So here is the latest hiccup in my world. Although, as it turns out, it may be more than a hiccup.
Trying to ignore the many fine lines around my eye in this extreme close-up, pay close attention to the pupil of my eye.
Can you see the notch out of my pupil where the iris is larger on the left side of the pupil in this picture?
It is like I have an anime eye. Every girls dream right?
This is called synechia and it occurs when the iris adheres to either the cornea or the lens. It is the newest most exciting symptom in my repertoire. Luckily, I saw it right away and went to my eye specialist. He was amazed at the amount of distortion I was experiencing because I had so little inflammation in my uvea (which is in a part of the eye you can't see). But for two weeks I have been diligently putting both steroidal and dilating drops in my eye 6 times a day and yesterday I went back to the doctor for a check-up.
I was a bit scared because the synechia had not gone away or gotten better in any way (although my sweet daughter keeps insisting it looks better), and if I have persistent inflammation that is unaffected by the eye drops, they could eventually prescribe steroid injections in my eye. The thought of injections in my eye makes my stomach crawl. Yuck. I am pretty sure that constitutes as some kind of medieval torture.
The good news is, the doctor found absolutely no inflammation in my eye during this check-up and he stressed that even two weeks ago, when I first noticed this problem, there had been very little inflammation. So good news...
However...
The bad news is, my pupil could stay this way forever. He said that sometimes the pupil will return to its shape right away, sometimes it randomly returns to its original shape and sometimes it doesn't return at all. I wonder if I could obtain a contact to make the other eye symmetrical?
Right now I am still dilating that eye, so one pupil is large and misshapen and the other is normal, making the difference between the two even more noticeable. It can sometimes be hard for me to see things close to my face, so conversations can be a bit awkward, and being outside in bright light can be uncomfortable and disorienting, kind of like watching things through a sheet of water, so watching my daughter's soccer games, for instance, is exhausting, to say the least. However, I am able to drive, I think because the shelter of the car gives me enough shade.
I am self-conscious about it, so I want to point it out to everyone I talk to. I am not in pain, depressed or embarrassed by it, so if you are one of the few people who read my blog and see me in person, please ask to have a better look (that is, if you are interested, of course, if you aren't interested, I might make you take a look anyway). I'd much rather have it right out there in the open so we can have a good laugh about it.
Every doctor I've seen in the last 8 years has said I was a conundrum. I think they find me fascinating and I am sure my case will eventually end up in a medical journal somewhere. I sure wish I could say this made up for the stupidity and havoc these conundrum-inducing conditions have wrought upon my life. It has made me quite the arm-chair research assistant.