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Maxine Cooper
  Shortly after I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, I also
developed double vision. My neurologist referred me also to Dr Alper.
He prescribed prism glasses for me too. My right eye could not look up,
and the extreme effort it made to track with my left eye was very
painful -- once or twice I nearly fainted from the pain.
  He showed me in a CRT scan that the muscles behind my right eye were
terribly swollen. But he and my endocronologist both said that this
condition was a result of an extremely hyperactive thyroid condition
that I had experienced about six months before, or more. In fact this is
one of three conditions accompanying hyperthyroidism that qualify it as
Graves disease. They also agreed that it was not related to Parkinson's
disease.
  Do you remember that George and Barbara Bush both had Graves
disease? The secret service, or somebody, was testing the water, and
everything else, in the White House, and at Kennebunkport, for some
element that might have affected both of them. It is highly unusual for
two people in the same family to be afflicted at the same time with that
ailment. They might have been looking in the wrong place --- I mean to
drop George a note some day (BG) --- they really should have been
checking up on the environment at Yale University. We were all three at
Yale at the same time after the war!
  Six months later my double vision had not changed much, if at all. Dr
Alper commented then that since it had not improved at that time, it
probably never would. If it had become worse, he might have attempted to
correct it surgically.
  Actually, now, perhaps a year and a half later, my double vision has
improved greatly. For one thing, my right eye learned to live peacefully
with the left, and not try so hard, and painfully, to track with the
left. Also, the need for my prism glasses is not so great. I still wear
them to drive, because of the law. I also wear them to read, so I can
see. And often I wear them when I am tired and want to watch only one
football game at a time. It would be all right if I could tune the two
TVs to different stations.
  I have not seen Dr Alper for a long time now, because of some other
distractions. I suspect that the swelling of the muscles behind my eye
has diminished a lot, and that I should have a new prescription (ouch!).
  And so, there is hope for your husband that his eye condition might
not become any worse, and that it might even improve, as mine has. Don't
we all wish that the same was true of Parkinson's disease.
 
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