A Certain Grave-itas

I went to see my ophthalmologist yesterday because my prescription has been going nutty. Apparently I've developed Graves Disease, or rather, the less dire sounding "Thyroid-Associated Eye Disease". Good news: the scarring of my lower and inner eye muscles is helping my superior oblique palsy. With the perfect amount of scarring, I may be able to get rid of my prism lenses (I'll still be near-sighted, but I can wear contacts). Bad news: I may look like Marty Feldman when all is said and done.

I have to see the Doc every 2 months or so to make sure my prescription is the best it can be as the muscles tighten up. The disease supposedly runs its course in 6 months to 3 years, at which time I'll either look freakish and wear glasses to hide my eyes, need surgery to correct for the Graves, er, Thyroid-Associated Eye Disease and/or superior oblique palsy, or maybe I'll just have laser surgery done to correct the near-sightedness.

I'm still hoping that this stiffness in my left eye is the result of when Katie popped me in the eye so hard about a month ago that I was blinded for a good 10 minutes. But that hardly explains the 3 prescription changes in the last year.

Eye thingy in a nutshell (for the confused and/or curious):
After ~20 years of being told I had an astigmatism by various optometrists and opthalmologists, and ~15 years of wearing bifocals, I saw a Muscle Guy in 2004, who diagnosed me as having Superior Oblique Palsy. Good news: no more bifocals and sharper vision that I've ever had with prism lenses (when my prescription is on point); Bad news: can't grind prism into contacts.

When I was first diagnosed, Muscle Guy told me that I may need a few prism prescription adjustments in the beginning, but then my eyes should "lock in" and stay "locked in" until I'm about 40, at which time my eyes will go to hell and I may need surgery (he's not one to mince words). Great! Except that in the 2 1/2 years since I was diagnosed, I've been through about 5 or 6 prescriptions. At first the prisms got stronger, which was expected. But then they started getting weaker, which was not expected.

So, he did a bunch of occular mobility tests, which showed a marked change since the last time I saw him. Which, combined with the unexpected changes in my prescription, led to the diagnosis of Not-So-Graves-Disease.

Hoo-Hah, as they say.