Hey all,

     I just got back from the eye doctor today.  I told him about the family history of Fuch's and that I had been on Plaquenil and about the eye pain, blurriness, and severe extreme sensitivity to light.  They did an eye test, my eyes are still better than perfect, they did a color test, I passed, they did a Glaucoma test, that I guess was fine.  She dialated my eyes (I still can't quite see, so please excuse the mistakes LOL) and I waited for the doctor.  The doctor checked for Fuch's, good news - my corneas are fine!!!!  He then checked for any problems that can be caused by Plaquenil (a medicine I was on for Lupus, it helped a lot, but I was concerned about my eyes and stopped taking it in Feb.) he said Plaquenil can cause problems with the Retina in a small number of people, no problems there, and it can cause cateracts, no cateracts, WHEW!!!!!  I was so relieved.  I knew my Lupus could cause dry eye, I go through Artificial tears faster than bottled water, and I knew it could cause some sensitivity to light.  It turns out the dry eye can cause blurriness, eye pain, runny eyes, and the extreme sensitivity to light!  The doctor feels I'd be a good candidate for Restasis, it's an eye drop advertised on TV to help your eyes produce better tears and help with dry eye.  He said it works in about half of all of his patients with severe dry eye like mine.  He said it's very expensive and some patients can't tolerate the burning sensation.  He gave me a prescription and I haven't filled it yet, I still can't see to read so I came straight home.  I'll let you know how it goes when I get it filled, he said it can take up to 8 weeks to work, so we will see.  As for the Fuch's disease, there is no sign of it right now, however with a family history like mine he said I could develope it in 20-30 years.  I'm just glad that's not what's going on right now, and dry eye sounds simple enough, hopefully the drops will help, we'll see.  He said if they don't work we can try steriod drops to help also, but hopefully this will be the answer for me.  Thanks for all the prayers and support!!!

Michele

• eyes
• Dry
• Eye
• lupus