Personal Stories
BRUCE'S STORY

My name is Bruce Wiley and I am an ex commercial diver presently living on the high desert outside of Yucca Valley, California. In 1993 I was living near Albuquerque, New Mexico and in early February I began having problems with my eyes. It began with some discomfort and then double vision as I looked to the side. This was really a pain as I was heavily into rock climbing and I would look to the side to grab a hold and see two of them, no fun when you’re hanging by your fingertips 50 feet off the ground. My Optometrist started treating me for possible allergies and gave me a prescription for glasses to use for reading. My eyes kept getting worse and the vision in my right eye began to deteriorate while both eyes were bulging out noticeably. After several visits and no good answers by May, I went to a leading Ophthalmologist in the area and it only took one look at me for him to diagnose Graves’ Ophthalmopathy. I also had a secondary case of glaucoma which is not unusual with this disease. The glaucoma eventually required maximum medication to control. He sent me right over to an Endocrinologist to get the thyroid levels checked as the thyroid is usually hyperactive with Graves’. My thyroid levels were good and I was placed on 120 mg per day of Prednisone to reduce the swelling of the muscles behind my eyes. The next morning was marvelous, I could see again! By the second day though, the double vision had begun and has stayed the same until my recent surgery. By July of ’93, my vision was steadily deteriorating in spite of the prednisone and it was decided to do Orbital Irradiation to my eye muscles in an attempt to stabilize them. The procedure is a series of 10 doses of radiation focused on the muscles for a total exposure of 2000 Rads. By this time I could no longer work as my vision was horrible (legally blind) and my color vision was shot. By the end of the radiation treatments, some vision was returning to me. This was really noticeable with the color red. It was still another year of up and down on the doses of prednisone though before my eyesight started to stabilize at close to normal. The Graves’ apparently had ceased its attack on my eye muscles. During the time of blindness (almost a year and a half) I continued to rock climb often and built a 16 foot boat with a big magnifying glass. I kept busy tending to my donkey, goats and other animals and housework was easy, it never looked dirty to me! In January of ’94 I had a small heart attack I attribute at least partly to the prednisone. The doctor split the wall of my coronary artery while in there with the angioplasty instrument (grrrr). I was in the hospital a week and, of course, rock climbing a week later. By May of ’94, we were financially completely a mess from the lack of medical insurance and had to leave our home and move in with my sister for several months in Livermore, CA. My family and friends have just been incredible throughout the whole adventure. In October, we moved to our present area so I could help my parents out in their later years while I am not working. By this time my vision was back close to 20/20 although there is some nerve damage and the double vision was terrible. In November of ’96 I had Strabismus surgery to straighten out the double vision. It has helped dramatically although my right eye still wanders around some. My eyes continue at this time, four years later, to recede into my head nicely but I do still have many health problems attributable to this disease. My pleasure now is to work with older folks that have Alzheimer’s disease or stroke and to contribute what I can to the National Graves’ Disease Foundation’s online message board. I continue to climb lots of rock as by coincidence, I live in one of the best areas for it in the country! We have a 40 acre ranch where our donkeys, goat and me can run loose in the wilderness. I love it. Bruce Back to "Personal Stories"

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