My 1st Post

Hello ... My name is Kim, I am 53 years old, and I am having Orbital Decompression Surgery on my right eye one week from today (to occur on Jan 23, 2009 to be exact). The pictures you see on this post are (1) before I ever had an eye problem and (2) what the eye problem looks like.

Let me give you a little background as to what all I have gone though to get to this point. First, let me say that this whole eye problem has been the most perplexing and bothersome thing in my entire life thus far. That is why I decided to create this blog site in hopes that my story and the information I post here may be of help to others that have this kind of eye problem, and also to keep my friends and family updated. I just wish I had thought of doing this blog back when the eye problem first started. But since I didn't, read on to get up to date ...

It all started back in November of 2007 when I was on a trip with my sister to Arkansas to visit our family there and enjoy Thanksgiving with them for the first time in many many years. It was a great trip and we truly enjoyed it. However, the whole time we were there my right eye felt a little scratchy and irritated, and it was a little red and watering some, but nothing really major, it was tolerable so I didn't really think much about it. Then, I remember sitting in the airport with my sister waiting for our plane to go back home to Alabama when my eye started feeling even more scratchy and irritated. It was really bothering me, kind of felt like something was in my eye. So I went to the gift shop and bought some eye drops. I looked in a mirror to see if there was anything in my eye, didn't see anything so I put the drops in. Ahhh, yes, yes, yes, instant relief! My eye felt better.

For the next month, every couple of days or so, my eye continued to bother me so I would use eye drops and get some temporary relief. People were now starting to notice that my eye was really red and maybe even a little swollen. So I thought, hell, I better go to the eye doctor as my eye is just getting worse. I thought at this point that I really did have something in my eye irritating it that I just couldn't see.

I went to the eye doctor and they immediately determined that I must have allergies, gave me allergy drops and sent me on my way. Which concerned me (and I had told them it concerned me when I was there) because my problem was just in one eye ... allergies in just one eye? ... seemed weird to me. But I was miserable at this point, sick of my eye watering constantly and sick of it feeling like it had sand in it. So I used the allergy drops for a couple weeks. They did absolutely nothing. My eye was not getting better. Plus my actual eyeball now looked swollen.

It was now early February 2008 -- So I went back to the eye doctor. She was perplexed, because she was so sure it was allergies. She was a Doctor of Ophthalmology (DO) so she had the office MD come in to consult with me and they decided to send me for a MRI of the brain with focus on the eye orbits. The MRI showed enlargement of the eye muscles so they suspected I may have Graves Disease and instructed me to go see my family doctor for Thyroid tests and that I should also go see a special group of eye doctors at UAB in Birmingham. So I did. But in-between all the appointments my eye was getting worse. Now I couldn't see straight anymore because my right eye muscles were so swollen and had pushed my eye out and downward. I had to tilt my head back a little to line my vision up. My eye was watering all the time now and it felt like I had a blurry film over my eye. It bothered me so bad that I would look in the mirror and try to get this film out of my eye. I could pull little strings of it from my eye several times a day. It would help to get it out but of course it would just build back up. (I have since learned this occurs because the eyeball is out of its protective location and our normal eye fluid cannot circulate properly.)

As of April 2008 ... All my thyroid tests were normal. The new eye specialist called my case Euthyroid Graves Opthalmopathy (GO), meaning only my eye is affected by the Graves, and my thyroid is functioning normally. No other symptoms of Graves Disease are present. The doctor determined that I would most likely need orbital decompression surgery but I was in what she called an active inflammation period so I would have to wait until my eye stabilized -- she thought around six to eight more months. If she did surgery too soon, I may end up needing it again. I understood but I was pissed. I thought to myself ... dammit, I have to frickin live like this for another six to eight months? With my frickin eye bulging out, not being able to see straight without tilting my head, and the constant irritation? Yes, yes I did.

And I have. I decided to pull myself up by my bootstraps and do the best I can. I just tilt my head back and to the left a little so I can see straight, I go to work every day, and I try not to complain too much about my miserable eye (not to mention my damn neck hurting all the time from having to tilt my head back to see right)! Anyway, I continued to see the doctor over those next few months. On our visits she would measure my bulging eye, chek the restriction of my eye muscles, etc. Finally in December of 2008, she said my eye was stable, and we could proceed with the surgery. She and an ENT surgeon will perform the surgery jointly.

The ENT will handle the sinus side of my eye and she will handle the bone side. They will make room on both sides of my eye socket (removing part of of my sinus and part of my bone) to make room for the enlarged muscles. So ... as I said at the beginning of this post, the orbital decompression surgery occurs Jan 23, 2009. I will spend one night in the hospital and most likely need a couple weeks ro recover. I plan to blog and post pictures after my surgery and during my recovery.

If you have any questions, please post them and I will do my best to answer.

Thanks much ... talk to you again soon!
-Kim