Dr. Rosenbaum is a rheumy who also did his training in ophthalmology, so bonus for anyone with eye disease caused by Wegs! He does take issue with calling it Wegs ("it is GPA - we must be politically correct".) Just now thinking that with his name, he could be Jewish?? It was just kind of humorous during the office visit, but as I typed it, it made me wonder...
Anyway, he and his fellows/students were great. My eye pressure is really high in the eye that has scleritis - like 45 high. Yikes! And the other eye was around 30 at the visit. They checked it multiple times, with several different methods to make sure they were getting an accurate reading.
Now I'm on a couple of glaucoma drops to try and bring the pressure down to safe levels.
Dr. R is very knowledgeable about GPA. He was one of the pioneers in using Rituxan to treat scleritis and when I saw Dr. Koening in SLC on Monday, he talked about Dr. R and all the studies he had been involved in. There was definitely respect for him and likewise, from Dr. R towards Dr. K. I think they met earlier this year for the first time.
He is a proponent of rituxan therapy and also wants me to have maintenance doses at 6 month intervals. His dosing is a little more conservative than Dr. K's - Dr. R's concern is immunoglobulin levels, which I discussed with Dr. K. He is also concerned about the prednisone - I am now on a taper schedule; not quite as aggressive a taper as Dr. R wants but a little more aggressive than Dr. K's normal. All about balancing the good pred does with its horrific side effects.
So, if you are in the NW and have eye involvement, Dr. R is a great one to see. And they have orbital specialist at Casey that can deal with blocked lacrimal ducts, etc. I'm waiting to see if rituxan helps with mine, but Dr. R says there may be some structural damage.
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