strabismus (lazy eye) surgery

[JulieM]

Has anyone been through this surgery with a child? My grandson's eye doctor says he'll need it within the next year (he just turned 5) and I'm trying to learn all I kind about it.

[cangoss]

Here's a thread (http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=84762&highlight=strabismus) about strabismus surgery from earlier this year. I had it a couple of years ago, and I really wish I had it as a little kid. As an adult, it wasn't a big deal at all though.

[TerriS]

I was the one who started that earlier thread.

My daughter, who just turned 1, had the surgery at about 8 months of age.
It all went very well. Let's see:
* she had surgery on both eyes
* the surgery does not go into the eye, but rather around the eye and works on the muscles that control the movement of the eye.
* the doc said one of Caroline's eye muscles was formed sort of funny and made for a challenging repair, but that it all came out okay.
* she was under general anesthesia
* I did not go into the operating room, we had to wait in a recovery room
* after surgery we were allowed to go into her in another recovery room
* it took her a LONG time to wake up from the anesthesia. so long that we had to call the anesthesiologist a couple of times to come check on her. it was a little stressful, but nobody was panicking, all her signs were fine, she was just choosing to sleep it off. :)
* we had to wait around until she was fully alert, which took several hours, and got to go home that evening.
* she went into surgery around 8:45 in the morning and by 7 pm that night she was playing like nothing had happened.

We had to put eye drops and ointment into her eyes. that wasn't fun. But it was only for a couple of days.

here she is just a few days before the surgery - you can see the eye turn.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b6dc27b3127cce971964aa229600000045108AbN3LJi5cM2

And here she is just a couple of days later. You can see her eyes are a little red and gooky looking, but she looked great.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b6dc35b3127cce9720a5ecfa2100000085118AbN3LJi5cM2

They warned us that her eyes would be really red and that there might be bruising immediately after the surgery, so we went into recovery expecting her to look like a prizefighter after 15 rounds. She didn't look nearly that bad. Puffy, yes, but the bruising was VERY light and the redness in her eyes went down really quickly.

She still wears glasses as she is still farsighted, and her right eye does still sometimes turn a bit - ever so slightly - when she does not have her glasses on, which makes me think she will probably need a second surgery at some point - which the doctors say is common. I guess as their little eyes grow and change it is pretty common that the muscles will be too tight or too loose again.

Is your grandson wearing a patch or anything like that? Our girl was patched for about 4 months - for 1.5 hours a day. That helped keep the eyes strong but unfortunately did not correct the strabismus, as can sometimes happen.

Obviously with a 5 year old there are different issues than with a baby, but I know our surgeon works on kids of all ages and I think there was a school-age child around 5 or 6 getting operated on the same day as us.

It was one very unfun but necessary day being in the hospital and dealing with surgery and the recovery from the anesthesia. After that, honestly, it's been a piece of cake. We feel lucky that we were able to correct the problem. Let me know if you have any questions!

[JulieM]

Thanks so much for the replies! It is such a different feeling to learn about this sort of thing from someone who has been through it rather than a medical text document or brochure. I didn't think to do a search first (duh).

We're lucky in that our grandson has good vision in both eyes (though I'm not sure about depth perception), and most of the time his eyes look aligned. You really see them drift apart when he's unwell or tired, and often he'll rub his eyes when they bother him. Our daughter has patched him intermittently since he was about a year old I guess but he was never very cooperative. It's my understanding that the patch doesn't help with alignment but only with vision, but I'm not sure. Yesterday he had his first real vision test (in other words the first time he would cooperate) and his eyes were fine in so far as his vision, but the doctor said he should get the surgery within a year. His grandfather has the same condition and has good vision but his alignment is pretty bad. He says it doesn't bother him though and he never had surgery.

It's a little worrisome that it may require several surgeries but I read that was common. Your daughter by the way, aside from being gorgeous, looks great in the pictures. It's comforting to know the procedure is not too big a deal and he'll be able to come home the same day.

I'll check out the other thread, but again I really appreciate your post and may PM you if other questions arise, if you don't mind.

Julie

[cas]

I'm wondering why the doctor said to get it within the year. I would think the sooner the better. Our daughter, now 15, had her eye surgeries for strabismus at 6mos, 2 1/2 years old and again at 12. Each surgery had some different issues but the first one was the easiest. At 2 1/2 she couldn't stop vomitting afterwards for 12 or so hours and at 12 she felt like she had double vision for a day or two. Our doctor explained it that there are 6 muscles that attach to the eye and each one might need to be readjuste shortened or tightened to align the eye. Sometimes the muscles need to be readjusted hence more surgery. Her eyes look great now and you would never know that she needed any surgery in the past. Good luck and the sooner the better for the surgery.

[JulieM]

I wondered about that too. Maybe because his case is not severe. Most of the time you don't notice his eyes being different, and even when you do it's not major, it just looks like one eye drifts out some. Of course I realize it's actually both eyes. Could it be if he waits longer he is less likely to need it a second time? I really don't know. My biggest concern is whether they could actually make him worse somehow, but I guess since they can do it multiple times they could fix it. I'll have to see if there's a surgeon down here that is renowned in this field. He could also do it near Richmond, Virginia where his other grandmother lives if someone knows of a good surgeon in this field up there.

[ChristineLiu]

One of my best friends had that surgery twice, once when she was a baby and once when she was a bit older. the second surgery she said had soemthing to do with growing up. her eyes now as an adult leave no sign of strabismus and she has perfect vision other than no depth perception (you parents out there might want to check that out some time with your children.) So any sport involving catching or throwing an object was out of the question :) other than that, she's living normally, even driving.

[TerriS]

Hmm, my daughter is great at throwing and catching, as much as any one year old could be. Good to know.

One thing about the patching - my understanding with the patching is this: if you have an eye that is wandering - even if it is not technically a lazy eye - it is important to patch the eye that does not wander, because the brain may start "turning off" the wandering eye (since it will be sending confusing data to the brain.) That was why we had to patch, to make sure both of her eyes kept working and sending information to the brain. That may be less of an issue since your grandson is older.

I understand your fear about making it worse. My understanding is that this type of surgery has been around a long time and that the doctors seem to have it down pretty well. As our surgeon put it, strabismus correction is her "bread and butter." It is a pretty common affliction so hopefully you will have no problem locating a qualified surgeon in your area.