Strabismus Surgery Recovery Questions, Please Help (Page 1)

I had it done and it's definitely an improvement, but it's FAR from perfect. They did it all in one day -- surgery in the morning, four or five hours of sleep, and then they adjusted it and sent me home.

Pre-surgery, it was out to the right (right eye, BTW). On a good day when I'm well-rested, not sick at all, and not hungry or dehydrated, I think it's reasonably straight. But add in any of those factors, and it turns inward. I can tell when it's happening, because I feel the slightest bit dizzy. I also realize how bad it looks at those moments, so that's when it's time to start avoiding eye contact (more than usual) and leave as soon as possible.

Like most people with varying degrees of this problem, I dread having my picture taken and I get a knot in my stomach when I call to someone across a room and they look to both sides to figure out who I'm talking to, because I'm certainly not looking at them.

Also, even when it's at its straightest, they've only corrected it for looking straight ahead. If I have to look at someone who's beside me, I can't imagine how bad it looks, because I either get laughs or total noncomprehension.

I had it done in 1999 for eyes that turned out, but it's the same surgery. As a child, I had the surgery when my eyes turned in. After the surgery, my doctor took me to the office to adjust my eyes, and they were straight. The surgery held up for eight years. Six months ago, I started having problems again, and I got special glasses with prisms in the lenses to straighten my eyes. I'm doing this not for cosmetic reasons, though I hate the eyes not being together, but because I have double vision and headaches.

Today, I have to see the eye doctor again because my eyes are once again out of focus! My doctor warned me before the surgery that there were no guarantees that it would be successful. I hope yours improves.

hi, has your eye straightened after the six monthe period??? what type of squint did you have???

my 19 month old baby had botox injections for esotropia and we are now one week post surgery.His eyes are now crossed out temporarily. but i need to know how long their going to be like that before he sees straight. I hope it's not months. How one little detail in the face can completely change how you look. I guess it reminds me of how intricately made we are . There is a God and He does care for every part of our lives.

Hi its been 2 weeks since my strabismus operation using adjustable sutures on my left eye. I am 29 years old and I've had intermittent exotropia (outward turn) since childhood (2nd grade). This was my first operation to correct my strabismus. After the operation my eye was closed. After about 1 week post-op I was reevaluated and the attending UCLA doctors were smiling as I left the room. I took this to mean things had gone well. Indeed, both functionally and cosmetically the correction has changed my life.
Here's my timeline up until now.

DAY 1: adjusted the sutures using a topical (I had no pain) he slightly overcorrected my left eye I left the office slightly crossed.
DAY 2: my eye opened seeing slightly double eye muscles feel stiff.
DAY 4: drove to work on the freeway (no lane changes) constantly swiveling my head to compensate for having little eye movement.
DAY 5: Reading with no glasses. muscles feeling looser. feels like I have two eyes no x2 vision at distance fixation.
DAY 6: Looked through both eye pieces of a microscope for the first time.
DAY 8: drove for 4.5 hours without x2 vision (could've gone another 2).
Day 12: Today my eyes feel so good now. The 6-0 vicryl sutures are almost completely dissolved. I'm aligned and my eye muscles feel pliable and my vision feels snappy. If things change I'd go through it all over. Most people (1:4) have an exophoria like mine as opposed to strabismus which is (1:20).

Before talking to an Optometrist find an Eye surgeon/Opthamologist first and get the surgery if they recommend it. Thing about strabismus is that it can only be corrected by a surgeon. I highly recommend Dr. Sherwin J. Isenberg of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. (310) 825-8840. He is a leading authority on Pediatric Opthamology and Adult Strabismus.

Thank you for the response. My baby's opthamolagist did the injections instead of surgery since it is less invasive. if this doesnt work we will definantly consult the doctor you suggested. He already has a partial detachment of one retina so we dont want him to lose anymore vision. thanks again and God bless

Be very careful about telling people that the "only way to correct Strabismus is through surgery!" This is false. I am so happy to hear about your positive experience, but Strabismus can be corrected with a COVD trained and certified vision therapist through vision therapy.
I encourage everyone to explore ALL options and surgery is just one of them.

it really depends on how bad it is im gonna be having the surgery in a few weeks because it cannot be fixxed with excercises

I tried the vision therapy several years ago. It seemed to help as long as I did the exercises daily. My right eye turned out. I was born with it but it was not a problem until about age 60.I began having less and less control.It bothered me to not be able to look people in the eye and always wondering what they were thinking.
I finally decided to have the surgery and today is day 8. I got H1N1 the day after! So been a difficult week. My eyes are "perectly" aligned according to the Dr.I saw him yesterday and go back in 6 weeks. Will need new glasses. Bottom line so far is I am thrilled! My eye is straight and I can look at people without closing one eye. I have some stange double vision but Dr says that will correct by 6 weeks. May not be pefect but it wasn't before. I am seeing in 3D!! Stuff on my desk is jumping out at me.

I just had it done yesterday. I have had adult strabismus for about 8 years - and I wore prisms for the past few years, but eventually even these were not good enough to keep my eye straight.

I had it done while awake with local anasthetics so that I could get the adjustment done during surgery to improve my chances. Pain during was minimal. My doctor was Edsel Ing at Toronto East General - an amazing doctor that I cannot recommend enough...

Only day 2, but no double vision, my eyes are aligned. I do have to turn my head since the eye is a bit tight still and not very pliable horizontally, but I think this will resolve itself. At this point - I feel like a million bucks.

O: i just had my surgery done about three weeks ago, and i LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the results. as soon as i returned home from the hospital the first day i knew it looked 100 times better than before. my right eye turned is SO much and no it lokks completely normal. i was also blind in this eye and MANY many doctors had told me that this surgery was not for me. however i went to a new speacialist and he told me that he could fix if for me. and DAYUMN he has, i would DEFFINITELY go through with this again should i have to. its an amazing feeling, im so much more comfortable with myself and i finally feel like i am able to be myself.

Did he fixed the vision? I have same problem in my left eye. But surgeon said he cant fix the vision even if he tries but i still want him to align my eye back to straight.

plz let me know

Thanks

Hi, I am also blind in one eye and will be getting the surgery in a few months, I would like to know how your eyes are now 2 1/2 years after surgery and if u needed a second surgery? Was there still difficulty with the eyes algining due to the blindness of one eye and did it drift again? Your response would be very helpful as im finding it difficult to find anyone else in the same situation. Thanks

It is so great to be on here reading everyone's stories. I just had my surgery 12 days ago. I had a very severe case of vertical and horizontal strabismus. One eye rolled up to the ceiling or the other one to the floor. One also crossed in a bit.
I did vision therapy for over a year with a COVD certified vision therapist. It was wonderful, but in the end my strabismus, as I had been told from the onset required surgery. So here I am, post op at day 12 and VERY happy to report that my eyes are aligned when looking out of one of my eyes. I am going back to my therapy this week to learn how to use my new eyes. I think this is imperative to do post op. Now it is time to teach the brain how to accept the images from my two aligned eyes!

I am 54 years, I had a severely turned out right eye I do not believe it could go any farther to the right without it disappearing into my head. I experienced life time of ridicule, you are not as dumb as you look, don't pick the cockeyed kid, hey I am over here.
I had two surgeries on my right eye prior, one when I was three and a second operation when I was twenty years old . The Doctor who performed the second surgery informed me the eye surgery did not work and there was not any more that could be done with the eye and I would have to live with it. The year was 1975.
I had a meeting with Doctor Paviglianiti (Pittsburgh, pa ) September , 2009 who I will now refer to as Dr. Pav. This is a day I will never forget, when I got to his office my stomach was in a knot and I was expecting to get the news sorry there nothing we can do for your eye, you have to live it. Nothing could have been further from the truth. When Dr, Pav came into the room he gave me eye exam unlike I ever had. We used prisms, scopes combined with charts reading combinations left to right, right to left, and test after test. When he concluded he told me that told me that originally my left eye turned in not out, I just about fell over, my whole life all I can remember is it going out to the left. Dr. Pav then told me he could straighten the eye and I felt like crying.
I had the surgery done two months later. I was in and out the same day and my eye now is perfectly straight and I did cry. God Bless Dr. Pav he is an outstanding professional and has outstanding bedside manner to match. By the way I did find an old picture of myself when I was 3 years old and my left eye did turn in. Never give up.

hiya, i had eye surgery to correct a lazy left eye, with geat results. what i would like to kno is how long do you have to wait before i can wear contact lenses again
?, and how long does it take to heal, there is a little redness in the corner of my eye,? thankyou

I am seventeen years old, I had my strabismus corrected when i was first 9 months then again at 24 months. For whatever reason after the operation my left eye, the one that was signifigant in the crossing it was look permanatly at the inside of my nose, I have no vision. I tried to patching for several months with no improvement and the eye doctors told my mom, i was six at the time that i would never get full vision back in my eye. Is this an accurate assement or is there a way to get the vision back?
Thanks,
Teu

Hello. Thanks for everyone's responses. Its great to be able hear from other people who have/had strabismus, know the struggles, and have undergone the surgery. Let me tell you my story. My experience with the surgery will be toward the end under the heading �My Surgery� (just in case you want to skip to that part).

MY STORY
I am 39 years old and live in a southwest Chicago suburb. I have lived with strabismus and double vision since I was 1 year old. My left eye and muscle was affected after I suffered an ear infection. I have worn glasses almost ever since was able to adapt to the double vision with no sight loss. I could read, play sports, and drive with little to no difficulty. However, it used to always bother me when I would look at someone and either they would wonder (through a facial response/action or, even more embarrassing, out loud) if I was really looking at them or they would purposely try to focus on the non-wandering eye. Also, as the years went on, the drifting of the eye continued to get worse.

When I was a freshman in high school, a classmate had strabismus and then, over the summer, had the corrective surgery performed. I remember the dramatic improvement it made to his appearance. I never forgot that and always kept his experience in the back of my mind.

As I was in seminary, I really began to notice in photographs just how much my eye was out of alignment (In later years, this led to my purposely rolling my eye inward and bringing the double images together so that my eyes would look straight in pictures.) During one eye doctor visit, I inquired for the first time about the corrective surgery for myself. The concern of the doctor at that point was whether or not I could handle both images of the double vision permanently moved close together. I added this experience to my freshman classmate's and tabled the idea of surgery.

In recent years, I tried working with prisms for my eye and had some good success. I couldn�t use all the prism magnitude I needed to straighten my eye out because it made me real dizzy, so, over a couple eyeglass prescriptions I was gradually increasing the pull to get my eye straight. However, the second my glasses came off�out went the eye.

MY SURGERY
Last month, with possession of really good health insurance, I finally decided I was ready to look into the possibility of something more permanent for my eye. I got serious and started checking into the surgery. After some preliminary appointments required by my HMO, I had my initial consultation with Dr. Benjamin H. Ticho of The Eye Specialists Center (40 South Clay, Suite 119E, Hinsdale, IL / phone number: 630.323.4202). He examined me, answered all the questions I had gathered over the years, and said surgery was the best option for me. I just had the surgery 9 days ago. THINGS ARE GOING GREAT!!! To correct my strabismus, I had work done on my inner, outer, and upper muscles (about an hour�s worth of surgery). My eye is just a tiny bit inward, which, from what I understand based on what I�ve read and from Dr. Ticho, is normal in the initial days and weeks after the surgery until the muscles settle in and loosen up a bit. My post-op pain was not nearly as bad as I feared and is almost totally gone. At this point, the only pain I�m still experiencing is if I move my eye to an extreme upward or downward angle, which I�m confident will also go away in time. The redness and swelling is going away at a good pace. The inner muscle is now more noticeable as it was reattached to adjust my eye and is swollen and bundled up at that point. It may continue to be noticeable to a certain degree in the years to come if I turn my eye outward. However, Dr. Ticho has said that over the next few months it will smooth itself out and not look so swollen and bunched up. It took about a week to get used to my new depth perception. I did get some mild dizziness even 8 days after the surgery if I moved my head fast and took in images quickly. I missed 3 days of work, but have been able to take on a graduated schedule of activities over the course of the last 9 days (reading, lifting, working on the computer, driving, going to public functions) and, as of today, have been released to resume my normal workload. I can�t wear any glasses yet (I�m still 20/30 and near-sighted). That will have to wait a while longer until my eye fully settles in and my brain decides what it�s going to do with what it�s seeing.

I currently still have double vision, which is still in question as to whether that will go away for me. It will simply depend on whether my brain chooses to reprogram itself over the next few weeks as to how it processes the information it gets from my eyes. At my 1st post-op visit and exam today, I was told that my vision is doing well and that indications are that my brain may be figuring it out. Hopefully, one day I�ll wake up and see only one image, but, since I�ve already adapted very well to my double vision, I�m just very happy to have my eye straight. If the double vision goes away, that will be the cherry on the sundae!

CONCLUSION
Overall, I�m very pleased so far with how the surgery and post-op have proceeded. I hope reading about my experience has been a help to you and will give you a good idea of what to expect if you choose strabismus corrective surgery. In no way am I trying to advertise and promote a particular doctor, but I am very thankful to God for Dr. Ticho, his expertise and knowledge, and his kind and helpful staff. My recommendation is if you live in the Chicago area and are struggling with strabismus, at least sit down with Dr. Ticho, let him answer your years� worth of questions, and consider whether corrective surgery is right for you. If you don�t live in Chicago, find a good eye surgeon like him in your area and do the same. Strabismus corrective surgery has been a good experience and has helped me and maybe it can be the same for you.

I have had a total of 3 surgery's to-date to correct my strabismus, at 1, 3 and 34 years of age. If it weren't for these operations and the follow up patching/vision therapy at an early age, I would likely have severe amblyopia in my right eye as well as structurally misaligned eyes. Unfortunately I never developed binocular vision/stereopsis, but I haven't given up and am about to embark on a new course of vision therapy in an attempt to correct this, even if only partially.

I developed congenital esotropia in my right eye at approximately 2 months of age and following two early surgeries, my eyes were perfectly straight until around the age of 13 when I grew very quickly and my right eye began to turn out, this is called consecutive exotropia. when this began the eyes would only occasionally turn and it was only evident at certain angles, as I got older the turn became worse and by my late 20's it was very evident, I had 25 prisom diopters of exotropia prior to my last surgery.

I had my most recent surgery four weeks ago and my eyes where perfect for one week and then the right eye turned out slightly again. At 4 weeks I am almost perfect, the result is cosmetically very good, people looking at me cant pick it up like before. I am now 5 prisom dipoters off perfectly straight. Overall I am very happy with the result, however I must admit that I would much prefer to be dead straight. I plan to keep watch on the eye over the next few months and if it turns further I will be returning to my opthamologist and going back for another operation. I do not have double vision, as the central visual field of my right eye has been suppressed by my brain very early in life. This is good and bad, its good as I double vision is not pleasant at any stage! however it is also bad as this means my vision is currently monocular and I only ever see predominately out of one eye at a time.

However I have not given up on developing binocularity and stereopsis and have begun vision therapy in an attempt to regain fusion of the two eyes and hopefully stereopsis! I am delighted to report that I have already begun to get results, I can already fuse the images from both eyes at close range (less than 10cm) and I have noticed that my eye turn reduces after an intensive session of vision therapy by almost 50%! I have taken before and after photos and I estimate my turn reduces from 5 PD to ~2-3 PD. I have also noticed my right eye fixation is much improved after vision therapy! So Im hoping with continued work I will be able to permanently maintain the results I get following vision therapy with intensive daily therapy sessions.

My decision to pursue vision therapy came after reading a fantastic book called "fixing my Gaze"

This book was written by Susan Barry who in her late 40's regained stereopsis/binocularity after having been strabismic with monocular vision all her life! A great read, I highly recommend this book for anyone who lacks stereopsis due to congenital strabismus.

My only regret is that I didn't have my last surgery sooner! Unfortunately when my consecutive exotropia was identified in my early teens, I was told by doctors/optometrists not to worry as I had excellent vision and that was that! At that point I was unaware that I lacked stereopsis and they didn't tell me the turn could get worse in later life if I did nothing about it! This is really unfortunate as I now know that with successful vision therapy and management it may have been easier to develop stereopsis and strengthen the vision on my right eye as at that age the brain is not fully matured.

My advice to anyone contemplating surgery is thoroughly educate yourself get as many opinions as you feel you require and take the chance!

Anybody got advice for me?

When I was for or five I had surgery for my strabismus and it apparently was sucessful. However just recently I have noticed how my right eye is turned slightly outward still.
Now it has really started to piss me off in pictures when one eye is looking away from the camera. I have a appointment with an eye doctor next week any reccomendations as to what I say or ask the doctor to do?

Make sure your doctor is a paediatric opthamologist, if not get him to refer you to one, paediatric opthamologists are opthamologists who have further specialised into disorders of the eye which usually occur in children.

Your doctor will thoroughly examine you and he will give you an opinion on the most appropriate treatment. I had the same problem, operation as at 1 and 3 and all was well until about 13, then the eye started turning out and got worse in my late 20s.

Ask him about his experience treating adults with your problem. Ask him about the probability of success if he recommends surgery, ask him about the chances you will need more than one operation, he should provide you with statistics based on the operations he's done in the past. Ask him the potential risks with the operation, particularly of having double vision after the operation, and if he thinks it will happen, whether it will be short-term or long-term. If he thinks there is a high chance you will end up with permanent double-vision you might want to consider your decision carefully, as this is a horrible thing to end up with! Ask him how much it will cost and whether your insurance (if your insured) will cover the costs! Ask him to explain exactly what he intends to do to your eye/eyes, which muscles he intends to operate on and if its required in both eyes, get him to explain why. Ask him the chances of the turn returning again in the future based on what he finds following examining your vision. Ask him about vision therapy after your surgery to improve the way your eyes work together and reduce the chance of the eye turning again in the future, if he says its not going to help, dont just take his word for it as I feel opthamologists dont always understand the importance of vision therapy. Go and see a behavioural/developmental optometrist and they should be able to give you a better idea of what type of vision therapy might be useful for you after your eye is repaired. Ask him what kind of result you should expect following surgery. This is about all I can think of for now, should be a good starting point. Good luck!

Thanks that was great advice, but it turns out the doctor said my eyes are pretty much straight, but that they might drift apart when I'm tired or looking at a close object. However I consistently see my right eye looking outward in pictures. What are my options at this point should I try and get therapy because aparently my eyes are straight even though many photos say otherwise (even pictures taken when I'm not tired)