[Anonymous]

#1152646

Hi Ursula, welcome to the board. Your English is great. I wish my Swiss German was as good. I have many relatives living in and around Basel, Switzerland. Would this disease be called Basedow to them? I have been writing to them referring to the fact I have Graves, maybe I should call it Basedow and they would understand better.

As far as your eyes. Have you been to an Ophthalmologist? The first time I had this disease actively about ten years ago one eye had the stare look. After taking medication for a some time my levels became normal again. At this time my Ophthalmologist did eyelid surgery on the eye that was bulging. After the surgery my eyes looked completely normal. You should ask your Ophthalmologist about eyelid surgery.

Wishing you the best. Take care. SAS

[Anonymous]

#1152647

Thank you for the welcome! I’m not 100% sure, but I do
think that it’s called Basedow in Switzerland too. I
know it took me a long time until I figured out that
it’s the same.

I have been to an Ophtalmologist only once to do the
“eye measuring thing” (sorry, I don’t know the correct
word). When I asked him and all my other doctors, none
of them mentioned it could be corrected with surgery.
They said it would get better with time, but wouldn’t
go away completely. That was 5 years ago, my thyroid
levels had been back to normal 2 months later. The
strange thing is that my right eye (which didn’t have
any damage) became “smaller” with medication, with no
change on the other eye. That makes for a very, very
strange looking woman in the mirror. :}

Thank you for the info, I definitely will ask my doctor
again when I have my next appointment.

All the best to you,
Ursula

As far as your eyes. Have you been to an
Ophthalmologist? The first time I had this
disease actively about ten years ago one eye had the
stare look. After taking medication
for a some time my levels became normal again. At this time my Ophthalmologist did
eyelid surgery on the eye that was bulging. After the surgery my eyes looked
completely normal. You should ask your Ophthalmologist about eyelid surgery.

[Anonymous]

#1051851

First I have to say, please forgive me my English mistakes, I live in Vienna, Austria, so German is my native language. I’m serious with my question, I’ve been living with Graves’ (or Basedow, as we call it here) for 5 years now and I’m still shocked when I get a short glimpse of myself in the mirror. I find myself getting more and more lonely because I just *can’t* take any more people laughing at me, staring back (ROFL!), talking behind my back etc. It’s especially hard all through the winter, since it looks really silly if you wear sunglasses when there’s no sun out. I still wear them if I absolutely have to go out, it’s better people make jokes because of my wearing sunglasses than my big left eye. The worst moment this year was when I had to make passport pictures (I want to visit an online friend in the USA later this year). It was very hard to look at my new passport and to be honest I can’t even look forward to this special trip because I’m so afraid to show my passport when I enter the US. I guess what I want to say is that this disease is totally controlling my life and since I’m only 33 I very much want to get rid of that “shy/embarrassed/head down” lifestyle. Any others out there with Bette Davis eyes?

[Author]

Posts