The nurse called me last Thursday with results. I didn't quite understand everything she said, but she did say, "high uptake and appears to be consistent with Graves disease. Dr. wants you to have another blood test and be see by on endocrinologist". I told her that the oncology nurse already insisted that I make an appt when I went for my tx on Wed, so I have one scheduled for later on this month. She said that the endocrinologist will likely be the one to diagnose me officially. I am really annoyed at how long this is taking. Evidence is quite blatant... you can tell just by looking at my left eye. I have started putting a cold compress over the eye a couple of times a day and it seems to help with the feeling of 'swelling', even though the CT scan in early May did not show 'swelling' behind the orbits. It does hurt and always feels dry; many times it feels like an effort to close it. I have to continue with putting the eye gel at night to prevent dryness. As you all know, I am vain and this is by far the hardest to deal with. It is cumbersome to wear my glasses, as it feels heavy and when I get sweaty, it is annoying as the glasses always falls down from my nose. What is hardest is when people stare at me because my eye looks like it's popping out. Talk about a blow to your self-image. Some people are too polite to ask what's wrong with my eye. Others, I can read by their expression that they are wondering. Some just come right out and ask. Come to think of it, maybe wearing the glasses have been a deterrent for questions... maybe if I have contacts on, it will really be more blatant, with no glasses for protection. The hardest thing with wearing glasses is not having protection from the sun. It hurts both eyes when I go out and the sun is out. Not only does it hurt, I cannot see a thing... I feel blinded by the light. This has caused me alot of frustration. It will be difficult to work and drive. I was finally able to order new glasses last Wed after my tx... so expensive... it will cost me $500.00 for a new pair of glasses... the lady said it will have transition lenses... I hope they work. I tried to see if they had those shades that you can just clip on to your glasses.. they do, but NONE fit my glasses, because my glasses are so high-powered, the lenses are thick and so none of the shades will fit over the lenses. Aaaarrrggghhh..... I sure hope they figure out what's going on soon. Some symptoms are also bothering me more than others.... I can't seem to regulate the cold/heat tolerance... sometimes I'm very hot and then all of a sudden, I will just get cold. Mostly at night, I am cold and need a blanket to sleep. I also have these moments of 'sweating' and the insomnia is back and is making me tired all the time. But I can't sleep even though I'm tired.
I keep telling myself that it could be worse, so just hang in there and wait until the dr's appt... but it is not easy and many times I do feel sorry for myself because not only do I wear such thick glasses, now you can see my big eye inspite of the glasses... more than that, the constant pain and dryness in the left eye is bothersome and sometimes I have pain and difficulty closing the lid on my right eye as well... I sure hope help and relief will come soon....
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