The dreaded pred

For the past two days my double vision has gotten worse, and so has the tic and the lid retraction, so I refilled my prescription for a prednisone burst. 60 mg. for 4 days, then 40 for the next 10. It has some effect, which I only realized after going off of prednisone a couple weeks ago and getting more swelling. It also had the added (and unusual) side effect of wiping out my appetite.

But the thing bothering me is a narrowing field of vision that is not double. I still can do most work and read without moving my head too much, but if I look 40° up from the horizon, now I see double. One image slides below the other and goes cocked counterclockwise a bit. It used to be better—more toward the utter limits of my visual field.

I see that my clinical assignment for the coming semester is at the same hospital and with the same teacher as before. None of us were supposed to get the same hospital assignment, but I did, almost certainly because some sympathetic instructor wanted me to have a more manageable level of stress.

Let's just hope I don't scare the patients with a piercing, wall-eyed glare . . .

According to Mary Shomon's book, Living Well with Graves' Disease, only 38% of people with double vision have it go away on its own. Poop and double poop.