Re: Appointment with Opthomalogist

April 8, 2011

Don't be surprised if the rheumy tells you that he doesn't need to be seen for

his eyes for a year. Good news/bad news with systemic. Good news is that it is

very rare to cause uveitis. Bad news is that it stinks in every other way.

(n, 22, systemic)

On Apr 8, 2011, at 7:10 AM, sharon.peabody wrote:

> Hi all!

>

> Just wanted to drop in and say hi this week (sorry I've been a little more

absent this week) and let y'all know that we had our appointment with the Ped.

Opthomal. yesterday.

>

> I really love this opthomal. She's treated both of our other two children (my

oldest has inherited some other eye issues that I have - the middle is so far

clear... knock on wood). All I had to tell her was that we were there because of

the JRA diagnosis, and she knew everything that she wanted to do, including the

slit lamp test. He was originally supposed to see her at 2 years for the

screening for the other eye issues, but was so glad we brought him in now.

>

> Much to 's displeasure she was able to do the slit lamp test - that was a

lot of protest on his part but she got a decent look at each eye. She saw now

evidence of any issues yet, thank goodness! While that doesn't guarantee that it

won't crop up, in most of the cases she sees, if it's not already apparent at

her first exam, it often doesn't crop up later. So while we're not out of the

woods yet, I left that appointment feeling much better (especially since there

was no sign of the other familiar issues yet, either). She is also very familiar

with our ped rheum and feels that we're in good hands there (she was also

familiar with the one at JHU where we got a second opinion and said we'd be in

good hands with either). Typically she watches her JRA kids every 3 months, but

because there's no issue showing just yet, she is going to defer to our ped

rheum as to whether he'd like her to see every 3 months or every 4 months.

>

> So I can't thank everyone here enough for not only encouraging us to get him

screened sooner rather than later but also for what to ask her to do. Even

though she already had a good protocol in place for the JRA evaluation, it

helped to go in to that appointment armed with the knowledge of what others have

had done.

>

> So now it's waiting until next week for his next appt with the ped rheum and

see what he thinks and do bloodwork.

>

> Thanks again everyone!

> Sharon (, 17 months old, systemic)

>

April 8, 2011

Hi .

Thanks so much for the heads up on that! It's good to know. Even if our ped

rheum says to go 1 year, I'll defer then to the ped opthmol. - even if we have

to pay out of pocket. She certainly seemed to want to see him at the 3x/year

interval. Given that there's the familial history of other issues, I'd probably

not be comfortable to go that long.

And I didn't realize that uveitis is rare in systemic. I've got tons more

learning to do.

Thanks again!

Sharon (, 17 months old, systemic)

>

> > Hi all!

> >

> > Just wanted to drop in and say hi this week (sorry I've been a little more

absent this week) and let y'all know that we had our appointment with the Ped.

Opthomal. yesterday.

> >

> > I really love this opthomal. She's treated both of our other two children

(my oldest has inherited some other eye issues that I have - the middle is so

far clear... knock on wood). All I had to tell her was that we were there

because of the JRA diagnosis, and she knew everything that she wanted to do,

including the slit lamp test. He was originally supposed to see her at 2 years

for the screening for the other eye issues, but was so glad we brought him in

now.

> >

> > Much to 's displeasure she was able to do the slit lamp test - that was

a lot of protest on his part but she got a decent look at each eye. She saw now