflammation, that's a fairly strong sign that you have uveitis. Once a uveitis diagnosis has been made, your doctor can set up a treatment plan for you. Typically this involves taking steroid eye drops. Steroids slow down the immune system's response, which can be quite useful when it's overactive and attacking healthy cells. By giving you eye drops instead of a pill, it also limits the side effects of the steroids.
If you take your steroid eye drops regularly and see your eye doctor for check-ups on a regular schedule, you can expect your vision to be just fine. You may need to keep up this treatment regimen for the rest of your life if your autoimmune disorder doesn't go into remission, but overall, it's a small price to pay for healthy vision for the rest of your life. If you haven't done so already, make an appointment with an eye doctor to find out if you have damage to your eyes from your autoimmune disorder.
Share7 May 2020
