Friday, February 17, 2012

Rosacea of the eye . . . .

Rosacea is a chronic condition which is characterized by a facial redness. Pimples can sometimes be part of the definition. Treatments such as topical steroids can aggravate the situation.

Rosacia primarily affects Caucasians but can also affect people of other ethnicities. It affects primarily women although men can suffer from it as well.

Rosacea usually begins as a redness on the central area of the face across the cheeks, nose or forehead but can also affect the neck, chest, ears, scalp and the eyes. There are four types of classified rosacea.

Erythematotelangiectatic rosacea - A permanent redness with a tendency to flush and/or blush easily. It is also common to have small blood vessels visible close to the surface of the skin. There is sometimes a burning or itching sensation.

Papulopustular rosacea - Some permanent redness with red bumps and possibly some postules that can be misidentified as acne. These usually last 1-4 days.

Phymatous rosacea - This type is usually associated with the enlargement of the nose, known as  rhinophyma. This subtype can cause thickening of the skin, irregular surface nodularities and enlargement.

Occular rosacea - Causes red, dry, irritated eyes and eyelids. Other symptoms are itching, feeling of foreign objects being present and burning.

About fourteen years ago, my husband was diagnosed with iritis in his left eye. At first the doctor thought it was pink eye, then they thought it was a foreign object. They finally came to the conclusion that it was iritis. They prescribed a steroid eye drop and about three times a year, he has had to use these to stop the pain, swelling, itching and burning. It usually lasts for about a week, after starting the drops.

Since he has changed over to the VA for medical care, he learned from the eye doctor that he has rosacia. Treatment will consist of warm compresses, for at least two minutes, a prescription for artificial tears to help wash out the eye, and at last resort, another prescription for a steroid eye drop.
I was amazed that they were able to find the reason for his continuous eye problem.

My mother had chronic iritis so badly that she almost lost her eyesight in her right eye. I remember the shades being pulled that summer, to stop the sun from coming into the house as her eye wouldn't dilate properly. The eye doctors back then didn't know why she got chronic iritis or really how to treat it. Mother got better but her eye never did heal to the point of being able to dilate and she had several laser surgeries, years later, to stop bleeding because of the trauma.

My niece, at the age of 18, was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her eye. The size of a pin head, it looked like a freckle and the eye doctor decided he'd better have it checked further. She successfully had it removed.

The whole point of this is, we take our eyes for granted. We don't think that things can happen to the eye. It isn't talked about or discussed. But our eyesight is really pretty fragile. Our eyes can be affected just as any part of our bodies can, by disease or injury.

So take care of your eyes. They are the only ones you will have in this lifetime. You may need to wear glasses, like I do, and gripe about it, but think of how you would feel not seeing anything!

Your eyes are a precious gift. Remember that, please.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Have you ever been to Wales? It is a small but beautiful country. ...

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ( listen)) is a large village and community on the island of Anglesey in Wales, situated on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. This village has the longest place name in Europe and one of the longest place names in the world. The short form of the village's name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, also spelled Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll. It is commonly known as Llanfair PG or Llanfairpwll.According to the 2001 census, the population of the community is 3,040, 76% of whom speak Welsh fluently; the highest percentage of speakers is in the 10–14 age group, where 97.1% are able to speak Welsh. It is the fifth largest settlement on the island by population.
Visitors stop at the railway station to be photographed next to the station sign, visit the nearby Visitors' Centre, or have 'passports' stamped at a local shop. Another tourist attraction is the nearby Marquess of Anglesey's Column, which at a height of 27 metres (89 ft) offers views over Anglesey and the Menai Strait. Designed by Thomas Harrison, the monument celebrates the heroism of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey at the Battle of Waterloo.
The long form of the name is the longest officially recognised place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world, being 58 letters in length (51 letters in the Welsh alphabet, where "ch", "ng" and "ll" count as single letters).
The name means: [St.] Mary's Church (Llanfair) [in] the hollow (pwll) of the white hazel (gwyngyll) near (goger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrndrobwll) [and] the church of [St.] Tysilio (llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo goch).
This village was originally known as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (and is sometimes still referred to as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll) and was given its long name in the 19th century in an attempt to develop the village as a commercial and tourist centre (see Significance of the name below). Today the village is still signposted as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, marked on Ordnance Survey maps as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll and is known to locals as Llanfairpwll or simply Llanfair.The name is also seen shortened to Llanfair PG, which is sufficient to distinguish it from the many other Welsh villages with Llanfair in their names. Other variant forms use the full name but with tysilio mutated to dysilio, and/or with a hyphen between drobwll and llan. In Welsh, the initial Ll may be mutated to a single L in some contexts.
The village's long name cannot be considered an authentic Welsh-language toponym. It was artificially contrived in the 1860s to bestow upon the station the honour of having the longest name of any railway station in Britain; an early example of a publicity stunt. The village's own web site credits the name to a cobbler from the local village of Menai Bridge. According to Sir John Morris-Jones the name was created by a local tailor, whose name he did not confide, letting the secret die with him.
The eponymous St. Mary's Church.The village was originally known as 'Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll' "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel." 'Pwllgwyngyll' was the name of the original medieval township where the village stands today.
The village is split into two smaller villages, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-uchaf (Upper Llanfairpwllgwyngyll) the original part of the village and Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-isaf (Lower Llanfairpwllgwyngyll) the newer area nearer the railway station. These are occasionally referred to as Pentre Uchaf and Pentre Isaf (Upper Village and Lower Village) respectively.