Hi Amanda,
You’ve got it right ~ blurry vision is usually as a result of having dry eyes, not really from the TED itself. There is an element of Graves’ that makes our tears less "thick," so we can experience more dryness than other people, just in general. Using artificial tears liberally can help (preservative-free), nighttime gel helps some people, and it also helps to protect your eyes from fluorescent lights, breezes, and other irritants. If you’re already doing all those things and still experiencing dryness, speak with your eye doctor. Chronic dryness can result in injury to the cornea, which is NOT reversible if it gets bad enough. You can have your tear ducts either plugged or cauterized shut ~ it keeps the tears from draining OFF of the eye as much, which helps the eyes stay moist. If you want to explore the possibility, you can have dissolvable plugs inserted so that they’ll just go away in a period of time, and if you didn’t like the effect, you don’t have to do it again. If you like it, you can proceed to either permanent plugs or cauterization.
The cold phase is usually diagnosed in hindsight ~ once it’s been at least six months since any changes (for the worse or for the better), that’s a pretty good sign. Keep in touch with your ophthalmologist. One of the doctors at the conference said he likes to make the appointments with his patients at least a month apart, if changes are not happening often, because it helped him to recognize any changes that may be occurring (even improvement).
