I am a 15 year old male. i have an eye condition called lazy eye. This is where my vision in on eye is fine, but the other is very bad. That is because my brain only uses the one eye to see out of, which explains why that one is good. Well i have heard that there are excerises that can be done to cure this. Please help me! This affects me everyday. Any advie at all would be appreciated.

Hello Agent:

From what I have read, if your good eye was patched when you were younger and the best possible vision was obtained in the lazy eye, there probably isn't much else that can be done.
There's a question on another forum that might interest you. It's titled "patching after 9" (posted within the last 2 weeks). The site is http://med-aapos.bu.edu/publicinfo/publicinfo.html

This forum has lots of info about amblyopia.
If you have trouble with the search engine, open a post, go to the bottom, click on HERE, go down a couple paragraphs to search engine.
This is a pediatric opthamology forum, so it is right up your alley.
Hope this helps.

Moe

[This message has been edited by Moe C (edited 03-05-2001).]

do you wear glasses> my daughter had a lazy eye. she has to wear glasses and her eye is almost striaght now. she's four and has had them since she was 2. we tried the patch but she would not leave it on.
Lindsay

I used to have this condition when I was little. I went to an eye dr. who specialized in kids with vision problems. I wore glasses with one eye covered up for about a year and went to him once a week and did all kinds of eye exercises. It worked and I had never had a problem with it again until last year (I am now 29) when I tried to get some new contact lenses. I have worn contacts since 7th grade, but I have developed astigmatism so I had to switch kinds. After trying the gas permeables (semi-hard) ones, I wanted to switch to the new Toric, soft lenses. After I had worn them for awhile, everyone started telling me that one of my eyes looked really strange and was not focusing on what I was looking at. I could not feel this at all. They told me that I could be looking straight at them and my right eye would just look the opposite direction. I stopped wearing them and it has gone away. It never does it when I wear my glasses. I really want to wear contacts, so I guess I will try the gas perms again. It's so weird that they affected me that way. I would seek out a dr. who specialized in this problem. Good luck!

I can feel for you! I had "lazy eye" as a child. I wore glasses and a patch from age 3 1/2 to 9. The doctor would put the patch on the right eye, and the left would cross. Then we would put the patch on the left eye, and the right would cross. It was horrible! When I reached school age, kids would tease me. It was embarassing, and had a lasting effect on my self esteem.

When I was 9 my mother took me to University of Nebraska, where they do quite a bit of research on a wide variety of conditions. We apparently had perfect timing, as they were researching a surgery to correct lazy eye. I had the surgery done, and since it was experimental, they said even if it was successful initially, I would probably redevelop lazy eye by age 16. I am now almost 30, and it has not come back! The only lasting effect that I have had is that my left eye, which was the one they operated on, is very weak. I often get headaches because of this, but it was worth it (to me)!

A few years ago I was in a restaraunt and saw a child, about 4 or 5 years old, with a patch on his eye and glasses. My heart sank! They parents were discussing the recent Dr. visit, so I kindly introduced myself and explained that I had suffered from teh same condition, and that I had had surgery to correct it. They told me that they had heard of that, and had asked their doctor about it, but he said it was rarely done anymore because it was often unsuccessful. I guess I was lucky.

Ask your doctor if there is surgery! I firmly believe that I would not be as successful as I am today had I not had this done. Good Luck to you!!

Andrea

My son was less than two and we did all the patching and other stuff and the doctor said give it a year or two and see if patching will cure it. I said no - operate on it. They repaired the muscles and we never looked back. My sons eyes are 35 years old now and looking good.

I don't know who said that they rarely do the surgery anymore . . . if anything they do it more and better because technology has advanced in the last 20 yrs . . . i have had intermittent strabismus(lazy eye) for 27 yrs . . . i just had surgery on March 3rd of this year and i had my post op appt this past wednesday and everything is looking great, i have 20/60 vision, which is better than i've ever had in my life ... i was worried that my eye would start to drift again but now i'm thinking that i was just being paranoid, now i am going to go get glasses here soon, these glasses will have prisms in them, but you won't be able to tell . . . they won't be all thick and everything . . . and they will help alot . .. i'm still adjusting to using both eyes but at this point, as far as cosmetically, it's like a dream come true . . . you need to go to a regular optician/optometrist and tell them your problem . . . they will refer you to a pediatric opthalmologist and this is who you will speak with regarding vision therapy or eye muscle surgery . . . at this point, there is not much of a chance in improving detailed vision, but binocular vision, peripheral vision and depth perception can still be improved . . . and you'd be surprised how much you can see with your eye, once your brain has no choice but to use it . . . Good Luck . . and keep us posted!!!

There are lots and lots of optometrists out there who do vision therapy, probably more optometrists than ophthamologists. I would always try VT first. It's proven to be a successful way of treating strabissmus and amblyopia, especially in children. Surgery should be a last resort.