Why did I make the video in the first place? Well, I made it for people like Claire in Ireland. She is a young lady with 2 young boys and a nice husband who happens to have Thyroid Eye Disease like me. I had been having a very hard time dealing with my Graves' Disease and then here comes TED to top it off. I was so scared and just did not know what was happening to me. One eye saw up and one eye saw down. My eyes watered and burned and itched. A bright light hurt much less the sunshine. I could not be near a fan much less be out in a slight breeze. I ended up wearing prisim glass's till my eyes got to what is called the cold stage. I had to have these expensive glass's changed at least 3 times before I could have surgery. I wore sun glass's constantly. I actually had a pair in every room in my house and two in the car for years. Still do in fact.
When it was time to have my first decompression surgery I was scared to death. I did not know what to expect. Would I go blind? Well that was a possibility if I did not have the surgery. Would it make my eyes stop bulging out? Would my headach stop? Could I go out in the sunshine again? Would my eyes stop burning and tearing? So many questions and no answers that I could relate to. I had been surfing the web for answers. There was alot out there and I did get good info. But, I wanted more I guess. At that time I did not find very many pictures of actual people after the surgery.
Like the GD Coffee Break my video was not a planned thing for me to do for anyone but myself. I wanted to know what I would look like every step of the way. Even though I did like my picture taken my husband took them of me. They were only meant for me and him. So then After all nine surgery's I put them all together, crying the whole time. It took some time as I had to stop and get away from it for awhile. Finely it was done. And we watched it together. I saw the change the way my husband saw it. Was that really me? I was a monster. Then my husband told me "You just look different...your are still the women I married". He also told me maybe it could help somebody else if they knew what to expect. If they knew what they would look like right after a surgery. Claire was one of the people I sent a DVD copy to. The other went to Pat. A young man who also took pictures of himself before and after. He put my DVD on his website http://thyroideyedisease.weebly.com/
His DVD is also on it. He also put it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHrdupCTWMo
I am part way down under TEDsurgery
Today it is on my Face book
one on each eye. Also to align the eyes so I would not have double vision.
2 upper retraction to remove extra skin due to the bulging eyes..also more alignment
2 lower retraction to bring up the lower lid so the whites would be less
1 implant lower left eye... to keep the eye lid up as it kept drooping
2 cataract.. to get rid of the cloudy eye sight.
Pain: I did not really have any pain before the surgeries. Decompression was the hardest and most painful. It also lasted the longest. It took me about a week before I could see proper. First couple of days I thought I had gone blind at least partially. My girl and husband had to take me to the bathroom and help me eat. Ofcourse I was heavily medicated too. Cold packs to get the swelling down was a big help. Night mask a must have. With the retractions, the IV was the worst part. But just the idea of how that was going to be done was more upsetting to me then the decompression, which I was asleep for. mostly over the counter pain pills for this one. a few headaches but not so bad.
Retraction: I was awake for half the time the first time. reason being they had to wake me to move my eyes around. 2nd time The doctor and I talked about other things during the whole thing. Pulling and itching was all. Awake but with eyes closed. All I saw was red.
Cataract: a piece of cake. Again IV was the hard part. But, by then I learned a few things. Walk a little before going in, get the blood moving, rub and warm up the arm, flex your arm before they put in the IV goes. Great help. Black eyes ...well you can live with it , if you go out with hubby..he will get dirty looks,lol