Recently, I interviewed Linda, who faced sudden double vision and eye changes that no one could explain at first. What began as mild symptoms quickly turned into Thyroid Eye Disease (TED), forcing her to make tough decisions on when to move beyond homeopathic care and consider Tepezza. We talk about what finally made a difference, what didn’t, and how she kept her immune system and hope strong through it all. If you would prefer to listen to the interview you can access it by Clicking Here.
Dr. Eric Osansky:
Welcome to another Save My Thyroid health audit. I am chatting with Linda here. Very excited to have this conversation. How are you doing today, Linda?
Linda:
I’m doing well, Eric.
Dr. Eric:
You were diagnosed with Graves’ in May 2023. We will talk about some of your Graves’ journey and your thyroid eye disease (TED). Quick question: How did you discover me?
Linda:
I wish I knew now. I am always looking on the internet for resources and opportunities. I saw your website and thought it looked helpful and interesting. I subscribed to the podcast, and I began to read the things that you posted. I got your first book, which was really so helpful.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful, thank you for listening and reading. I do appreciate that.
History of Graves’ that started a little over two years ago. You dealt with double vision. You had Tepezza, which I’d like to talk about. You saw a naturopath, who tried some things. If you could take a few minutes and give a little bit of your backstory, so everyone can hear some of the things you’ve tried.
Linda:
My symptoms began in January 2023. The way the health care system works, I didn’t get my endocrinologist appointment for four months. They were completely willing to let me be untreated.
Because of that, I decided to go to a naturopath I had worked with years ago when I had an autoimmune flare, is what she called it. She immediately did a food sensitivity test. Within two weeks, many of the symptoms had dissipated, which was helpful since the western medical model was they put me on a beta blocker because they didn’t want me to have the thyroid storm?
Dr. Eric:
The thyroid storm, yes.
Linda:
That was all I had to help me stay healthy. I feel like an autoimmune illness came after a series of very stressful events that I handled as best I could, but I realize I was not in a good place emotionally, spiritually. Physically, I was fine. In hindsight, I realize that was what set me off in that.
The first symptom I had was double vision. I am a big tennis player, and I wasn’t seeing the ball well. I didn’t understand what was going on. I went to my optometrist who said there was nothing wrong with my eyes. Then I went to my regular medical doctor who did some initial tests and said I was tracking for hyperthyroidism.
Dr. Eric:
Double vision you had before you were diagnosed with Graves’?
Linda:
Yes. No one said anything about TED for nine months, even though my primary, constant, and current symptom is double vision.
Dr. Eric:
Okay. Did you have other eye symptoms? Did you have bulging?
Linda:
I did begin to get a little bit of bulging after a year and a half, which is what led me to consider Tepezza.
Dr. Eric:
Prior to going through the Tepezza, that was when you received some other treatments, like the homeopathy and IV ozone?
Linda:
Yes, that’s right. My naturopath had very good results with homeopathic drops, so I was on those for maybe nine months. There was no resolution of the double vision, so she suggested these oxygen infusions.
After the first one, the double vision did go away, but it came back. I did a series of them, and it did not- Some of my antibodies also went down. They hit a plateau, where it wasn’t working.
She also did a heavy metal test. Years and years ago, when I had some high antibodies, she did the heavy metal testing and did a detox program, and the antibodies went down. We also did that, and I tested high for lead. I don’t know why lead somehow seems to find its way into my body, despite all my efforts. We did go through one of the detoxes.
It’s all very expensive. I used to have a health HSA, but I don’t have one anymore. I had to constantly be thinking about how much I could spend.
Dr. Eric:
Yeah, I get it. When I dealt with chronic Lyme in 2018, I also went the IV ozone route and had a few dozen sessions. Definitely pricey. I had that combined with the UV light. I do think it helped.
In my situation, I don’t know if I absolutely needed that because it’s not getting rid of Lyme. I had Lyme and bartonella. It’s just helping with the immune system. Like you said, it can be pricey in general, seeing naturopaths, functional medicine practitioners like myself.
You gave it a try. The homeopathy you did for nine months, and you didn’t see much progress, so you switched to IV ozone. Didn’t seem like it helped much with the double vision outside of the first visit, but it helped with the antibodies. The heavy metal testing as well. Did some detox protocols to help with lead.
About a year and a half later, after dealing with double vision, you did Tepezza. It’s eight infusions three weeks apart, correct? You went through one of those rounds? Did it help at all?
Linda:
Yes. It did. I can visually, for people who can see, my double vision kept getting worse and worse. I would change the prescription and order another pair of glasses from Zenni because I had ordered my first ones through my optometrist. It was so expensive, but it really helped.
Then I found out on my own through my research about prism glasses. None of my caregivers said anything about prism glasses as an option. My optometrist said it could help, but my eyes will change. They kept changing, and I kept changing the prescription. That did help immensely to get rid of the double vision. It was getting worse.
The Tepezza was the last resort. Even my ophthalmologist had seen a lot of symptoms. She was a little hesitant. She said I could stop any time I wanted. She said I could even lower the dose. I felt some agency going into the process.
It did help. All the inflammation in my eyes went away. It was very mild bulging, but everybody said my eyes looked so much better. And the double vision got less. In other words, when I wake up in the morning, I have a pair I put on. The morning is always difficult. For the first hour, the double vision is the worst. After an hour, it resolves. Then I wear the glasses that have the least amount of prism in them. It did help with it but did not eliminate it. There are times during the day where it just goes away.
Dr. Eric:
I haven’t had a lot of patients go through Tepezza, but I’ve had a few. It does seem to work well with bulging. The double vision, depends. Some people, it doesn’t seem like it does much. With you, it sounds like it helped but didn’t get rid of it completely. With the bulging, the inflammation, it greatly helped.
There were some side effects?
Linda:
I had the best experience I could have had. I had a friend who had just horrible cramping at night. What I did was get some compression socks, and I would wear them after each treatment for 2-3 days. Once in a while, I had pretty light cramping that went away with rubbing my calf, which was completely no big deal.
The other side effect is my nails became extremely brittle. Even though I stopped in March, another ophthalmologist said it’s still in my system. Give it some time. I’m giving it some time. That was it. Those are very doable side effects given what I’ve heard from other people.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. I had one male patient who temporarily lost his hearing for a few months.
Linda:
I was terrified of the hearing loss.
Dr. Eric:
It depends on the person. I heard the numbers. I don’t know how accurate, but 10%. You could look at it either way. 90% won’t get hearing loss. To me, 10% is still a large enough number where 1/10, that’s not good. The ringing in the ears, the tinnitus, same thing.
It sounds like it worked well. Minimal side effects. I’m guessing if you had to do it all again, you would? You don’t regret the Tepezza experience?
Linda:
In hindsight, I would have done it sooner. I wanted to see if there was any way not to do it. Western medicine has its place. All my life, I have always done my best to avoid it. Honestly, with this disease, it’s the first time I’ve ever been on medication my whole life, which I feel grateful for.
Dr. Eric:
That’s great. A bummer you had to take Tepezza, but there is a time and place for it.
When I dealt with Graves’, I was able to avoid antithyroid medication, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and place for methimazole or PTU. Same thing with Tepezza. I’ve had some people where it made a huge difference, especially with the bulging.
If you could do without it, great. It’s not like you didn’t give it a try. You tried homeopathy, the IV ozone, diet and lifestyle changes. You can’t regret and say, “I didn’t try not to get it. I didn’t try to avoid it” because you did. You ended up getting it, and it helped with minimal side effects, so that’s great.
What current challenges if any are you having then? The eyes are still not perfect. Also, the antibodies are continuing to go down? What do you want to further improve?
Linda:
The antibodies have been- I did take the methimazole for a year and a half, I think. After I read your book, the message I got very clearly was, “It will deal with the symptoms. It will not fix it.” I was already on a very low dose. I decided to stop. I did.
I felt better in the mornings. I just felt a little more energized, and then I kept testing. The three numbers had been in normal range for six months, since I have been off the meds. I think I have two that are now in normal range. They tested four different numbers. Two are still high. It has been a very slow- They’re all going down. Even the two that are still very high are going down. That’s really the main concern, is to get those antibodies down into normal range, with the hopes that will address the double vision.
Dr. Eric:
Well, on the application, you did put that you have elevated TPO antibodies and TG antibodies. You also had TSIs. How are they looking?
Linda:
They went down. They got into normal range around January of this year.
Dr. Eric:
Okay, that’s awesome. Usually, the TSI are the ones more closely associated with Graves’. TPO antibodies are commonly found in both Hashimoto’s and Graves’, usually more closely associated with Hashimoto’s. TG antibodies are more Hashimoto’s antibodies. It’s pretty common to have antibodies for both Graves’ and Hashimoto’s.
It’s great that TSI is better. Hopefully, those other antibodies continue to go down. It sounds like you’re doing some great things.
Do you have any questions here? Do you feel by reading my book, listening to the podcast, you know what to do from this point forward? Do you feel like you’re on a good path?
Linda:
Yeah, I do all the things you talked about. I made sure to test Vitamin D, and it was great. A lot of the things you discussed in the book in terms of testing. I asked my regular medical doctor, who is wonderful. She is one of those people who believes in all different kinds of healing and treatment. if I say, “Hey, could you test me for this? Could you give me a referral for that?” she does everything she can to support my health in that way.
My naturopath had wanted me to test for diabetes. I tested the cortisol. That’s the other thing you had suggested. My naturopath had done it years ago, which came in normal as well. Everything you talked about in the book that I hadn’t been doing, I found ways to test for what was there or add some more supplements. I looked at the supplements you have for the eyes.
Dr. Eric:
The TED Bundle?
Linda:
Yeah. I was already taking two of them, so I bought the immune one, I believe.
Dr. Eric:
SMT Immune?
Linda:
Yes. The only issue at this point is my eyes and eye health. What else can I do? I am a believer that you do whatever you can, and your health is the most important thing. That should be arriving soon. I’ll add that and see if it’s helpful.
Dr. Eric:
Keep me posted.
Linda:
I will. Sorry I didn’t find your book a year and a half earlier. I did find it, and that’s what matters.
Dr. Eric:
Yeah. I wish you did, too, but it’s great that you found it. Earlier would have been better, but I’m glad you eventually found it.
You’re looking good. I have been working with Graves’ patients for 16 years. Many times, it’s really obvious the TED, when zooming with them. I didn’t see you before Tepezza, but it sounds like it made a big difference. I can’t say you looked better than you did previously, but you look really good. Hopefully, you’ll continue to improve. Sounds like you did some great things.
I wanted to have this conversation to- I’ve had one or two audits talk about TED. Not sure if I’ve had anybody who has done Tepezza. The double vision, talking about the prisms. Anything that could be helpful. The bulging is bad enough. Sometimes, the natural approach does help with that, but not always. If it doesn’t, then Tepezza can be an option to consider.
With the double vision also, talking about the prisms, they seem like they were a game changer, and nobody else mentioned that to you. There might be others dealing with double vision, who are looking to get surgery or something else. There is a time and place for that. I wanted to chat with you about your experience.
Some people might not be happy because we spoke about Tepezza and other things. Of course, my approach is to try to do everything that I can naturally. Again, there is a time and place for conventional medicine or medical intervention.
Thank you so much, Linda, for this conversation. You have made some great progress. Definitely keep me posted with that TED Bundle to let me know. Hopefully, you see some further improvements in your eyes.
Linda:
Thank you so much for everything you do and everything I’ve learned.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you. Thanks, everyone for tuning in. Hope those who are dealing with TED, whether it’s bulging or double vision, found this to be helpful. I’ve helped a lot of people over the years with TED. It is more of an immune system condition. Like I said, I’d be lying if I said 100% of people responded to the natural approach. There is a time and place for other options. Thanks for tuning in. Everyone, have an awesome rest of your day.
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