Written by
Elaine

"I was sick for years and went to many doctors.  At first I was told I had Rocky Mountain spotted fever, The doctor treated me for 1 year with strong antibiotics and the pills started to take their toll on me and I was not any better, in fact I was worse.  Other doctors had no idea what could be wrong, some said maybe an infection somewhere in my body, some thought Lymes Disease.  Finally one doctor found out I had hyperthyroidism.

I was told I could get treated with radio-active iodine.  I was so sick and losing weight I said that I would try it.  I was given the  radio-active iodine and started to see an improvement, but two months later after the treatment, my face swelled up from my eyes all the way to the top of my mouth.  When I went to my Endocrinologist, he told me that there were no side effects from that radio-active iodine (which I don't believe him, because nothing was ever wrong with my eyes and face before the treatment).  My internist had me go for a brain scan to make sure that I had no tumors, he put me on Levoxyl for the thyroid, (what's left of it).  It took 1 year for the swelling to go down in my face, but my eyes stayed swollen and hurt something bad.  My doctor told me it was from the thryoid.  He said the only thing would be plastic surgery to correct it.

I am not worried about how it looks, my eyes are so swollen, they keep tearing,  and the constent pain is making me so depressed.  Advil helps me somewhat.  I am so disgusted with these doctors.  Sometimes I wonder if they know what they are doing.  I thought once I had the radio-active iodine that I wouldn't have any more problems.  Neither doctor, the Endocrinologist or my Internist ever told me that this could happen to me, in fact my internist when he first saw the swollen face, didn't know what to think.  I don't know where or who to turn to with this problem anymore.  When I came across your story, etc. I couldn't believe it, I thought I was alone in the world with this."

Elaine