Eye Problems Archives

Eye Muscles Pain

Hello Dr. Stoll. I found your website today and read much of what was in the archives but like many others, I felt compelled to ask a question that would more directly give me possible answers to my symptoms.

I'm from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I was diagnosed with Graves disease with the eyes in 1997. My test levels were dangerously high and after 3 months of drug therapy I was depressed, I no longer had any sexual drive, I was short tempered, irritable not to mention very unhappy. My eyes bulged and I felt a lot of pain in the muscles behind or around both my eyes. As a mother of a very demanding 12 month old I needed to find a quick solution toward better health. At the time I was very concerned about my daughter's healthy and early child development, and our ability to bond. As it stood with my health status. I felt I was becoming a threat to her early years.

My endocrinologist at the time indicated that due to the severity of my TSH levels, radioactive therapy was not an option and that surgery was my only hope for resolution (I know from your site that you don't consider this a resolution to the problem!). In late 1998, I finally accepted and had my thyroid gland removed. I am now on 0.15MG of Synthroid. I've not regretted my decision and have since had a son. I'd like to also add that two weeks after the surgery, on my daughter's second birthday, I rolled in the grass, laughed and played with my daughter for the first time in her life. I had never known what it was like to have the energy, mental health status/stability or complete feeling of wellness, since she had been born.

Here I am three years later and I still have the energy and mental health stability to enjoy my children, play and role around with them on a daily basis (the sex drive never returned). However, my eyes have been feeling the same kind of pain I had experience in the worse of my Graves disease. It started in December and hasn't really stopped. My family doctor doesn't really acknowledge the eye disease stating that once a thyroid gland is removed - Graves is no longer a disease I'm affected by - "I'm cured" - I've now become hypothyroidal (if that's a word!). My family physician has no explanation for the eye pain and my optometrist doesn't see any reason for the pain either.

I should also say I am one of those people who's bulging eyes returned to normal following surgery (about 2 months later...so too did all the symptoms go away until now). My eyes are not currently bulging. I find the only thing that soothes them at the end of a day is freezing cold compresses over my eyes, essentially freezing my eyeballs. I usually fall asleep with this on my eyes and start the next day with a mild pain that often progresses to a headache and nausea by night fall.

Any suggestions?

Re: Eye Muscles Pain (Archive in Grave's.)