Lazy eye fix?

kleinfehn

Hey PA, I am wondering if anyone here has any experience with a lazy eye in adulthood? One of my eyes has always been a bit weaker than the other one, the vision a bit blurrier, but I plan on making an eye appointment this Summer and seeing if there is anything I can do to help this. Just want to know if anyone here has any stories about this or if they know if a lazy eye can be fixed in adulthood.

EDIT: Just want to add that I won't be doing anything outside of what a doctor says, I don't want to risk potentially damaging my vision. So no eyepatches or stuff like that unless I am told to after my appointment.

BlochWave

Is it blurry because of something like an astigmatism, or is it actually attributable to a lazy eye? Most people's eyes don't line up flawlessly, that's normal. I think xkcd or somebody even did a comic where an optometrist was like "hey you know one of your eyes is just a little off" and the guy is like "oh gee thanks, now I'll be self-conscious about it forever." A co-worker once did that to me and now I always notice it

Other than that I can't tell you anything more than what I just read on the wikipedia page on lazy eyes

Lachrymite

As far as I am aware, there are two different things people typically consider to be a lazy eye. The first is when your eyes don't stay lined up, one wanders out of sync. The second thing is when one eye basically shuts off when you can see out of the other one. You can have both of these conditions or just one or the other.

I have the second kind. My eyes look aligned, etc., but as long as my left eye is open, my brain shuts off the signal from my right eye. Due to this I have somewhat poor depth perception, and even though I had LASIK, my right eye's vision is still not perfect because it's just weak even though it's now shaped perfectly. It's good enough to read out of and everything now, but it's not 20/20.

It is more of a brain problem than an eye problem, so not a lot can be done. I was told that if it had been caught very early (before age 5 or so) that it could have been possible to correct with eyepatches and the like, but now it's too late. I've also read that some people have managed to fix it into adulthood, but it's much more difficult. It doesn't typically bother me much so I would never go through the trouble of doing so.

Ellthiteren

My eyes don't line up either! It was pretty bad as a kid, I did the eyepatch thing for a while and eventually had surgery to correct them. Pretty simple deal, I believe, where they basically mess with the muscles holding your eyes in place and tighten/loosen them as needed. Here are two links (wikipedia, surgery encyclopedia) to the procedure I had done.

Unfortunately, I was told that it wasn't a permanent fix and that there was a good chance my eyes would go out of alignment again; fortunately, this didn't really happen in a noticable way for about 20 years after the surgery. The angle is up to 15% or so at this point, more if my eyes are tired, which is too big for a prism in my glasses to correct for (they'd have to be an inch thick) but only rarely noticeable to people looking at my face.

However, I now have genuine double vision if I don't close one eye or focus realllllly hard - I see one clear version of things (left eye) and another, offset, slightly blurry version of things (right eye), although I've learned to ignore/compensate for it much of the time. It happens more in certain situations, like driving and reading, especially when there's not much light or when there is a lot of contrast. Combined with less than perfect vision, it can be a really significant frustration, which is why I'm an obvious candidate for this kind of procedure. I'm pretty sure there are other options for less severe cases.

Usual disclaimers apply - I'm not a doctor, you should definitely talk to one.

kleinfehn

Thanks for the input. I doubt it is astigmatism because I am in my 20s, should have mentioned that in my OP.