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.