Strabismus - Operation - Your Experiences

[DoubleVision]

If you or your child have had this operation please tell me about your experience!

Was the operation a success?
Are there any risks associated with the op?
How long does it take a child to recover from the op?
Is there anything I should be aware of before we have it done?

Thanks for helping!

dd had the operation when she was 4 - it was a success in that her squint is much improved now (while wearing her glasses). She may or may not need operations in the future as her eye is still develpoing but hopefully not.

As it is done under general anaesthetic there are risks but dd was fine. She had her operation early afternoon and was out by 6pm that same day after she had managed to eat and drink without being sick (a side effect of the anaesthetic)

Her eye was sore and red for a few days and she had eye drops to be put in for a couple of weeks. She also had a precription for paracetamol and ibuprofen to help with pain/swelling. She was back at nursery after a week although her eye was a little red for a week or so longer than that.

Shouldn't you really ask your doctor or surgeon these questions?

I've had it done twice - unusually though, I had it done at 13 and 18.

It vastly reduced my squint, but I have a difficult unstable squint, and now it is controlled with prisms in my glasses.

I think the risks are mainly that they don't correct the squint or end up over correcting.

It only took a couple of days to recover, and my eye was sore for a couple of weeks. Younger children can recover faster

Thanks Seona, gosh I´m surprised your DD didn´t go to nursery till a week post-op! Why was this? Pain?

I have spoken to the surgeons Chil, but want to know some personal experiences. Also ime, surgeons and doctors can leave out some critical information until after an op. This is my experience. Sometimes you have to know exactly what questions to ask to get the information that is important to you.

I´m also interested in any non-surgical interventions that may be possible but have been told there are none. I´m curious as to date very many members of my family were treated with a squint with patch and eye exercises successfully yet this treatment is not available here.

Please I would love to know your experiences.

CMO, how did you feel about waiting until you were a teenager to have it done? I wonder if we should wait till my child is older. ATM she is not aware of her squint and her friends have never mentioned it (she is 5). I guess we could patch for another 2 years with her cooperation..

I had to wait as the unusual nature of my squint meant they were trying other tactics first - I didn't start to squint until I was 10. I am very very short sighted in one eye (it's not lazy eye), and got/get double vision, so it's not the same as early childhood squint

I wouldn't advise waiting if surgery has been advised now tbh - I think that patching will have done all it can by now, and exercises can only help a little. It really depends on the nature of the squint process - assymetric muscles can't be corrected by patching or exercises, wheras lazy eye (where the brain isn't using the signal from the eye, and just ignores it) can be corrected that way

Thanks, that´s right, I do know this but am just having problems accepting that everyone else in my family seems to have just had a lazy eye and successfully done eye exercises so why does DD have to have strabismus? that can´t be treated like this?!

I feel uncomfortable about putting her through the op, just in case she is one of the few whose eyesight is damaged.. Have I thought about this hard enough?

DD did do patching and it did help her eyesight in her weaker eye but it didnt correct the squint which is why we opted for the operation. She didnt go to nursery for a few days in case she got banged in the face, hurt herself, etc.