[Ski]

#1074575

You’re right, your ophthalmologist is the one who should give you the "okay" to go forward with any corrective surgery. That’s also your first resource for a reference to a good surgeon ~ if the ophthalmologist you’re currently seeing is not also an oculoplastic surgeon. Some are.

If you are only now in what you refer to as the "hot" phase, it may be a while before that surgery would be recommended. The surgeons who have spoken to us at conferences pretty routinely say there is a natural order of surgeries, should you need them, and that is bone first, next muscle (eye muscle corrections to resolve double vision) and last would be the skin surrounding the eyes (lids, bags). If you continue to have mild symptoms and never experience any proptosis (bulging) or double vision, I would presume that the doctor would give the okay for surgery on the bags earlier, but I don’t have any experience with that, so I can’t say for sure. The most important thing to consider is that the symptoms may reverse at some point, and so any surgery you undertake too early in the process can cause problems at that point.

It’s the hardest thing to deal with, emotionally ~ the change in our appearance, how we present ourselves to the world. I realize you want to correct it as quickly as possible. Do ask the eye doctor ~ that’s your best resource to know when and if you want to take that step.

[cathycnm]

#1074576

Ski – Thanks. That is very helpful to know. I see myself in my photos with my granddaughter and I can tell when Graves started – my eyes are not horrible but there is a whole different tone to my face. I look sad or even "flat" compared to earlier photos. Here I am a positive psychology coach and I look sad ” title=”Confused” /> Anyway – I live in a fairly rural area of Colorado but we do have 6 opthalmologists in group practice here. Their web site says they offer eye plastic surgery. I will check it out when I see him in 3-6 months. In the mean time, I will keep smiling.

If anyone has read the book by Gladwell called "Blink" he talks about how facial expressions can be de-coded – and how each little move of the eyebrow, mouth, nose, etc means something – an emotion. I wonder how our facial codes change with the eye changes. Obviously sad. I would guess it is more than the puffiness – maybe it changes other aspects of how we move our facial muscles is slight ways. Interesting to ponder. Thanks for the info –

[cathycnm]

#1019852

Hey all – Yesterday I had my visual field exam. Interesting experience – and normal (YEA)!!!! I am color blind (very rare in women – both my sister and I have it mildly). Dad and mom’s dad both had it so we got the double whammy. So, my opthamologist wanted to do this as a base-line in case the Graves started to impact my vision – since loss of color vision will not help.

My opthamologist is young and very, very thorough!!! I am just wondering if anyone else has had this testing – or the color blind testing – as part of monitoring of Graves. I feel well cared for – he is seeing me every 6 months while I am in the "hot" eye period – though, honestly, other than the bags and some extra tearing at times, this has gotten progressively better since about 3 weeks post RAI. I feel blessed!!! My endo said if they were going to get worse after RAI – it would probably be 2-6 months post. I am now almost 5 months post – so keeping those fingers crossed.

Now a question – is it my eye doc I should talk to about doing something for the "bags" if they do not resolve. As said in an earlier post – I just don’t like the sad expression they give me. When I was traveling over the holidays, I had an early flight and then was catching the next connection – which was delayed. I went to ask the airline person something about times and before I even spoke, she said "Can I help you, you look so sad." Tired, yes. Sad when I see my granddaughter in a few hours – NOT!!! I don’t want to look sad forever!!! Cathy ” title=”Sad” /> ” title=”Very Happy” />

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