BOWIE, Md — Around 2006, LaQuilla Harris says she started to experience issues with her eyes.
They would get watery, she felt a grittiness when she would blink, and over time it grew to an excruciating pain.
Hear about LaQuilla Harris' journey:
After a while, she says her left eye traveled up into her head, and she could no longer see it, so she started wearing an eye patch.
And after several doctor's visits, she was diagnosed with Graves' disease.
"Graves' is one of those autoimmune diseases that, um, it inflames. You know, um, it inflames, it causes the thyroid to get, to get bigger back in your throat," says LaQuilla Harris.
She says because it went undiagnosed for so long, the Graves' disease progressed into Thyroid Eye Disease or TED.
"So dealing with Graves' and dealing with TED, it shouldn't have taken me 7 clinicians to get to the proper diagnosis if someone had have taken their time and diagnosed me properly or just they heard me but they wasn't listening."
After surgeries, she was able to get her left eye back into place, but things continued to get worse after that.
She ended up losing her vision completely in both eyes for seven years.
"TED will go in remission, it will come out of remission, and the sad part about it for me is when it comes out of remission, it attacks my vision constantly, so I've had an enormous amount of surgeries," says Harris.
Now she is advocating for others to learn more about the hereditary disease and keep their health in check.
"It's a battle every day because every day does not mean I'm going to get up and I'm going to be able to see. I have days where I may have one eye that wants to open, the other eye just wants to stay closed,'' she says.
And although she is able to regulate her Graves' disease and TED with a routine, she says she doesn't want others to go through her pain, and early detection can help.
"I'm going to always tell people, never give up and fight with faith, because that's how I'm making it," says Harris.
Harris says she is still getting surgeries, she will be visiting her doctor later this month to talk about another upcoming surgery.
She says she is grateful she got her vision back and is able to help others dealing with the disease.
