Look for special eye doctor

[themack89]

I'm between a rock and a hard place.

I have a unique case of bad eye sight and a semi-wandering eye. My eye doesn't permanently wander, really just when its tired. My eye sight with my wandering eye is worse than my eye sight with my good eye, so the Lasik guys are not recommending me to get vision corrective surgery (in case they fuck up my good eye, I am effectively blind).

My optometrist said I don't have the type of wandering eye that surgery can fix because it isn't permanently stuck in wander-mode. It's just weak muscles somewhere in my head.

I asked him to recommend me to an eye doctor who would do therapy with me to help me make it stronger. He ignored my request.

Anybody have ideas on what I should do? I don't want to be crazy eyes when I am older.

[killramos]

I had surgery for the same thing last christmas. It wasn't permanent wandering either and when they did they testing at the rockyview they said i had one of the weirdest cases they had ever seen. It was also quite severe ( intermittent double vision) and i had the surgery because my optometrist was concerned about vision loss.

As such i recommend going for a consult at the Mitchell Eye Center, particularly with Dr Yau. The process from consult to surgery took me about 6 months. And the surgery recovery REALLY sucks (sutures on your eyeball).

However with the surgery a problem i had for years was completely fixed, no negative to vision. And they don't operate on your good eye so you don't have that risk. As you have vision problems it should be covered entirely by Alberta healthcare as a plus ( which is good because some provinces consider it cosmetic). I have read online though that the success rate for 18+ year olds is quite low so i might be an odd case.

My surgery was particulary done to fix the weak muscles so it sounds like it could be an option for you.

[lint]

My son had similar eye problems and was diagnosed with strabismus and intermittant exotropia by AHS, and they pretty much only do surgeries. Researching the numbers (successful correction, number of surgeries required before adulthood), I wasn't convinced it was the best option and looked for treatment like yourself. I found out about vision therapy and we took him here http://www.visiontherapycalgary.com/. He went through about 20 sessions with eye exercises, learning to use both eyes, and his eyes have been much better. When he's really tired an eye will still wander, but he's > 80% better and no multiple surgeries.

The big problem, vision therapy isn't covered by AHS, so you'll need to pay out of pocket for the treatment (or use health spending)


Some additional info
Strabismus http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/strabismus.htm

intermittant extropia http://www.strabismus.org/intermittent_exotropia.html

Alternatives to surgery http://www.children-special-needs.org/vision_therapy/success_stories/alternative_to_surgery.html

feel free to pm me if you want to discuss further

[killramos]

Vision therapy is similar to patching a lazy eye from what i understand.

What my surgeon told me is that past the age for 12-14 you do not have effective neuroplasticity to correct on your own in the vast majority of cases. Hence Surgery being the only option for adults.

:dunno:

[lint]

Vision therapy is about rewiring the brain to make use of both eyes. Patching is an effort to strengthen one eye, but that's not always the reason for the problem. Patching is the only treatment prescribed by AHS prior to surgery. Strabismus (eye turn) and amblyopia (lazy eye) are related but not the same condition. There's a difference between muscles not being strong enough to pull the eye, and the brain not using the muscles because it only wants to see out of the other eye.

[themack89]

I suppose I should have mentioned that I wore an eye patch from kindergarten until the end of grade 2. First pair of glasses in grade 3.

I can't say for certain, but it seems to me that it didn't make a big difference because the wandering still bothers me a lot.

Lint what was involved in those therapy sessions? And what is the success rate for adults? I am 25 years old.

I'd rather explore the therapy option before surgery because its a pretty big decision to fuck around with your eye sight using a knife.

[trieu]

Originally posted by killramos
Vision therapy is similar to patching a lazy eye from what i understand.

What my surgeon told me is that past the age for 12-14 you do not have effective neuroplasticity to correct on your own in the vast majority of cases. Hence Surgery being the only option for adults.

:dunno:
Third year optometry student here, vision therapy and patching are different things. Patching is used to treat amblyopia in which one eye is weaker and is effectively shut down so it isn't used anymore, therefore you patch the better eye to re-wire your brain to use the worse seeing eye. Depending on how OP's eyes are turning (strabismus), vision therapy could help. Also there are evidenced based studies that do say that vision therapy can work after 7 years old. Anyways, OP I think you should find a optometrist in Calgary that does VT because there could be something that can help before you resort to surgery.

[firebane]

Originally posted by themack89
I suppose I should have mentioned that I wore an eye patch from kindergarten until the end of grade 2. First pair of glasses in grade 3.

I can't say for certain, but it seems to me that it didn't make a big difference because the wandering still bothers me a lot.

Lint what was involved in those therapy sessions? And what is the success rate for adults? I am 25 years old.

I'd rather explore the therapy option before surgery because its a pretty big decision to fuck around with your eye sight using a knife.

I'm not as severe as you but go through most of the same symptoms as well as wore a patch for a few years when I was a kid.

My vision isn't THAT bad but just as you I have a wandering eye when I'm really tired.

[lint]

looks like there's success stories for adults, but give them a call and discuss. the cost was $100/session. they assess your condition and then put together a program of exercises. quite a variety of things to make you use both eyes. near focus/far focus, quick switching, 3d images, range of focus, colored acetate, etc. they showed him how do do them in the session and then he'd have homework for the week. go back next week for another assessment and maybe change the exercises. my son had ~20 sessions