Grave's and eye problems

Wendyma1

I'm a little confused.......I had been getting headaches and nausea while reading, so I went to the eye doctor. My last check-up with the eye doctor was 8 to 9 months ago and my eye sight had not changed from a year ago (my eye sight was 20/20), at yesterdays appointment he found that I had problems reading near sighted and gave me a presciption for glasses. All my hyper symptoms started about 6 months ago (that is when I really started to notice them, I'm sure little symptoms were popping up before but I chalked those up to something else).

My question, can a thyroid issue mess with your eye sight like that even though I have no swelling behind my eyes? Only other issue I have is dry and gritty eyeballs.

Thanks,
Wendy

islandmonkey

I'm a little confused.......I had been getting headaches and nausea while reading, so I went to the eye doctor. My last check-up with the eye doctor was 8 to 9 months ago and my eye sight had not changed from a year ago (my eye sight was 20/20), at yesterdays appointment he found that I had problems reading near sighted and gave me a presciption for glasses. All my hyper symptoms started about 6 months ago (that is when I really started to notice them, I'm sure little symptoms were popping up before but I chalked those up to something else).

My question, can a thyroid issue mess with your eye sight like that even though I have no swelling behind my eyes? Only other issue I have is dry and gritty eyeballs.

Thanks,
Wendy

Many/most people who go through RAI get flare ups of TED (thyroid eye disease) aka Graves Ophthalmology. That's actually why I opted for surgery instead of RAI - because I already had eye involvement. To be honest, I wouldn't recommend that ANYone do RAI.

I've heard from other people that it can be on and off for quite a while, as your anitbodies die off. Did they test you for antibodies and for TED before they did the RAI? Many people with zero eye involvement beforehand get it after the RAI, though.


Mary Shomon has a good article here on it:
http://thyroid.about.com/b/2009/10/14/radioactive-iodine-thyroid-eye-ophthalmopathy.htm

Wendyma1

Thanks for the article! I thought that the eye disease caused by grave's was only the one where your eyes started to protrude and make you look surprised all the time! I didnt realize my puffiness, dry eyes and soreness were all part of this as well. It surely doesnt help that I'm a smoker!!! Once I was diagnosed with Grave's (Through blood tests and scans) they did check my eyes and I was ok, a bit dry (like someone threw sand in them) but was told we would keep an eye on it!

I'll be asking my regular doctor to put me back on my migraine medication, Maxalt, until I can get my glasses.

islandmonkey

Ahhh...yes, the smoking does NOT help!

MmmDrop

I read a few articles about using Selenium to help with TED inflammation when mine was acting up. It seemed to help quite a bit! You could try that, I also use Curcumin for another anti-inflammatory/antioxidant, and eat blueberries daily.

kats3boys

My eyes also go when my thyroid is off, when it does I use grape seed extract.