[Anonymous May 28, 1997 at 12:56 pm Post count: 93172]

#1161333

Happy, happy, happy to hear your good news. I was fortunate not to have experiences major eye problems, but even with the few I did have, I feel for those of you who had such a difficult time in this area. Am so glad to hear your surgery was successful.

[Anonymous May 28, 1997 at 1:23 pm Post count: 93172]

#1161334

Hi Luci,
So glad to hear you are making a good recovery. Sorry you felt so ill for a few days, but now I’m sure you will march right through it.
Best of luck, health and happiness.

Regards,

Caren

[Anonymous May 28, 1997 at 4:08 pm Post count: 93172]

#1161335

Hi Luci, Thanks for your update. It really helps as I will have to go through that. Hope you got my e-mail.

I just watched a report on the devastation in Texas from the tornados. I gather it wasn’t near your area or you wouldn’t have been on the BB yesterday. I feel and pray for the people and families involved. I guess having Graves isn’t so bad in comparison.

My wish for you is that you just keep feeling better and better each day. SAS

[Anonymous May 28, 1997 at 4:37 pm Post count: 93172]

#1055590

Hi Everybody!

It’s been two weeks since I had my orbital decompression so I thought I’d post with an update. My eyeball has recessed a full 6mm. back into the socket – amazing how much difference it’s made in my appearance. Now my left eye (which I never thought looked nearly as awful as my right, looks terrible to me now — guess we’re never happy, right?) Because the muscles behind my eye were so stretched for so long the surgery has ended up making my double vision noticeably worse. I can no longer focus with my right eye either because the muscles have slackened so much that my eyeball is now out of alignment. This will require some further sugery later in order to tighten up the muscles and pull the eye back into central alignment. However, I was told to expect this would happen. The good news is the optic nerve has been saved in my right eye. The swelling has resolved completely except for some puffiness at my upper lash line. The bruising is also nearly resolved.

About the 5th day post-op I got sick. Had flu-like symptoms with fever, hard chils (an interesting side-effect when you’re living in south Texas in 98 degree weather!) all-over aching, no appetitie. I just felt miserable. I thought maybe I had caught a virus or perhaps was experiencing some sort of bizarre delayed anesthesia side-effect or worse, a post-op infection. This lasted a full 5 days and I could barely get out of bed; very unusual for me since I am usually pinging off the walls. My surgeon informs me that what I was having was a “steroidal crash and burn.” (his words). Right after surgery I was given huge doses of IV Decadron to minimize any complications which might have been brought on by post-operative swelling. While I had swelling, it was never severe enough to even warrant me a guest-spot on Tales From the Crypt! The down side was the flu-like symptoms I experienced after the steroids had done their thing and cleared my system. I just wanted to warn anyone who may be undergoing a decompression in the near future that this may happen. I also have lost some of my ability to distinguish taste since the surgery. This I am told is caused by trauma to the cranial nerve that sometimes occurs as a result of the surgery. I am told it is a temporary side-effect that happens only about 15% of the time following orbital decompression.

Otherwise, I am feeling fine, except for tiring easily, which is expected. I just wanted to share these experiences in the hopes they might help someone else out there who might be contemplating orbital decompression surgery. My eye looks 150% better which has done great things for my body-image and over-all morale. Best wishes to everyone!

Luci

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