Oculoplastics

I had never heard of this specialty until last Wednesday when I went in for an eye exam to get new contacts. As you read earlier, I was referred to this specialist due to concerns with my eyes. An ocuplastics doctor specializes in eye problems related to thyroid issues; they may also do surgery in the eyes as it relates to the eye lids and the outer structures of the eyes. They are trained in ophthalmology with an extra internship in plastic surgery for the eyes... Well, the gist of it is, he wants me to get a CT scan of my eyes/or is it my head? He wants to check and see if there is swelling in the back of my eyes that may be causing it to kinda bulge out a bit. He and the ophthalmologist who saw me last Wednesday looked at a couple of pictures I brought, looked at each other, said "Hhmmm" and "okay" and the verdict? My "eyes are significantly bigger than in the pictures" taken 8 years ago, especially my left eye. Did any of you notice that my left eye was kinda bulging out? Don't everybody look at once! When I asked Frendell, he thought he noticed them bulging out starting 2 years ago... I'm so glad my husband is a great observer of my eyes.. of course he thought the left one was getting bigger because my right eye was getting 'droopy'... and it probably is.

Anyways, Dr. Yoo wants to see the results of the CT scan and then he will make a recommendation for an appointment with an endocrinologist if there is swelling. He thinks its related to my thyroid... I told him I kinda get nervous now whenever they refer me to another doctor, cause they always find something wrong with me. He assured me again that for the moment, I am not going blind. He did not dilate my eyes again today since it was done last Wednesday so he couldn't verify if my retinas are detaching, but he did not believe so, as I do not have any symptoms of that. They gave me a very interesting test to check for color blindness. I kept saying pink and it was purple, the brown looked like dark purple; the grey looked blue, the dark blue looked like dark blue (I got that one right).. in spite of all that, I still passed it and apparently am not color blind.. I just cannot distinguish the correct colors :-) He prescribed some eye drops to use to decrease the irritation. Apparently, since my eyes are wider now, it dries up more often, so it gets easily irritated and then it tears more often to make up for the dryness. Our bodies are amazing in the way it compensates for the problems. The symptoms, he told me, may last up to a year. I sure hope not.. It hurts a lot and I don't like the feeling of discomfort. I hope they get me new contacts soon so I can at least see better. I'll let you know when they schedule the CT scan... another day in this journey :-)