| I'm not really an expert on this, but I do know that my nephew (on my husbands
side) had a lazy eye. He was operated on at 3 years old. He was taken into
hospital in the morning, and was out by the evening. He had to have the muscle
in the eye cut and then stitched up. He had about three stitches, with an awful
amount of blood, but other than looking bad, he did'nt seem to have any
discomfort!
So looking on the worst side, you will probably go through alot more than you
child will (mentally speaking!!)
I doubt very much if it will come to an operation, most can be done with patches
etc. so try to relax!
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| I'm also not an expert on lazy eyes, but my eyes have been operated on
twice for this condition. Once when I was four years old and again
when I was fourteen. The reason why I had to have the corrective
surgery repeated at the age of 14 was because they had "slipped back".
The doctor over corrected my eyes the second time around to allow for
the slippage and I had to wear what they called prisms for a year,
constantly at first and then gradually until they were no longer needed.
I was considered legally blind before I had the first operation because
of the fact that I had no control over the muscles in my eyes and they
would wonder constantly. At times they would roll completely and you'd
see only white. Both times I was hospitalized overnight (I don't
remember the exact length of stay, but it wasn't more then a couple of
days) and I never received any stitches (I won't get into the procedure
cause it's kind of gross). I wasn't in much pain after the surgery (I
don't remember too much about the first surgery) but I did have to wear
a patch over my eye for a while, about a week or so if I remember
correctly.
Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about this. It's quite common from
what I understand. Wait until you see the doctor before getting upset
about it.
Lori B.
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| I just entered a note under "child's surgery" about Christopher's
surgery for this. The name you're looking for, I believe, is
Strabismus. Along with strabismus (lazy eye) usually goes Amblyopia,
which simply means that the vision is not equal in both eyes. This is
a concern in children because their eyes/vision is still developing.
The brain eventually ignores the input from one eye (the weaker one),
to the point that the vision discontinues development, and eventually
all vision is lost in that eye.
Chris was diagnosed with this when he was about 2 1/2. He's 6 1/2 now.
He wears an eye patch every day, for two hours, over his GOOD eye, to
encourage his weak eye to develop normal vision. According to his Dr.
this is something that MUST be followed religiously until he's about
10, which is when the vision is pretty much developed, and loss of
sight is no longer a concern in the weaker eye. Eyeglasses have never
been suggested for him. His vision at last check was 20/25 and 20/35.
The idea is not so much to strive for 20/20 as it is to make sure that
WHATever the vision is, it's equal in both eyes.
For his initial appointment, he was dilated and the Dr. examined his
eyes physically. Before this they did a vision test (using pictures of
a b.day cake, phone, horse etc). They determined that he has small
optical nerves (a result of a diabetic mom - but no problem), and that
his left eye wanders, greater than 30 degrees when straight, greater
than 60 degrees when looking up, and less than 30 degrees looking down.
The appointment was pretty simple - remember to bring sunglasses as
being dilated can make even normal light seem *QUITE* bright.
Corrective surgery was done when he was ~4yrs old. It helped but did
not fix things completely. There's speculation that it will need to be
repeated as his upwards-looking drift has gotten much worse since
surgery. Sigh.
More than anything, it's a nuisance. It's slightly uncomfortable for
him to wear the eye patches, but after 4 years of this, he's used to
it. We don't even think about it, and sometimes we'll go out when his
eye is patched, and the reactions from people are really amazing!!
OHMIGOD!!!!!!!! WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!?!???? Once in a while his little
brother will ask to wear a patch, or we'll have to patch up a stuffed
animal (-; For the most part, it's no problem.
NOTE: Be careful about what your Dr says, ASK QUESTIONS, and make sure
they do something!! We had taken Chris to my eye Drs at first, and
they weren't going to do anything about it - just let time go by and
see what happened. Since it was getting worse, rapidly, we insisted on
a second opinion, and were sent to Lexington Eye Assoc., where they
decided that patching was necessary to save the vision in his wandering
eye, and surgery was inevitable. So, if you don't feel comfortable
with what your doctor says, seek a second opinion - we're glad we did!
Incidentally, this is a life-long problem, and they said that he will
ALWAYS need to be aware of his eyes and any wandering that could crop
up ANY time in his life.
Not to scare you, but a friend of mine's wife had a wandering eye as a
child. They operated on it, it got better, but not perfect. In Jr.
High it started wandering much worse, but no one did anything about it.
She is now legally blind in that eye - all she sees is shadows. Please
don't ignore this!
Good Luck!
Patty
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My younger brother had "lazy eye", and his experience was the same
as the last few. From around first grade and for a few years,
he had to wear a patch and do eye excercises everyday. The excercises
consisted of coloring, tracing, etc, to get the eye to focus and work
correctly. He did not have to have surgury and has nearly perfect
vision today (28 yrs old).
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