Getting In Touch with my Inner Mrs. Groom*

I spoke with Muscle Guy this evening with 3 or 4 follow up questions. The results:

1. While Thing Three's whack in the eye may be significant, it was not relevant. He noticed decreased mobility in my right eye. It is more noticeable to me in my left eye because my left eye was weaker to begin with.

2. The disease should run its course in 1.5-2.5 years, after which my eye muscles will regain much of their former mobility, although there may be some scarring. In light of the superior oblique palsy, we want some scarring in my left eye. If the stars align properly, when the disease has run its course, Iwon't need prism lenses and I won't look like Mrs. Groom.*

3. Although there is a strong correlation between Thyroid-Associated Eye Disease and other thyroid diseases, there is no correlation between Thyroid-Associated Eye Disease and other non-thyroid auto-immune diseases, such as MS. Phew.

So there.

* Come one now, you remember Mrs. Groom from P.S.22. She was scary. Always looked like you did something wrong and she knew and she was going to tell her friends AND your parents and siblings.

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.

Fashionable Lawyerwear

I'm at the start of ANOTHER job search. Things just ain't working for me at The Firm -- I'm just not feeling the love for me or my clients -- so off I go. Luckily, I heart my headhunter -- she was an enormous help during my last job search, so I called her a few months ago when I suspected things were not going to get any better here. I decided to stick it out until the new year, and now I'm in the market.

Anyway, I asked the headhunter about a firm she got me an interview with last year -- I liked them, they liked me, but timing was bad. They had just opened a Stamford office but weren't ready to hire someone my level. Ends up they're very interested in seeing me again. I'm meeting them next week so I HAD to go to The Mother Ship for appropriate apparel.

Thing 2 demanded to come with me as my "fashion consultant". She was emphatic that I should not purchase anything boring or ugly. I try explaining to her that the Lawyer Interview Suit is a creature all its own, and that Boring and/or Ugly (to a 9 yo) is de rigeur. She would have none of it.

Thing 2 picked out some interesting ensembles -- she worked the sale rack and her knowledge of color theory to the bone, baby. One selection was a black a-line skirt, red shell and dark purple jacket. It was cute and if I wasn't Interview Suit Shopping, I might have considered it. I settled on a black pin-stripe Anne Klein Suit with a bias-cut a-line skirt.

Thing 2 is disappointed in my purchase. When she saw me in it this morning, she exclaimed, "You're right, Mom! That suit IS boring. You look like someone who is in charge of something, but nobody likes."

Eeeexcellent! Just what I was going for.