| Understanding Uveitis from a parent who is attempting to understand |
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| Not being medically savvy, I was asking Anna's pediatric opthamologist (Dr. Carl Frankel*, who has offices in Harrisburg and York, PA) to explain what he sees when he sees inflammation in my daughter's eyes. I am a visual learner, and I understand things better if I can SEE what someone means. He drew something like the picture shown below. (I redrew it using Microsoft's Paint software.) It is basically a cross section of the eye. See the figure at the bottom of the page for a more accurately and more comprehensive labeled picture of the eyeball. |
| I'm going to explain things backwards, here. The eclipse labeled "C" is the lens of the eye. The area indicated by "B" is an area called the aqueous chamber, which is constantly filled with a clear fluid. I have "A" pointing to little specks, which are actually white blood cells which are present when there is inflammation present in the eye. If there is no uveitis, there would be no specks in the fluid, and the eyes (fluid in the aqueous chamber) would be "clear". |
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Dr. Frankel likened it to when you're in a movie theater, and you look up to see the beam of light projecting the picture onto the screen. We see specks (dust), and many times a haze. That's similar to what he sees when he looks in Anna's eyes. He sees white blood cells (the specks) and some haze (which is protein) in the aqueous chamber. Opthamologists use a range from one to four to indicate how much inflammation is present, one being less and four being more. When uveitis was first seen in Anna's eyes, her levels were 2 in the right eye and 1 in the left eye. After ten days of using fluorometholone drops four times a day, her levels are 1 in the right eye and a trace of inflammation in the left eye. (March 22, 2001) |
| Have a great day! |
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| Anna's JRA Story/Saga I try to keep it updated. |
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| Looking for more information on uveitis? Try www.uveitis.org You will find great information by Dr. Stephen Foster, and great support for parents and kids. They even have support group meetings, although I don't make the eight-hour trip to attend them! |
| *Update: We changed ophthamologists for Anna in the spring of 2002. She now sees Dr. Dean Bonsall at the Hershey Medical Center. |
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