[snelsen]

#1064991

Hi airborn, I don’t have a lot of time right now, but I did read over the thread of posts, including my own.
In summary, Graves’ and TED are different. Some us are hammered with both situations, myself included.
My TED has been fierce. You will see at the bottom of this post the surgeries I have had. In brief summary, I think you should be seeing a neuro-opthamologist, their great purpose is to do some color testing and visual fields by the machine (not y wiggling fingers) If it does get crowded around the eye with swelling and bigger muscles, there can be pressure onthe optic nerve (as happened to me.) One of the first signs of that is seeing a difference in colors, and the first color to look more dull is red. This does not happen to many people with TED, but if it does, there needs to be more room in the ornit, so the optic nerve is not compressed permanently, which results in loss of vision. For this, I had an orbital decompression to make more room in the orbit and take the pressure off the optic nerve. I also had a left field cut (blind spot) in my left eye, which I did not even realize I had.

Regarding strabismus- I had double vision looking ahead and up. Terrible. Over the time I was seeing the neuro/ey doc, I was also having measurements at the eye doc who does strabismus surgery. Determining when the active phase (when eyes are changing every day) to the inactive (cold) phase is kind of a crap shoot. But basically, when the measurements remain somewhat consistent, then it is time for WONDERFUL, MARVELOUS strabismus surgery!! It is an easy surgery, frequently the docs who do it, have a large pediatric practice, too, for lots of kids have strabismus surgery if they need it.
YOu need to find one who "does" adults. He moved the muscles of my eyes, so that I could look ahead and not see double. I can look up about 40% and see a single image. It is much much better. Some of these offices have a new machine called a Hess screen test to measure the diplopia (double vision) to get as accurate measurements as possible wehn they do the surgery. Here’s a reference. http://aoj.uwpress.org/content/56/1/166.abstract

But my big thought for you is that surgery is a wonderful option for double vision. And prisms helps some people too. I con’t know where you live, but if you tell me, or send a PM, i will ask my docs in Seattle to provide a couple names for your location. they all see each other at meetings.
Sorry about the smoking. There is not much doubt that it exacerbates TED. Maybe when you see some improvement in your eyes, you will stop again. IT is a tough thing to have this monkey on your back, I am sorry. Any help can get with that is probably a very good decision for you to consider.

[Author]

Posts