Eyes Apart: Living with strabismus

By Rao on Jun 3, 2007 | Reply

Dear all,

Iam suffering from lazy eye and squint. My age is 31yrs. I was already operated once when i was 18. but with in 6 months squint came again. I am looking for botox injection or neurovision treatment in singapore.

I will be grateful to you if anybody mention some information regarding this

By Amy on Jun 10, 2007 | Reply

Hello, I am a 33 y/o that has struggled with Strabismus my entire life. I have exotropia with my left eye which wanders out. I have had a total of three surgeries my last one being in 2000 (7 yrs ago) which was successful. However, over time I am back at the same place as I was seven years ago. I just went to the specialist and I was given prisms to start with..again. My muscles are fighting during the day to stay straight and by the end of the day the eye is staying “out” resulting in double vision and severe headaches. I am in a total of 6 prism. The Dr. wants to leave surgery..again.. as a last option b/c the risk of overcorrection is greater and my eyes turn in a bit when I look up close so I would most likely need bifocals to correct that deviation. The Dr. asked me to give the prisms a few weeks adjustment period. I have had the prisms for a few days and I am still experiencing a bit of double vision and headaches. I was wondering if there is anyone out there that has experienced this (getting prisms and adjusting to them.)

By Danie on Jun 30, 2008 | Reply

Was just wondering around cyberspace and I found this!

In reply to Amy, I’m a 21-year-old who has been wearing a prism for my right eye since 2 years back and it’s been hovering between the 3-2prism.

Initially it’s hard to get used to; you think your vision is obscured, and sometimes you get headaches as well. But I find that it helps to train my eye to focus, even if the treating process is awfully slow.

What I find hard to get used to is feeling self-conscious whenever I head out wearing my prism, anyone has that problem?

By Annu on Jun 23, 2010 | Reply

Hi, I am writing for a bit of support and guidance. My daughter had 5days of high fever (105F) in Jan 2010 and a little after I noticed her eye seemed very slightly off. Then 3wks later the esotropia was very noticeable, though intermittent and the strange thing was that it was worse when she woke up and then would straighten over a couple hours. Our Pedi optho had never seen this pattern before, nor many of the other PO’s he had talked with. The Pedi optho intially was hoping it was accomodative esotropia and overcorrected her w/glasses of 2.75+, even though her nonatropine read was +1.75 and +1.5. Over the next 2months her eyes improved and we didn’t notice the crossing hardly at all. The pedi optho felt is wasn’t accomodative but just the process. He did not think a fever could have caused this. However in May my daughter had another fever and her eyes started crossing again, at first it was like before 20diopters far/30dpts near and intermittent, but then 3wks later her rt eye was turned in by 40-50diopters and more her rt eye than left and the glasses made no difference. The strange thing is that again after a few hours of being awake the eyes seem to straighten. Our PO is perplexed and wants to follow this since she is straight some of the time. He does not think she has ambylopia yet, but suggested we patch one eye in the am for 15-30min and the other eye in the pm after her nap when it crosses again and try going down on the eye rx to +1.75 and +1.5. He doesn’t want to consider surgery as her eyes are straight some of the time and he feels things are still presenting.

I am just afraid things will just continue to get worse and wish I could figure out how to stop this. We are so sad that it seemed to improve and then a 2nd fever made it much worse. We are so afraid that after every illness things may worsen.

Has anyone experienced this? We don’t know how best to help her.
Thanks for your help.

By Michael on Jun 28, 2010 | Reply

I don’t know all the technical terms but I have had crossed eyes since birth. I had two surgeries at a young age, one cut the inner eye muscle and another time the outer muscle. It was a success from a cosmetic standpoint. With corrective lenses and on a perfect day (very well rested / no reading etc) my eyes will remain straight enough that I can have casual conversation with most people not knowing. I just have to be careful to not look them in the eye too long and constantly shift focus away.

My eyes always made me feel inferior growing up…I’m 26 now and still fighting the same battle. I do have friends that accept me for who I am but I feel crippled. I don’t want to have to go into work and look at people and I don’t want them to look at me. I don’t want to go out in public any more. I don’t want to go on another job interview and have to look at someone else for that long. I would really like to meet new people, I just wish it could be in the dark with everyone wearing sunglasses.

I have dated but I have no confidence and no self esteem…the last person I was with told me my eyes were part of the problem for why there was a split. It reminds me of a Spanish movie called Motando Cabos. There is a part where a character who has strabismus is made fun of – he has a flash back and it goes from him being made fun of in school as a child, being ditched by his date on prom, and then being left at the alter by his bride with the priest saying to him “what did you expect, you’re a cross eye.”

I guess that’s how I feel sometimes, “what do I expect, I’m crossed eyed.” Destined for a life of solitude, isolation, and bitterness with little to no hope of improving my life emotionally or financially. I could really care less about improving financially, it’s the emotional aspect that really hurts me.

I was out one night with some friends and a stranger had pointed out that my eyes were crossed. I felt crushed, I just wanted to disappear. I walked away and looked in a different direction the rest of the night without speaking another word…I was far from home but contemplated jumping off the deck I was on and just running, not necessarily home but just far away from other people. I thought my eyes were straight at the time, how could they have deceived me again! I was able to leave shortly after that happened so I did not have to remain awkwardly looking into space for too long ignoring everyone.

Perhaps this most recent incident I had (although one of many) coupled with my failed relationships and lack thereof for the past 4 years has given me a dose of much needed reality…that “I am cross eyed and what do I expect” – that this anguish will never stop, that I may never find peace until I am rotted away.

On a brighter note – I always try to stay positive which can be hard to do. Despite my cynical views detailed above I want to offer some insight for perhaps a younger reader that there is always hope and life is what you make of it. You can’t change other peoples feelings but you do have the power to change your own. It’s ok to feel hurt and all these other emotions…it’s just important to recognize them and act on them so that you can make a change for the better…my plan is to carry around a flash light and shine it in peoples eyes so they can’t look at mine.

I enjoy reading other peoples stories and wanted to share just a piece of my struggle. I would love to hear how other people cope on a daily basis and if they have any advice.