[snelsen]

#1066497

My experience has been that the endo referred me to a neuro-ophthamologist to evaluate my eyes. I had a lot of tearing, double vision in some gazes, and my eyes began to protrude a bit. Perhaps you might ask your endo about this. It is very good to have a baseline, and continued monitering of your eyes by an ophthamologist who is very familiar with Graves.
There are several posts by the facilitators that provide excellent explanations. They can probably find then and post them faster than i can find them. If you do have eye involvement, there is a path of stages that the eyes tend to proceed through, the inflammatory and then the fibrotic stage. Have a discussion with your endo about your eyes. I wish you the best of all things, and I am sure you will receive many other helpful comments.

[Bobbi]

#1066498

I read an analysis of the study long ago that apparently showed that in 16% of patients doing RAI there was a temporary worsening of their eye symptoms. This was the same study that showed that doing steroids like prednisone at the same time as RAI prevented the temporary worsening from happening. The study abstract that I read did not define "temporary" nor did it indicate how much worsening was involved. The analysis, however, went into the fact that steroids have their own set of side effects, and that author did not think that prescribing steroids for 100% of RAI patients to avoid a temporary worsening for 16% of them was advisable. So, the issue is significantly less than straightforward. People who have RAI do not, as a rule, take steroids before the treatment. Those people who already have significant TED, however, are advised to do the steroids, if they opt for RAI. Those of us with slighter symptoms of the eye disease, however, need to weigh the pros and cons with our own doctors.

[teacherhelper]

#1018690

I have mild eye involvement with my GD. When I see my endo in March, I think my course of treatment will be RAI as I’m allergic to Methimazole. I read on here where it’s recommended steroids be taken before having the RAI so they don’t get worse. I want to protect my eyes as much as possible. Will my endo be informed about this? All of this is rather scary! I’m trying to be positive and be a FROG (fully rely on God) but it’s difficult.

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