Eyes Apart: Living with strabismus

Graphics help Ophthalmologist recognize torsion

It is difficult to comprehend what another person sees. I tried to verbally explain to my doctors that one eye was rotated or twisted, but now I’ve found a way to show them.

One of the first things I noticed, soon after my first surgery, was how funny the shower faucet looked with my left eye. So a couple months ago I took a photo of the shower faucet, duplicated it, and rotated one to show what I see. Then I made a couple of other graphics to explain further. I published these here at Eyes Apart in my August 15, 2006 post.

I scheduled an appointment with my Strabismus Surgeon (Ophthalmologist) for October 13, 2006. The Orthoptist did an exam first. The final test was with a pair of glasses that were opaque with 2 red lines. She would mix the lines up and my job was to line them up parallel. She did this several times and said that I was consistent every time I lined them up. She then turned the glasses over and showed me the front. The line on the right lens in the front was vertical (appeared to me to be 12:00pm to 6:00pm). The left lens was rotated what appeared to me about 1:00pm to 7:00pm.

My surgeon, Dr. Michael Brodsky, as well as the Orthoptist said the photos were an excellent idea and very helpful in knowing what to look for. Both confirmed that the graphics and test results were entirely consistent with torsion.

Dr. Brodsky said I still have some horizontal as well as slight vertical strabismus, but that the horizontal angle is much less now. He believes the horizontal and vertical strabismus are such small angles now that my brain can easily adjust to them. But according to Dr. Brodsky, the torsion is a major problem, and impossible for my brain to put together. He says that it is easily corrected, though!

He will do surgery to recess the inferior rectus muscle on my left eye only. He explained that this will allow my eye to rotate back to where it should be. In many ways this has been like a nightmare for me. I have not been able to explain to anyone what my vision has been like since the surgery. I am so thankful that Dr. Brodsky was able to understand what is going on, and knows exactly how to fix it!

My surgery is scheduled for December 7, 2006, pending insurance approval. I can’t think of a better Christmas gift than to get my vision fixed!

Update: My surgery was rescheduled to January 4, 2007. See my April 12, 2007 post for an update on my surgery.

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