[braddpa]

#1074434

Hi Everyone,
These posts have helped me tremendously. I had OD surgery on Marh 11th and have returned to work today March 23rd. I am lucky to have a job where I do not require my eye sight to involve seeing fine details. I have some blurry and double vision. I am not driving myself yet. The steriod eye cream caused alot of the blurriness, but now I only put it in at night as I go to bed. When they took my patches off my eyes the day after my surgery my eyesight was the best in years- then once the swelling started and I started using the eye cream it declined…but, it is slowly evolving. Trying to get my eyes to work together is the challenge…I exercise my eye muscles as often as I can and use the natural tear drops to keep them moist. Also if you are going to have out-paitent surgery ( I had surgery at 8:00 am and went home around 5:oo pm) consider getting a prescription or something for nauseous…I had a bad late reaction to the anesthia and had to call for something in the middle of the night. And remember to not bend your head down !!
Oh and believe in the peas…those quart size bags of peas were perfect and worked great for the swelling. All in all not too bad. Hopefully the double vision and my depth perception problems will clear up soon. I am already much better than before. Lots of people who did not know abot my surgery assumed I just have a bad sinus/allergy infection. The swelling and bruising were not too bad- thanks to my peas. I still have some numbness around my nose and under my left eye & upper lip (my worse side.) I know it may take a while to go away… and thanks to your posts, I am staying positive. The worse was dealing with the blurriness and boredom of not being able to do much for several days. I got a book on tape to listen to…wish I had got more than one.

Good luck to everyone going through this. We are survivors! Remember to exercise those eye muscles.

Patty

[cynjeep89]

#1074435

Judy,

I just read that you are having your surgery tomorrow and wanted to wish you the best and to let you know that I will have you in my thoughts. I hope your recovery is a quick one and that we hear from you as soon as you are feeling better.

Patty……the taped books is a wonderful idea. I wish I would have thought of that when I had my surgery since I love to read but had to put it on hold for a while after my surgery due to the double vision problems.

It sounds like you are doing well and have a great attitude….cool!!

[judy]

#1074436

Hello – Well I had the procedure march 24th no problems at all just 2 black eyes..
I was nervous but with all of you help I did feel better.. the pressure is gone no blurry vision,, thanks again for everybodys input,, I did tell my surgeon abouth utube video she found it very interesting..

Judy ” title=”Very Happy” />

[DianneW]

#1074437

Beena,

Most doctors recommend six months to a year. Talk to your doctor and see what he thinks. My eyes were showing good improvement in six months, but even more in a year.

If the drops are causing the lining of your eye to be more swollen then you might be having an allergic reaction to something in that med. I’ve had that problem with two different ones (where the prescription eye drops actually caused me chemosis: an inflammation of the lining of the eye). Talk to your doctor about that; perhaps he can change you to something else. That’s what my doctor did.

I suppose you’ve already seen the doctor by now and perhaps he’s done something to help you. I didn’t read your post until today, unfortunately. I’ve had things going on and haven’t been on the board much recently. Let us know how you’re doing.

Patty and Judy–glad to hear you’re both doing so well. Yes, those frozen peas are the greatest! I’ve had 9 surgeries with another one coming up later this month (to reconstruct a lower eyelid I lost to a complication 2 years ago) and I’ve used them every time, thanks to that suggestion from someone here on the board (probably Jake or his wife Jan). The numbness? Mine took around 9 months to clear up.

Please stick around and share your positive attitudes and support with the others who are following in our footsteps with this.

HUGS,

Dianne

[mdrn1]

#1074438

Hello….this is Pat’s mom again and I just wanted to let you know that Pat’s blog has been updated with a new picture of him. His blog is battlewithgravesdisease.blogspot.com. He looks so good compared to when he first started on his journey. The U-tube Pat’s Orbital Decompression Surgery has not been updated yet, but hopefully we will be able to do this soon.
He is doing well today. He did start to freak out about a month ago when one of his eyes started to get red and swell. He got ahold of the surgeon and he said it was probably just an eye infection and called in some medication for him. Cleared it right up. With all that he had been through, I never thought of a simple eye infection!
Hope you all are doing well.

Michelle

[Shazzer1976]

#1074439

Hi,

I’m reading these messages with interest! I am due to have orbital decompression done in a couple of weeks, so you can imagine I am swinging between excitement and mild terror of the whole procedure! These messages, though, all seem to be pretty positive.

Do you think I will be able to wear swimming goggles, contact lenses and eye make up after? Seems silly, I know, but I am looking forward to holding my head up and looking people straight in the face for a long time! (And swimming!) Some people are just mean – like a lady at a make-up counter who made a ‘stage whisper’ comment about ‘that huge eyeball’ or a technician in the optician’s who played ‘Pop-Eye the Sailorman’ on his mobile phone when I thought I would attempt contact lenses…I’ve since discovered heavy framed glasses are good for hiding things.

Has anybody had any negative affects on their sinuses? I’m a bit concerned about that because I like singing – thankfully not for a living, but it is still a pleasure to me!

Oh well, I’d love to hear from someone!

Best wishes,

Sharon

[elf]

#1074440

Hi Sharon,

"Mild terror" beforehand is right! But just one eye OD helped me tremendously with self-consciousness. (Still waiting for the other’s eye OD ::rolls eyes:. 4 months after, I’m doing my "finger test" daily (touching my closed eyes with fingers) – one sits way in, the other is still at the brow bone level, or a bit ahead. I know, silly behavior, but it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, – that it IS possible to reverse the "monstrous" look.

I can’t put the makeup on as yet, as the extra lid skin needs to be removed. Yes, I can wear swimming goggles. Don’t wear contact lenses, but can’t see why I wouldn’t be able to.

It was a bit scary right before the surgery, when you changed into the paper gown and the Dr drew on your eye… Then pretty much you didn’t feel anything until after you woke up… I needed Tylenol 2 for 4-5 days… My bruising was gone by the 10th day. The eye finally settles down after 3 or 4 months… Anything before that is too soon to tell.

I don’t notice any difference with my sinuses. But then again I don’t sing… Is your OD going to be endoscopic, through the sinuses? Then it’s more of painless and bloodless.

People who did OD on both eyes around the same time as me, were scared more (I thought that if something would go wrong with my eye, at least I would have the other). But now, it seems like they got the better deal – both eyes done for 4 months already, and they are on their way to lid correction, and then just writing this whole Graves eyes off! I on the other hand have to go through the OD again! And the lid surgery is moved more in the future, accordingly. So if you have bilateral OD, count your blessings!

Overall, I just love it. Even with just one eye done (which was a bit bigger eye though), my level of confidence went 89% up! (from 99% self-consciousness to 10% only!). It is amazing.

[Lerina]

#1074441

"DianneW":apviyzzx wrote:

Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m in tears after watching this, because I know so many brave people on this board who have been through what Patrick has, and it’s difficult to see someone so young have to deal with this too. At the same time, it makes me feel good to see him being helped with surgery. I’m sure your efforts in making this available will give hope to those who are still in the early stages of ophthalmopathy and fearful of the future. Please welcome Patrick to post on the board as well.[/quote:apviyzzx]
Hi DianneW – I have no idea how to post comments or reply to comments …. or anything ! I will see what happens once I click "go" after this comment. I had a sub total thyroidectomy in 2004 and then in 2005 I had the remainder of my thyroid removed. I lived in Africa and have recently moved to Australia – I have been told that I can have surgery on my eyes ! I am so chuffed because I am now SO over looking like a freak of nature – how do I put a picture on here to show you so that you can tell me what surgery you think I may need ? Thanks, Lerina

[Lerina]

#1074442

Hi ! Oh my word…. I am so happy I have found all you people and this site. I think I may have to have that eye decompression surgery. My problem is that I never ask the doctor any questions so I walk out of there pretty clueless. All I know is that I have proptosis and I dont know how bad or mild it is ? How do I put a picture on here to get you guys to comment ?

[Ski]

#1074443

Hi Lerina,

Firstly, we aren’t the people to decide which surgery you need ~ we can give you some basic guidelines (for example, if you’re going to have to do all the surgeries, you need to do them in this order: first decompression, second eye muscle surgery, last eyelid surgery), but in addition to that, a picture wouldn’t even give a qualified physician a good idea of what surgery you need. They’d need scans and physical examinations to determine where your issues lie and how best to correct them. The appearance can be created by many variations of dysfunction, so you need to see an ophthalmologist (preferably one that is associated with ASOPRS, here’s the link [url:sdsrwap0]http://www.asoprs.org[/url:sdsrwap0]), and ask them how best to proceed.

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