I flew down to Houston 07-22-99 to take Kelly to the doctor for the surgery and the doctor allowed me to watch the surgery. Dr.Soparkar with
the Diagnostic Clinic in Houston did a wonderful job on Kelly's eyelids,
her eyelids had a lid retraction problem brought on by the Graves' disease.
Because of the retraction problem, she couldn't close her eye's normally.
Her eyes would stay open even at night time when she would sleep.
The doctor made incisions along the creases of Kelly's eyelids,
then clipped the muscles which were pulling the eyelids up. After clipping
the muscles, he stitched up the incisions.
All of this took place within an hour and a half.
Kelly remained awake and alert during the whole procedure, which amazed
me. Before going in for the surgery, Kelly was so nervous, I just knew
they would have to give her something to knock her out so she wouldn't
chicken out and leave without having the surgery done.
But, she did just great!
We left the doctors office after the surgery and went back to Kelly's
house, where she put frozen peas on her eyes to help keep down any
swelling caused by the surgery. Frozen peas were used because they weigh
less than ice and weren't as heavy as ice would have been on her eyes.
Kelly kept up the frozen peas routine on her eyes for about a week.
Because Kelly was so vigilant about using the "frozen peas cold pack " on
her eyes, she had very little swelling and her eyes were looking great before I had to leave to come back to Midland on July 25.
Before Kelly had the eye surgery, she had to use moisturizing eye drops several times a day because her eyes would be so dry from the lid retraction problem, after the surgery, she hasn't NEEDED to use the eye drops once!
Her eyes now close normally and she has had no more problem with "dry eyes".
The best thing of all, is that now Kelly can sleep at night time
with both eyes completely shut, which I think is great after having had
to sleep with her eyes partially open for the last seven years.
UPDATE! 08-07-03
Please visit the Thyroid Eye disease Photos site. The Thyroid Photos site includes photos of Kelly's eyes taken BEFORE her eye surgery.
Thyroid Eye Disease Photos
Photo of Kelly taken in July 2000
Information contained in this site is for educational purposes only. The content is not to be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease and should not be used as a substitute for medical care.
Questions about the surgery? Send me an email, I will be glad to answer all emails
I receive.
Thanks for visiting!
Loreece
