I-131 RAI Treatment

[Guest guest]

The eye exercises Fay mentions are located on the Files page of Graves_support

(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/graves_support). They are also included here as

an attachment, but I know some people can't download these. (One day I'll be

really computer literate and figure out how to send them as a post rather than

attached!)

Best wishes,

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EYE EXERCISES

I do my eye exercises 3/4 times a day now, but when I first started them

and for about 4 months I did them 5/7 times a day. I would usually do

my first set as soon as I could focus in the morning. They dont' take

long at all. I always do them in the car too...when hubby is driving of

course! I had to give up driving last June 25th because of double vision,

blurred vision, no depth preception and extreme light sensitivity. I

started driving again on Thanksgiving Day, but only during daylight hours

as my night vision has not yet returned <sigh>.

I am also on a non-traditional treatment for my eyes. My Ophtho ran a

TSI antibodies test before definitely diagnosing me with the graves eye

disease. My TSI ab's were quite elevated...he was pushing eye radiation

(which can atrophy the eye muscles and cause cataracts) and/or steroids.

I told him I would consider the steroids only in a very very small dose

*IF* he would let me try one of the ATD's first to see if lowering my TSI

ab's would lessen my eye disease. He agreed on 2 conditions, 1) that it

would be PTU and 2)that my endo would prescribe and monitor me. I had

already discussed this with my endo and she told me, if my ophtho agreed

she would prescribe and monitor me. I have been on 75 mg. (3 half tablets)

a day, taken religiously every 8 hours. Within a week, my eyeballs had

gone down, were not rock hard most of my waking hours and the pain was

going away! The rest of my vision began to also clear up. My endo asked

me my goal, which is to see my TSI ab's register at <.0001 meaning they no

longer exists so I will be on them for as long as it takes, with her

co-operation. The TSI ab's of graves, that attack the thyroid also attack

the eyes.

No one knows if this will work for others, no one knows if this will work

long term, this will remain to be seen after I have weaned off of them...but

for me, this was a much better way to try and get my eye disease on the

control and it is working for me, at least for now and I have no regrets

with doing it. I do know 2 other people who have gone to their endos and

ask to try this and have been given the green light. I do not know how it

is going for them as the group I posted with them on is no longer in

existence. But there are doctors out there who are willing to let us try this.

The Eye Exercises

1. Find a focal point on the wall or somewhere in front of you.

Look up HARD and hold for 5 seconds do a set of 5 of these.

Do the same thing to the left, to the right and down, always

hold for 5 seconds and sets of 5. In the beginning it is going

to make your eyes ache, but that is a GOOD thing, it means you are

stretching the eye muscles, and that needs to be done to limber

them up and get them working together again.

2. Roll your eyes SLOWLY, all the way around, trying hard to make

them work together. This may not be easy in the beginning, but

it gets easier as the muscles limber up. I roll them one direction,

rest for a few seconds then roll in the other direction.

I do this one 2/3 times a day also.

3. This one is one I work on, but have not yet accomplished yet ;-)

I use a pen, for me it is easier to have a white pen with a red

colored cap, hold it out in front of me at arms length, then

slowly bring it back towards the nose trying to cross the eyes.

As soon as you feel the eyes split or separate, start over. Do

this in sets of 5, several times a day.

I know it sounds like a lot of time, but it really isn't long at all and is

so essential to getting the eyes to work together again. The reason we have

the double vision is because our eyes no longer work in tandem. One of the

eyes can have a muscle that has *shortened* up because of the eye disease.

The TSI antibodies of graves attack our eyes muscles especially...just as

they attacked our thyroid and body muscles when we were hyper.

I hope these will help you. I started seeing a difference on my 8th day in

a lessening of the double vision.