I'm having eye muscle surgery a week from Thursday. I have Strabismus (Estoropia). When I use my left eye as a dominant eye, my right eye shoots up and in under the eyelid. It's been like this for about 20 years. When I use my right eye as the dominant eye, my left eye moves in slightly. But I always had binocular vision so it wasn't really a problem. Well, about 2 months ago I started noticing that my eyes weren't looking in the same place. I was getting slightly different images. As a result, I've been pretty much looking exclusively out of my right eye with my left eye having a peripheral vision type effect. It's technically not double vision because I'm not getting 2 distinct images. My brain is blocking out the 2nd image from my left eye. Strabismus usually affects children and surgery is done early. It's somewhat (though not totally) odd for an adult to have it since it's normally taken care of as a child. I should have had surgery when I was 9 but I was on some medication that they though could be affecting the alignment. They were afraid that that they would overcorrect and if I got off the meds, the eye would would swing back in the opposite direction. So I saw a few Ophthalmologists and decided to have surgery. The guy doing the surgery has done over 8,000 of these procedures and said that on a 1-10 scale, my condition was only a 2 or 3 in terms of complexity. He'll basically go in and tighten and loosen my eye muscles. When they loosen them, they detach the muscle and reattach it further back on the eye. When they tighten it, they detach the muscle, cut a bit of it off, and reattach it where it was. There's no guarantee I'll get my binocular vision back. But considering that I've had it my whole life, I'll probably get it back. If I had never had it, the surgery probably wouldn't do anything except to better align the eyes. Has anybody(or their children) had this done? Care to share some experiences?
I had surgery when I was 3 i think. I have Amblyopia.. my right eye is dominant and I guess my left eye isn't really used. It doesn't move around though unless I'm focusing from far to near really quickly and even then no one can tell. I didn't even know it was possible for adults to have muscle surgery. Last I heard ( 4 years ago) once you reach a certain age, its really difficult to fix. Amblyopia for example is not able to be fixed at my age (22). It is known as lazy eye but like I said, you can't tell. Its not like the Tmac eye. Anyway good luck. I also have something called "crocodile tears." Its when there is a nerve in your neck that is stimulated when you swallow food and it causes one eye to water really bad. That happens to me almost every time I eat, the tears just run out of my right eye. I usually can't even tell.
I did it four months ago. It is covered by my insurance, so I only need to pay $100. Basically as an adult, it is just like a cosmetic surgery. But by correcting it, you look more normal and more sociable with normal people. Research demonstrated that people with strabismus earn less than normal people on average. I guess that's why strabismus surgery is covered by most insurance.
I'm sorry I don't have a similar experience to share Cannonball, but in contrast to brother A-Train's humor, I will add some sap. I'm sure you will be fine, I'll say a prayer for you man! Let us know how it goes.
Most of the time, it's not noticeable. If I'm looking straight at somebody, you can't tell. But if I have to glance to the left of focus with the left eye, it's very noticeable. The first Ophthalmologist I went to didn't understand that even though I wasn't having double vision, that my vision had changed. He tried to make it seem like it was purely cosmetic. If it was cosmetic, I wouldn't have waited 20 years. I used to wear glasses with prisms to guide the eyes into alignment. But I've been wearing contacts almost exclusively for the past 5 or 6 years. I never wore my glasses. That might have been a mistake. The surgery is covered by my insurance. I have a $1000 deductible then the insurance pays 80% after that. But I've met my deductible for the year already because I had ear surgery. So this should only cost me around $500. I'm 27 and I had never had surgery 'til this year. Now I have 2 roughly 2 months apart.
Dr. Monte Stavis 909 Frostwood, St. 334 713-467-4448 It's right next to Memorial Hermann Hospital Memorial City which is right next to Memorial City Mall. I went to another Ophthalmologist that I didn't like. Dr. Carlos Gonzales @ Houston Eye Associates. Apparently, Dr. Stavis gets a lot of patients who didn't like Dr. Gonzales either and wanted second opinions.
I had it bad as a kid had it done 3 times before the age of 7.. once when i was 14 and now im debating it for the slight cosmetic reason... DO NOT GOTO A OUTLYING HOSPITAL... Goto Houston Eye Associates... Especially Dr. Mazow.. He teaches this stuff... He has been featured by Marvin Zindler (RIP) because he would do this for kids for free.. this is all he does pretty much.. Biggest thing bout the surgey is your eye might ache a bit and itll be blood shot for a week or two thats it.... ne more questions ask em in the forum
