[vitoa420]

#1018799

Im getting eye muscle surgery on 12-18-09, cant wait, tired of the double vision. This will be my first since GRAVES came into my life. Wondering if anyone had it and can tell me what to look forward to. My surgeon is out of University of Med & Denistry NJ, NEWARK, I also went to NYU and the doctor had a good rep. As I understand the surgery is in two parts . First , I will be put under and the b ottom muscle of my left eye will be exposed, then I’m awaken and the eye gets set. The second part has me worried a tad – so if anyone could help? THANKS!

[Jake_George]

#1067217

Sure glad to help. The surgery is called strabismus. It is usually done by a pediatric eye surgeon. They have more experience.

I have had 5 strabismus surgeries over three hot phases of my eye disease. As you said you are put under a general and the eye muscle is exposed and a slip knot is put in, then the eye muscle is cut.

Then you are let to awaken and taken to the doctor’s office where you are normally seen to adjust the eyes. It is really simple, pain free and kind of amazing. The doctor will adjust the knot until the double vision is gone. The knot is tightened and clipped. That is it. Really simple.

I fretted over it like mad until I had the first one. It was cool to watch the double vision go away and then when the doctor tied the knot the double vision was GONE.

Recovery was even easier. I put in eye drops every two hours. Used frozen peas for an icepack and the discomfort from the tiny incision was only about two days. Do a search on strabismus to see more on the surgery.

Always glad to answer eye surgery questions. Dianne, Nancy and I have had just about any eye surgery in the books for Thyroid Eye Disease (TED) so any one of us can help to answer your questions.

[vitoa420]

#1067218

thanks for your responce i feel a little better.

[lakeview]

#1067219

Hi – I am waiting to go for strabismus surgery.. hopefully it will happen in the spring. I have heard it is relatively simple surgery. I have also heard there is only a 60% chance of it working the first time.
Jake – did it work only after the 5th time? How long did you wait for the next surgery?
I am hopeful that it will work after the first time for me…
Thanks!! And good luck for your surgery please me know how it goes…

[Jake_George]

#1067220

I had multiple hot phases where my eye muscles continued to scar and moved my eyes off center. The last two were because I had a three wall orbital decompression and when the eyes settled back into my head they moved off from center again and I had the last two to get the eyes as close to center as they could.

Because I had a few already they could only adjust my eye muscles so much. After decompression my eyes were eighteen degrees off center. After strabismus surgery they were only six degrees off center. I now wear ground in prisms in my glasses. Three diopter (degrees) in each eye and have no double vision with my glasses off.

When my glasses are off you can see I am slightly cross eyed, but with my glasses on that is not the case.

[lakeview]

#1067221

Jake… I am responding to your last post with a surprised question… why were they doing surgery on you when you were in the hot phase… isn’t that unusual.. or was it necessary since your optic nerve was jeopardized. I am curious because I was told I am to wait until I am in remission for surgery.
Thank goodness for prism glasses! I tell you I could not live without them right now, my eyes are so so bad.
Lakeview

[Bobbi]

#1067222

Hi, Lakeview:

I don’t think Jake meant to imply that the surgeries took place during the hot phase. They might have, I suppose, but strabismus surgery usually does not take place in a hot phase. Decompression might be done during a hot phase if the optic nerve is threatened, but strabismus surgery is usually held off until later. Notice Jake said he had multiple hot phases — and isn’t that just the pits!

[Jake_George]

#1067223

Bobbi’s right. I should have made that more clear. I had the surgerys after each hot phase was done.

And yes three hot phases were the pits. Bobbi, and Dianne saw me at my worst times. But then again when we saw each other the next conference they were happy to see the crossed eyes gone.

Due to personal reasons Jan I have not been able to make it to the past two conferences. We missed our friends, but life has returned to normal years ago for me and my writing and publishing have taken off and are taking most of my time now.

So you can see that after Graves’ and multiple eye surgeries life does get back to normal. I am glad to say I have had four books published, I am a partner in a publishing house and I get to read all submission to us for publication. My eyes work great and I can read without stress to my eyes.

I work full time as a civil servent for the Air Force, write, edit and am a partner in a publishing house. Also Jan and I run a home business for editing, copywriting and typing. So you can see things will get back to normal. Long gone are the days I had to sit in my car for half an hour to get the energy to simply walk into my house to the couch.

I have Graves and life is indeed good.

[Author]

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