Gayle’s Story

This is an incredible story of Gayle’s blurry vision in her right eye with clear tissue damage, and which completely went away after being on natural desiccated thyroid…while doctors told her it had nothing to do with her hypo.

A year ago I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Frankly, I was so sick at the time I felt like I was dying!

Around the same time I was having problems with my right eye. It seemed to be blurry in the lower outside corner. I went to the ophthalmologist and after extensive tests he said that I had swelling in the back of my eyes that was affecting the retinas. He showed me computer scans of the damage to my eyes. It was extensive and scared me half to death. I remember asking at the time if it could be caused by hypothyroidism. He said no, yet didn’t have any explanation for what was happening. His solution was to “come back and six months and see what happens”. You can well imagine what I thought of that! Since both the eye problem and hypothyroidism coincided, my intuition said that they had to be related, so I was determined to find out more.

When I was diagnosed with the hypo, like most, I had started on Levothyroxine. Then I started doing research. I went to the book store and purchased all the books I could find on hypothyroidism. I started with what appeared to be the most interesting book, “Stop the Thyroid Madness” by Janie, and was astonished at the list of symptoms that I had for years, yet was told my thyroid test was fine!

I spent the next two weeks reading everything I could get my hands on regarding hypothyroidism, including the STTM website and the yahoo natural thyroid groups. After my research I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to be on natural thyroid and in June was fortunate enough to get the doctor to switch me to Armour. The curious thing about the eye issue was that each time I felt as though I needed to raise my dosage of either Levo or Armour, the blurriness came back. As my hypo got worse, so did my eye.

Since that time, I have been an avid researcher, spending many hours reading posts on the yahoo groups, as well as anything else I can find regarding hypothyroidism. I will never again be an uninformed patient believing that the doctor knows best. I spent too many years being ill because of my blind trust in doctors, and only after my dogged persistence am I able to say I am finally getting well.

Well, good news! I had a thorough eye exam in November and to my astonishment there was no sign of any problem whatsoever in the back of my eye. I once again told the eye doctor that I thought it was caused by the hypo but he kind of blew me off, saying he never heard of the thyroid causing that. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t take any “expert’s” word on thyroid issues anymore, I KNOW (with that inner knowledge we all have about our own bodies) that the two are related, I just wish that the medical community would be more open to the concept of the patient knowing from experience what is wrong. We are treated as though we are strangers in our own bodies.

Important notes: All the information on this website is copyrighted. STTM is an information-only site based on what many patients worldwide have reported in their treatment and wisdom over the years. This is not to be taken as personal medical advice, nor to replace a relationship with your doctor. By reading this information-only website, you take full responsibility for what you choose to do with this website's information or outcomes. See the Disclaimer and Terms of Use.