Graves' Disease Support Group
Graves-Basedow disease is a medical disorder that may manifest several different conditions including hyperthyroidism (over activity of thyroid hormone production), infiltrative exophthalmos (protruberance of one or both eyes and associated problems) and infiltrative dermopathy (a skin condition usually of the lower extremities). This disorder is the most common cause of...
Hi all,
I was just dxed on Monday with severe dry eyes...making no tears at all...and Dry Eye Syndrome. My thyroid test results came back normal. However I have over a 20 year history with thyroid issues. Who knows really I may have had thyroid issues for most of my life.
I was dxed with hyper when I was 20, took meds for half a year, was retested and taken off meds. Then came the young partying years of being invincible as only the young are really good at. I never went to se the doc unless I was coughing up green stuff or was so feverish I actually thought I saw a human sized pink bunny hopping around outside hiding Easter eggs...in the middle of winter! So I never had my thyroid tested again, even though all the women in my family end up with some form of thyroid condition in their twenties.
I was tested agin around the age of 30 and had become hypo. well this meant Synthroid for the rest of my life. The doc explained this and said I had no choice. Well still being rather irresponsible I took them faithfully until one time I just forgot...for two months. When I saw the doc after that two months and they asked about my pills I had to confess that I had not taken them. Well they were not happy. But gave me another test which came out perfect and they shrugged it all off and said it had just resolved itself. So skip ahead 15 years. I now have every symptom of Graves disease, which honestly I had never even heard of before. My eyes being one of the most prominent symptoms...which I do mean literally since my left eye protrudes slightly more than right eye and is out of allignment with my right eye. I have severe dry eye but cleared thyroid tests.
The opth put eye plugs in my lower eye area and is supposed to do uppers in two weeks. I had the plugs done on monday. Since then my eyes have actually gotten worse. I am having to use a lube gel drops every hour, otherwise they will become itchy, very dry and painful again. They were no where near this bad before. Also I will sometimes get a very sharp pin prick pain in my left eye (bad eye). My opth said I should se a endocrinologist as they can do more detailed testing. I asked him if I could still have Graves with normal test results and he was very vague about it, saying there was a possibility AND also that I could have Graves eye disease and not actually have Graves disease This is where I become confused...how is it possible to have all the symptoms of actual Graves and yet my test results are good? Does Graves eye disease eventually lead to regular Graves? Also should I be having these strange worsening symptoms after having the plugs put in? Considering that my eyes should be feeling better now that my tear ducts are plugged? This is really concerning me as the pain has been so great as to actually raise my blood pressure dangerously high when it has been maintained for going on two years now.can the plugs be taken out and if so are there other treatment options available other than the too conservative approach of drops and gels almost constantly for the rest of my life? Finally, what about this so called possibility of still having Graves despite negative test results? Lots of questions I know but if anyone can help me with even a few I would be so grateful. Sorry so long. Friends...irish
I was just dxed on Monday with severe dry eyes...making no tears at all...and Dry Eye Syndrome. My thyroid test results came back normal. However I have over a 20 year history with thyroid issues. Who knows really I may have had thyroid issues for most of my life.
I was dxed with hyper when I was 20, took meds for half a year, was retested and taken off meds. Then came the young partying years of being invincible as only the young are really good at. I never went to se the doc unless I was coughing up green stuff or was so feverish I actually thought I saw a human sized pink bunny hopping around outside hiding Easter eggs...in the middle of winter! So I never had my thyroid tested again, even though all the women in my family end up with some form of thyroid condition in their twenties.
I was tested agin around the age of 30 and had become hypo. well this meant Synthroid for the rest of my life. The doc explained this and said I had no choice. Well still being rather irresponsible I took them faithfully until one time I just forgot...for two months. When I saw the doc after that two months and they asked about my pills I had to confess that I had not taken them. Well they were not happy. But gave me another test which came out perfect and they shrugged it all off and said it had just resolved itself. So skip ahead 15 years. I now have every symptom of Graves disease, which honestly I had never even heard of before. My eyes being one of the most prominent symptoms...which I do mean literally since my left eye protrudes slightly more than right eye and is out of allignment with my right eye. I have severe dry eye but cleared thyroid tests.
The opth put eye plugs in my lower eye area and is supposed to do uppers in two weeks. I had the plugs done on monday. Since then my eyes have actually gotten worse. I am having to use a lube gel drops every hour, otherwise they will become itchy, very dry and painful again. They were no where near this bad before. Also I will sometimes get a very sharp pin prick pain in my left eye (bad eye). My opth said I should se a endocrinologist as they can do more detailed testing. I asked him if I could still have Graves with normal test results and he was very vague about it, saying there was a possibility AND also that I could have Graves eye disease and not actually have Graves disease This is where I become confused...how is it possible to have all the symptoms of actual Graves and yet my test results are good? Does Graves eye disease eventually lead to regular Graves? Also should I be having these strange worsening symptoms after having the plugs put in? Considering that my eyes should be feeling better now that my tear ducts are plugged? This is really concerning me as the pain has been so great as to actually raise my blood pressure dangerously high when it has been maintained for going on two years now.can the plugs be taken out and if so are there other treatment options available other than the too conservative approach of drops and gels almost constantly for the rest of my life? Finally, what about this so called possibility of still having Graves despite negative test results? Lots of questions I know but if anyone can help me with even a few I would be so grateful. Sorry so long. Friends...irish
As someone else said one autoimmune disease can very well mean others. Dry eyes could be Sjorgen's disease, which is an autoimmune problem. It usually takes a Rheumatologist to diagnose Sjorgen's. Rheumatoid problems can also be autoimmune.
I hope you can get some answers.
Betty
Graves Disease
Sjorgens
Raynauds
Type 1 diabetes
and some others