My eyes bulge OUT of their sockets… I’m so angry doctors blamed allergies until it was too late

WHEN Ketevan Chkhetiani’s parents pointed out that her eyes looked “puffy”, she sought medical help.

Despite the now 33-year-old never suffering allergies, doctors repeatedly blamed her swollen eyes on the likes of hay fever. It was only when Ketevan suffered sudden and excruciating pain as her eyeballs bugled out of their sockets that the hidden cause was discovered… too late to repair the damage already done.

Ketevan, from Brattleboro in Vermont, US, says: “It feels like I have to say goodbye to my past self. Physically, I’ll never look the same as I did before. I was told that by my eye doctor.

“I’m so angry that I wasn’t diagnosed sooner.”

Ketevan went to the doctor in April 2024, after her parents pointed out her eyelids looked “puffy”.

“I mentioned how I never had allergies before but he responded, ‘Well everyone gets them sometimes’ and, ‘There’s first time for everything’,” she recalls.

“It felt very dismissive.”

Ketevan was prescribed steroid eye drops, which she says were “useless”.

A second doctor gave her the same diagnosis, but as her symptoms worsened, she was left in “excruciating pain” and unable to tolerate light.

A third doctor finally carried out blood tests and diagnosed her with Graves’ disease in May 2024.

Ketevan says: “By the end of April, my eyes were double their size, they were swollen and I wasn’t able to close them.

“I’ve never had an allergy in my life and I knew there was something else going on.

“I felt gaslit into thinking everything was normal.

“After that, I just felt defeated. I felt like I was just wasting my time or wasting the doctors time constantly going.”

Graves’ disease causes the immune system to attack the thyroid – a butterfly-shaped gland in the neck that produces hormones.

According to the NHS, it affects four in five people with an overactive thyroid, which produces too many hormones.

It’s not known what causes the condition, but it mostly affects young or middle-aged women and often runs in families.

In some people, Graves’ disease can affect the eyes – causing what’s known as Graves’ orbitopathy or thyroid eye disease.

Ketevan, who has an overactive thyroid, says: “The first month of having Graves’ was the worst month of my life.

“I was in pain every single day, I couldn’t go to work, I couldn’t go outside and I was extremely photosensitive to all lights.

“The only time I could go out was during the night when it got dark.”

Ketevan’s eye pain was so intense that she had to press warm pads or ice cubes against her eyes just to cope.

If I had been diagnosed sooner, I wouldn’t have had to experience all the pain and hardship I went through and am still going through

Ketevan Chkhetiani

She also developed double and blurred vision, forcing her to give up hobbies she loved, including reading and drawing.

At the time, she had been trying to learn how to code as well, but she could no longer look at a computer screen.

Although surgery has significantly improved her appearance, Ketevan says: “It has affected my own self-confidence. People stare, kids ask what happened to my eyes.

“I hated looking in the mirror because I just felt so ugly.

“I do believe that if I had been diagnosed sooner, I wouldn’t have had to experience all the pain and hardship I went through and am still going through.

“My eyes wouldn’t have bulged out as much as they did, I wouldn’t have needed all of the surgeries and I could have had a different life rather than the difficult one I have to deal with.

“One of the long-term effects of Graves’ disease is that it can’t be fully cured.

“Just because it’s in remission, it doesn’t mean it can’t resurface and that’s what scares me the most.”

Dreams shattered

The condition doesn’t just affect Ketevan’s eyes. She says she’s experienced racing heart episodes where her heart rate soars above 120 beats per minute and refuses to slow.

The disease has also impacted her dreams of becoming a mother.

Graves’ disease can cause pregnancy complications and increase the risk of a miscarriage.

Ketevan, who lives with her boyfriend Dmitry, 33, says she has tried to conceive in the past but was unsuccessful.

Doctors have warned her that pregnancy could pose serious health risks unless her thyroid levels stabilise.

She said: “I’ve tried before to get pregnant but always failed to, my body basically acts like a natural birth control.

“I had two endocrinologists tell me that I had to have my thyroid levels stable, otherwise there were high risks of me giving birth to a child with multiple physical and psychological disabilities.

“I avoid getting pregnant which makes me sad because I’ve wanted to have kids for a long time.”

Ketevan has undergone several surgeries on her eyes to correct the bulging caused by the disease, including two orbital decompression ops in September and October last year, which involve removing part of the eye socket walls.  

Ketevan says: “Both of my orbital decompression surgeries have helped my eyes move back into my head.

“They have helped reduce my photosensitivity, blurry vision and helped to reduce dry eye. I can now close my eyes fully.”

The surgeries helped Ketevan feel a bit more like her old self. But she says she’s been left with double vision after the procedures, as her right eye recovered less well than her right. 

Stand up for yourself

“One eye looks straight while the other lags behind or continuously drifts towards my nose. Because of that I have double vision every single day,” Ketevan explains.

“I can sometimes concentrate and stop the double vision but I can’t when I’m tired. This also happens when I’m driving. 

“It really hurts my head and makes me feel dizzy when I get these constant double visions. 

“This has been going on for several months now.” 

Ketevan has the option of getting a muscle correction eye surgery to realign her eyes, but the prospect of having a third op in a year is “exhausting”.

She currently works nine hours a week as a home health aide and also runs a small business from home, making and selling quilted bags.

Ketevan says: “I feel guilty for not being able to work as much or as hard as other people do.”

Looking back, Ketevan says she wishes she had pushed harder sooner.

She added: “Know that it’s very important to advocate for yourself. If you feel like something is wrong, keep talking to your doctor about it.

“Doctors aren’t always right, your body is your own and if you feel there is something wrong, then there is.

“If I’d advocated for myself sooner instead of waiting and using the useless allergy eye drops I could have been diagnosed sooner, but I was too afraid.”