Lazy eye or crossed eyes? (blurred, surgery, doctor, prescription)

[SandyCo]

This condition is called "strabismus", and I've had this all of my life. I went through an eye operation when I was six years, because my left eye was looking at my nose. Now my right eye is the one that drifts, usually upwards. Because of this, I have almost no depth perception. I've learned to compensate, of course, but I have no idea what a real 3-D world looks like.

I was told that I was too old for any kind of vision therapy to correct this, so I assumed that I'd be this way forever.

Then today, I saw this article in the L.A. Times:

The key to 3-D vision - Los Angeles Times

This woman was 48 years old when she began her visual therapy, and now she sees the world three dimensionally! She also wrote a book titled "Fixing My Gaze", available on Amazon.

I now have an appointment with an optometrist next week to see if vision therapy might benefit me. My only concern is that my insurance doesn't cover it. Still, just to know that there's a chance it might be correctable is amazing!!!

There are only certain optometrists trained as visual therapists, so be careful when picking one.

This is a public service announcement for anyone who has suffered from this like I have (I never played sports as a child, because I could never judge where the ball was, etc.), or for anyone who has a child with this problem.

[dsh1127]

That is really interesting. I had a slight lazy eye as a kid. It was rarely noticeable, maybe when I was tired. I have seemed to outgrow it. My depth perception seems to be good in everyday life, but when I go to the eye doctor, I can't pass the depth perception test!

I used to be an assistant for a group of optometrists and I had to memorize the answers to the depth perception test, because I couldn't see it!

['M']

I had a lazy eye as a child. Went to an opthamologist and an optometrist, who had me doing eye exercises. My eye is pretty much OK today...it drifts a bit, but most people would never know it. I am fortunate that my mom was really on top of this and got me the treatment I needed to have relatively normal vision. My crossed eye has poorer vision than the other. I have asked if this is correctable, and they say no. Perhaps this is a treatment that would help my vision...

['M']

Originally Posted by dsh1127

That is really interesting. I had a slight lazy eye as a kid. It was rarely noticeable, maybe when I was tired. I have seemed to outgrow it. My depth perception seems to be good in everyday life, but when I go to the eye doctor, I can't pass the depth perception test!

I used to be an assistant for a group of optometrists and I had to memorize the answers to the depth perception test, because I couldn't see it!

Question? Which of the tests in an opthamologist's office is the 'depth perception' test? I can't recall....didn't know there was any such thing

[dsh1127]

Originally Posted by 'M'

Question? Which of the tests in an opthamologist's office is the 'depth perception' test? I can't recall....didn't know there was any such thing

We had a book that had 8 sections with four little "bulls eyes" in each section. You were supposed to pick out the bulls eye that "stood out" in each group. Needless to say, I couldn't see any of them!

I knew the test as "top, top, bottom, left, left, right, left, right!! Funny that I still remember these things, I have not worked there for over 12 years!!

BTW - The 20/20 line is TZVECL!!

[PinkString]

I also had the lazy eye as a kid. The right eye. I never got it corrected and had real difficulty focusing both eyes at once, since one eye see's distances(left) and the right close up, everything was always blurred when I tried to see with both at once, i couldn't see a thing! I learned to focus with one or the other in order to see. Which of course makes me look odd when I am focusing on something close up or far away.
I wonder if they can fix that! It sucks going through life like this, but it works for me. I did have a woman at a LensCrafters store tell me not long ago that she thought it was great that I could focus my eyes like that, but what she doesn't understand is when one eye is focused, the other goes off in the other direction like a lazy eye.

[Miss Blue]

They always called mine a "roving eye" because it wanders all over..It seldom focuses alongside the other eye..I have a prism added to my lens prescription to keep it focused with the other eye..It was always most noticeable when I was tired..One of my grands also has an eye like that..I was never told of any surgery or exercise that would help it. My eye tends to wander up and in..

[smilinpretty]

When I was growing up, I had what was referred to as a "lazy eye". When i would become tired usually my left eye would wander to the lateral. Now both of eyes do it. When i look at someone, one of my eyes wanders to the side. I heard there are a few eye doctors that that can correct this with exercises. I did do exercises when I was a child but they did not help much.

[MIKEH2010]

had a lazy eye to as a kid especially when tired.i was basically cross-eyed.it got so bad i had an eye operation when i was nine years old that corrected it.this was back in 1984 and i was so told one day i would eventually have to come back again and get another surgery.

[MysticSpiraling]

I was born with crossed eyes and got corrective surgery at a year old. I've almost always had one near sighted eye, and one far sighted, thus even if they worked together it would be a strangely fuzzy picture. I don't have depth perception but it's never bothered me to the point that I would go to great lengths to fix it... I'm just bummed out that I can't see 3D movies! Lol.