Just an addition to Bobbi’s reply that treating the thyroid is a separate issue from treating the eye disease. While as she said, having a thyroidectomy or treating with antithyroid drugs doesn’t get rid of the eye disease, it’s also true that being either hyper or hypothyroid is bad for the eye disease, so it’s important for people who have it to bring thyroid levels to normal as soon as possible, and to avoid becoming hypothyroid if they can.
Perhaps that’s what Nina meant when she asked if having the thyroidectomy helped (by bringing thyroid levels into normal range)?
The first question my ophthalmic plastic surgeon asked me whenever my eyes flared up again is whether I’d had my thyroid tested recently and whether my levels were normal. He insisted on seeing my last lab test before doing another surgery.
As Bobbi said, the thyroidectomy itself doesn’t get rid of the antibodies that cause the eye disease. However, my endocrinologist told me about a study he read in which total thyroidecomies were followed by large doses of radioactive iodine to eliminate all thyroid tissue, and in those cases the antibodies were eliminated with subsequent improvement of the eye disease. He says that in my case, 11 years now since my RAI, there has been no palpable thyroid tissue for many years, but there’s still enough left for the antibodies to react to, and it doesn’t take much, apparently.
A good friend with Graves’ who many years ago had surgery and then a small dose of RAI—all much longer ago than mine—is now having another flare-up of her eye disease, so there are no guarantees with this. What IS known presently is that avoiding smoking, even second-hand is very important, and so is keeping your thyroid levels normal, and these are important indefinitely, not just around the time of your initial treatment.
Dianne W
Online Facilitator
