Orbital Decompression - Prairie Village, KS

I will be providing a photo journal of my experience in the Orbital Decompression medical restoration process from the disfigurement that Graves Eye Disease/Graves Disease did to me. I will provide before during and after photos and journalism if there is space to do so. This disease progressed so quickly I didn't even recognize myself after 3.5 years of having the disease

I lay wake at night thinking about the surgery... I think not knowing what the results will be and how many times I may have to have surgery to correct my eyes is a more of why I think about it so much. I could be the lucky candidate that the first time I have surgery I won't have to have any more decompression surgery. I'm trying to get everything in order. I don't want to lose my any level of my eyesight as I love doing photography and I am worried some how the surgery could affect my vision. Graves Disease... When I first learned about it and that I had it I thought I was going to die and that is why they called it Graves disease. Lol...I am a strong woman and have gone through much more than this. So why am I so weary of this surgery? It is suppose to help me. Could be the possible side effects I've read about that have permanent numbness of the face. Or that the muscles in the eyes turning so that the eyes are crooked. That one is really scary to me. I don't want to look more monsterous than I already do. I just want to look normal again that's all. I want to look like me again before I got sick with this disease. Too many thoughts. Its time for me to go enjoy my birthday and stop worrying. The surgery will help me. It's just going to be a process of time like any other medical issue.

We leave for Kansas City tomorrow morning at 4AM. It is a 4 hour drive to the Surgical Center. I am suppose to check in by 8:30 AM and I am scheduled for 10:30AM surgery. I have done everything I can to prepare myself for surgery. I studied as much of everything that I could, watched videos, asked doctors, visited several doctors for their opinion ( with each concluding to the same end)... "You have a medical need for Orbital Decompression."
I have prayed, fasted, prayed more and asked God to be with me. This is not an easy thing for me. I need my vision. I do photography and I enjoy it very much and it is also part of my work. I am single and this disease has kept me single.
The psychological effect in the physical disfigurement has taken me from being a very outgoing person to becoming a complete recluse. My children have stopped asking me to go to the mall or anywhere with them because I am too embarrassed to go out in the public and I will only do so if I have an assignment of work. I hide behind the largest sunglasses I can find. I altered my going out shopping to daytime only and at the same time of assignments because that way I limit and have an excuse to always be wearing sunglasses.
I have to read a lot of papers in the assignments I have and looking through very dark lens is not easy but people stare at me if they see me without my sunglasses and people can be very cruel. Their stares alone make me want to shrink away and the innocent child is brutally honest in what they see...
When the weather changes to rain, snow or moisture, the pressure in my eyes becomes unbearable and it hurts a lot.
I want just want to look normal again and not have bulging eyes or sagging facial muscles that have fallen and remained broken by the disease. The bags under my eyes make me look like I have permanent black eyes.
But all is not hopeless. I have taken the first step to recovery. The Graves Disease is subsiding, the surgery will help fix a lot of what is wrong and I am on the right path to restoration. I pray all the work completed by Dr. Sokol to help restore me be blessed by God.
The pictures I am posting tonight is the night before the 1st surgery right eye. So here we go, the journey to restoration is about to begin...I'm scared but I'm determined.