SAN DIEGO -- Pat Himmer's eyes were being pushed out the their sockets.

"I woke up one morning and my eyes were swollen," Himmer said.

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Disease Pushes Woman's Eyes Out Of Head

But the swelling under Himmer's eyes didn't stop there. "My eyes kept swelling, not just the skin, but the eyes itself," she said.

Himmer's eyes began to bulge from her eye sockets and her doctors could not figure out what was causing it (pictured, right).

Himmer found an answer to her mysterious condition at the University of California San Diego Shiley Eye Center.

Doctors diagnosed Himmer with a condition called Graves Eye Disease -- an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the muscles associated with eye.

"She became an emergency because she was one of those patients who was losing vision without intervention. She would be blind today," Dr. David Granet said.

"The tissue behind the eye got bigger and bigger along with the eye its in a box. It had no where to go except to go forward," Granet added.

Garnet and a team of specialists at the eye center brought Himmer's disease under control, restored her vision and reconstructed the bones around her eyes (pictured, left).

"We basically have taken her from non-functional and disfigured, to being fully functional and happy about herself," Granet said.

Himmer said she now believes in miracles.

"Just having my eyes back in my head was a big difference. I think they've done miracles here. I really do," she said.

Her doctors agree.

"It's miraculous when you stop someone from going blind," Garnet said.

People in the early stages of Graves disease usually experience eye dryness, redness, itching and swelling of the lids.

In more severe cases, such as Himmer's, the eyes bulge and patients may have double vision.

The Shiley Eye Center is the only center on the West Coast that has comprehensive treatment program for this disease.