As my AS story began with my right eye, what's been happening makes sense, but I still want to relay:

My right eye, once in a while, gets a sharp pain. I've also noticed it's been twitching furiously at times. The weirdest thing, though, is that I see black circles with bright light around them in both eyes, especially early in the morning when I'm waking up. It happens if/when I blink. I found some info on PVD--posterial vitreous detachment--and it's disturbing to say the least. It's a symptom of several forms of arthritis, AS included.

What should one do in this case? See an eye specialist, and then.....

All these things to worry about.

Hi Ina - Yes. Go see an ophthalmologist. Get eyes totally checked out - all the diagnostics, including an OCT (the OCT does a great check on the retina and the back of the eye, more so than practically any other machine). Get your peripheral vision checked out as well - visual fields test.

Take care them eyes!

Hi Ina, please do get to an ophthalmologist ASAP. If you have the eye problem most commonly associated with AS, anterior uveitis, also called iritis, this is extremely important. I've never heard of posterior vitreous detachment being closely associated with AS, but that said, I'm just a patient and if this is new information, then I'm glad for it. The information, I mean, not your pain and discomfort. Also, when I googled it, I found a reference to it on the Spondylitis Association website. I have more research to do, it seems.

What this does is underscore the importance, especially as people living with AS, of paying attention to our bodies, to our eyes in this case, and going to an expert when something like this happens. Please go to an ophthalmologist as soon as you can get in. Your eyes are nothing to hesitate about.

And welcome to KA.

Hugs,

I ditto Molly and Kat. Get them checked out. Now I have more research to do on it as I have had problems with one eye.

I hope you have already called your Opthalmologist. You really don't want to take any chances at all with your eyes. My eyes are pretty beat up from chronic Iritis, Uveitis, BEB and now Glaucoma. I have lost a lot of vision in left eye from CNS disease activity. My right eye has the high pressure.

One thing about the strange things you are seeing; I have had optic migraines that present and strange lights, colors, etc. with no headache pain. I have even lost my vision for a while from them. An Optho can rule this in or out also.

Please, please get them seen about and let us know.

Blessings.
Possi

Thanks, everyone! I have an eye appt tomorrow at 10:20a.m. and I'll let you know what the results are!

I.

Hi Ina, I'm glad you have an appointment. Please let us know how it goes. Good luck.

Hugs,

Well, I had my eye appointment this morning, and what I thought was going on, actually IS going on: PVD (posterior vitreous detachment).

The interesting thing is, though, that I have that, which is typically an inherited condition rather than one associated with AS. However, there also seems to be some other stuff going on with my eyes possibly as a result of AS.

The eye doctor has two sister, both of whom have MS but one ALSO has Lupus, so she is familiar with autoimmune symptoms. The bottom line is this, I was told:

If you have things going on in the eyes, bi-laterally, then it has to do with the brain, not the eyes. So, if you're seeing flashes or arcs in both eyes at the same time, it's a form of migraine. It can be caused by the neck, where something is pinching off the artery supplying blood to the brain which controlls the eyes. If you have a headache that originates in the upper part of the neck where the head is 'attached,' and the eyes are bi-laterally involved, then that could be due to AS. PVD is not painful, so the eye pain I'm having (the short, stabbing pain in the left eye every once in a while) is possibly due to AS or something else, as she didn't see any active inflammation in the eyes.

Upon reading about PVD, a few websites do mention that one cause of the condition could be eye inflammation, so I suppose if your eye inflammation is a result of--or related to--AS, then there's your culprit. Here is a link to a post on the SAA forum in 2010: Spondylitis Association of America

In either case, I was told that I was too young to have this happen, and it could be a combination of heredity and inflammation that has caused this, as it's been going on for a while. I am not to do any kind of activities that would cause gravity to pull the eye down forward. So, no bending over to pick up my pencil (bend at the knee!), no lifting anything heavy, etc.

Not what I was hoping to hear today, but at least now I know what's going on.

I am so glad you got it checked out. I see my Optho real often right now for the same symtoms. They are watching for vitreous detachment. I didn't know that about migraines. When they diagnosed mine, I was only having it in the right eye. The right eye is the one that I have had most problems with. Right now I am treating it for very high pressure.

Do everything they tell you to protect that eye. :o)

Blessings.
Possi