Hello laurajaneultranetca and others with iritis,

Thought I would share my story and how I think I might have gotten iritis... How long does it take to get over?

I had a root canal this summer that was done in two parts. It started on July 13th and ended the following Thursday. I also had ordered a bright light to try to treat seasonal depression, as i live in Michigan, and have thought that maybe I suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

I developed the bacteria clostridium in response to either the antibiotic clindamycin i was given for my tooth i had the root canal on or to swimming in a public man-made lake. (The pharmacist said that developing clostridium was a common reaction to the antibiotic.) I was given Flagyl, another antibiotic to get rid of the infection.

On Aug 8th, I saw my eye doctor and he diagnosed me with an accomodative spasm and intermittant iritis and gave me some eye drops (alocril). However, i went back a month later and still had eye pain and photophobia so gave me prednisolone (PredForte) eye drops. I used this for a week, stopped for a week, used for another 4 days, and have been using artificial tears since, trying to use on a frequent (every 2-4 hours)

However, i notice that i just don't seem the same and am wondering if i still have residual eye pain but have been hesitant to use steroid drops because of risk of glaucoma.

My guess to the cause of my iritis is that perhaps the bacteria (clostridium) circulated throughout my body in response to either the first antibiotic given or to picking it up swimming. Next (and I later found out that my eyes are more sensitive than other people's), the inflammation probably went to my eyes when i used the bright lite.

What are yours or others experience in how long iritis lasts? I am supposed to go for an eye check next Friday. The consensus i picked up from the eye doc is that my eyes will just take a while to get back to normal. I am using Zaditor 2x/day and still keeping up with artificial tears.

Please write back if you would like.

Scotty