The Student Room Group

Strabismus (aka. Squint, Lazy eye, etc..)

Hi all,
all my life I've been affected with Strabismus. I had surgery done on one of my eyes to help reduce the effects of it, but this was before I can remember. The first surgery did not completely solve the problem, so I was told to wear glasses for the rest of my life to completely hide the problem. I have no problem with this, however, now that I am getting older, my eyesight is getting better. "YAY!" one might think, however, the better eyesight has resulted in decreasing the strength of my glasses, almost to the extent now where my glasses are doing basically nothing atall.

This poses a problem, as the strength of the glasses can no longer correct my eye problem, and recently it has been more and more noticable. I can't even look to the right now without my eyes messing up very noticably. I'm currently wearing glasses that blurr my vision alot, just so I can attempt to hide the problem somewhat in public. Until now I have been able to hide the problem very well, none of my friends even knew there is anything wrong. However, now some have started passing comments, other idiots in the school have made funny remarks etc.

Last year I went to see a surgeon who took a look at my eyes and talked to me about the possibility of corrective surgery. He basically said he strongly recommends against surgery, as it could potentially make matters forever worse, and could affect my vision etc. He did however say that I could call him at any time, and he'd be able to do the surgery in about a weeks notice. The recovery time is only about 24hours, and the surgery itself lasts seconds.

That's where my dilema is. It amazes me to think that this problem which has resulted in my low self-esteem, depressioin, anger, and disgust with my own body could be fixed in a matter of seconds, yet the surgeons strong feelings against the surgery has put me off the idea alot.

I just dont know what to do. Do I take the risk, and possibly get rid of the problem forever, yet risk making it worse? Or do I leave it..

The problem has gotten so bad that I think it may even affect driving (which im currently learning to do) - i've basically trained myself to never look to the right atall! I'll also avoid eye contact with people, so much so that they'll think I'm being rude.

I know its difficult for anyone to give me proper advice here, as they dont know how bad the problem is, or most likely have never experienced it, but what would you do if you were in my position? Has anyone ever undergone corrective surgery for a squint? If so, were there any complications? What was the end result?

I'd appreciate any feedback here, I know I went on for a bit here, and I really appreciate your time reading this. I just had to get it off my chest.
Reply 1
Hey dude, I kinda know what you're going through. When I was younger, about 8, I had a squint in one of my eyes (forget which), and wore glasses for a while. I then had an operation (strangely this was on both eyes, dunno why unless the other one was dodgy too), which went fine. I didn't have any problem for many years, though for the last 2-3 years my eyes have been getting weaker and I have a lot of trouble now reading things that most people find not a problem. I'm also soon learning to drive, and think that I might need to see someone about getting glasses because I have trouble seeing number plates that far off. I suppose I should have done something by now but I never considered my level of eyesight that bad. I wonder if my eyes have gotten slacker...:smile: I personally, given what that specialist said to you, wouldn't have any operation, given that it might get worse. BTW you said when you look right it messes up your eyes; how do you mean and is it the same if you turn your entire head to the right thus keeping your eyes looking straight realtively?
Reply 2
Hi MrSornia, thanks for the reply.
By messes up, I meant that my left eye will go where I am looking (it seems to be the "primary" eye if you will..), and my right eye will look not as far right, and will point upwards. I also dont think my eyes are equally balanced, in that most of my vision seems to come from my left eye, and my right eye is mainly just there for peripheral vision, and is almost redundant apart from that.
That is unless I switch focus to my right eye, which is uncomfortable to do, and is hard to explain. Basically my eyes do not work together like most peoples' would.

I know most of that probably wont make sense, heck, it confuses even me..


Oh and in answer to your question, the problem doesent happen if I turn my head to the right and keep my eyes straight. I guess I should just train myself to turn my whole head instead of just my eyes..