Anyone have surgery to correct an eye turning in?

[BZeto]

I've had strabismus since birth. Had one surgery when I was too young to remember that supposedly made it better, but it's still apparent. My parents never had me wear an eye patch and every doctor I've talked to recently has told me it's too late at my age (23).

Like others, my active vision comes from my dominant eye. The other (right eye in my case) just gives me some peripheral. I can switch between them but it really does take a lot of mental concentration for me. If something obstructs the view of my dominant eye then the other will take over.

The lazy eye appearance usually isn't too obvious with me, but everyone eventually notices if they hang around me for a while. It has caused a fairly huge self confidence problem when talking to others that I'm still working on getting over (by forcing myself to maintain eye contact and trying not to think about my eyes). Having contacts in or glasses on will straighten my weak eye. When I'm tired or intoxicated it's almost impossible to keep both eyes aligned It's something that I'd really like to get fixed eventually. But like JLee I don't want to take the risk of it becoming worse. I've also heard stories of the surgeries working and a year later the eye is back to it's original position.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: BZeto
I've had strabismus since birth. Had one surgery when I was too young to remember that supposedly made it better, but it's still apparent. My parents never had me wear an eye patch and every doctor I've talked to recently has told me it's too late at my age (23).

Like others, my active vision comes from my dominant eye. The other (right eye in my case) just gives me some peripheral. I can switch between them but it really does take a lot of mental concentration for me. If something obstructs the view of my dominant eye then the other will take over.

The lazy eye appearance usually isn't too obvious with me, but everyone eventually notices if they hang around me for a while. It has caused a fairly huge self confidence problem when talking to others that I'm still working on getting over (by forcing myself to maintain eye contact and trying not to think about my eyes). Having contacts in or glasses on will straighten my weak eye. When I'm tired or intoxicated it's almost impossible to keep both eyes aligned It's something that I'd really like to get fixed eventually. But like JLee I don't want to take the risk of it becoming worse. I've also heard stories of the surgeries working and a year later the eye is back to it's original position.

Yep, sounds like mine- except I don't have much difficulty switching between eyes and contacts or glasses will not straighten anything..at all. If it's inactive, my right eye will turn in a lot more than my left...so whenever I get photos taken, I prefer to be using my right eye because it doesn't look as bad..

 

[Itchrelief]

Originally posted by: xboxist
When my mother was in her late 30s, she went to bed one night with a bad headache, and woke up the next day with an extreme lazy eye. Like 2x as worse as the OP's pic. It baffled the hell out of doctors and area specialists and put my mom into a deep depression. Luckily with time (about 3 months) and daily rehab/exercises for the eye, it corrected itself.

I don't know if any of that is relevant, but I thought I'd share.

OK, as she got better, I feel less like an ass for saying that this story made me chuckle at the WTFness of this story.

edit:
damn, there sure are a lot of us crosseyed folks on this forum

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Itchrelief

Originally posted by: xboxist
When my mother was in her late 30s, she went to bed one night with a bad headache, and woke up the next day with an extreme lazy eye. Like 2x as worse as the OP's pic. It baffled the hell out of doctors and area specialists and put my mom into a deep depression. Luckily with time (about 3 months) and daily rehab/exercises for the eye, it corrected itself.

I don't know if any of that is relevant, but I thought I'd share.

OK, as she got better, I feel less like an ass for saying that this story made me chuckle at the WTFness of this story.

edit:
damn, there sure are a lot of us crosseyed folks on this forum

Way more than I expected! :Q

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Itchrelief

Originally posted by: xboxist
When my mother was in her late 30s, she went to bed one night with a bad headache, and woke up the next day with an extreme lazy eye. Like 2x as worse as the OP's pic. It baffled the hell out of doctors and area specialists and put my mom into a deep depression. Luckily with time (about 3 months) and daily rehab/exercises for the eye, it corrected itself.

I don't know if any of that is relevant, but I thought I'd share.

OK, as she got better, I feel less like an ass for saying that this story made me chuckle at the WTFness of this story.

edit:
damn, there sure are a lot of us crosseyed folks on this forum

Way more than I expected! :Q

It's what happens when you watch to much porn.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Itchrelief

Originally posted by: xboxist
When my mother was in her late 30s, she went to bed one night with a bad headache, and woke up the next day with an extreme lazy eye. Like 2x as worse as the OP's pic. It baffled the hell out of doctors and area specialists and put my mom into a deep depression. Luckily with time (about 3 months) and daily rehab/exercises for the eye, it corrected itself.

I don't know if any of that is relevant, but I thought I'd share.

OK, as she got better, I feel less like an ass for saying that this story made me chuckle at the WTFness of this story.

edit:
damn, there sure are a lot of us crosseyed folks on this forum

Way more than I expected! :Q

It's what happens when you watch to much porn.

We're born with it.

FYI.

 

[Mo0o]

Hmm... consult a surgeon about it if you're really worried about the cosmetic effects.

 

[ShinmenTakezo]

I just wanted to clarify some of the terms being used since this is somewhat of a complicated medical condition. Strabismus (commonly referred to as "lazy eye") is an umbrella term for any misalignment of the eyes, under which there are many specific diagnoses. Amblyopia is the loss of vision in an eye due to abnormal development of the visual cortex of the brain. Untreated strabismus can lead to amblyopia, since chronic misaligment of the eyes will cause diplopia (double vision). The brain will suppress the input from the deviated eye in order to have a single image, which is what causes the evental loss of vision. The treatment, as several people have mentioned, is to patch the deviated eye, but this has to be initiated before the age of 8, otherwise it will not be effective. It sounds like JLee had this done and if done properly will preserve visual acuity in the deviating eye.

That being said, one concern is that the description of the symptoms in the OP, esotropia (turning in of the eye), on both sides, may be some sort of convergence issue as opposed to some sort of intrinsic abnormality of the extraocular muscles. Depending on which it is, surgery may or may not be indicated as a treatment. The second concern, which has already been mentioned, is that after having lived with his eyes in this condition for so long, his brain may not tolerate the sudden re-alignment of the eyes, leading to permanent diplopia (double vision). One possible way of testing how the correction will be tolerated is to temporarily correct the alignment of the eyes by injecting the extraocular muscles with Botox. This way the alignment will only last for several months and will give ample time to show whether diplopia will be a problem or not. Depending of the results of the Botox trial, surgical correction can be considered afterwards.

My suggestion would be to see an ophthalmologist for referral to a neuro-ophthalmologist or neuro/oculoplastics specialist. To my knowledge, strabismus isn't a contraindication for LASIK or refractive surgery, but I would probably hold off until you see what the specialist's thoughts are with regards to having it before or after any potential surgery for correcting alignment.

 

[CFster]

I had surgery to correct one of my eyes turning outward about 34 years ago - when I was 7. All I know is the procedure involved making one of the muscles shorter. Also, that it was recommended that I have the operation at as young an age as possible.

I do remember seeing double vision for what seemed like a long time after they took my patch off. Probably was only a couple of days or so, but to a seven year old it seemed like weeks. I remember walking into furniture and stuff.

 

[Nik]

I'm sorry JLee I don't mean to poke fun, you're an awesome cop and all, but I wouldn't be able to stop giggling if I got pulled over for speeding and had to watch you staring at the tiny print on my license. I'd be like woohoo I'm gettin out of this one and some other poor sap is gonna get a ticket :laugh:

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Nik
I'm sorry JLee I don't mean to poke fun, you're an awesome cop and all, but I wouldn't be able to stop giggling if I got pulled over for speeding and had to watch you staring at the tiny print on my license. I'd be like woohoo I'm gettin out of this one and some other poor sap is gonna get a ticket :laugh:

20/15 vision, pal.

I wrote a ticket the other day. 57mph in a posted 35mph zone, approaching a residential area.

Our dispatcher got a call from the hotel concierge, explaining that Mr. So-and-so was tired and not paying attention..and wanted to know if we could void the ticket. Dispatcher goes 'Ma'am, those are exactly the types of people we give tickets to- that's dangerous driving behavior.'

:laugh:

 

[alkemyst]

QFT...lazy eye <> distance vision problems.

CFster, they wanted me to do that too around that age....(I am 37), my eye doesn't wander now except when I am overly tired.

LASIK and the like that were brought up will not fix this directly. They may be needed secondary though if glasses or contacts are not an option.