Double Vision

[Sally44]

Hi everyone out there!
I have just got back from taking my son to the Optician.
I have just been told that my son does not have binocular vision.  The muscles in his left eye are weak, so he can see in stereo in the distance, but anything at arms length or closer the muscles in his left eye cannot pull his eye in line with the right one so one of two things (or both) are happening:
(a) his brain is only registering what he is seeing through his right eye and therefore he does not have very good depth perception; or
(b) he is seeing double vision.  
It also means he is getting alot of eye strain, headaches etc.  I could see at the Opticians that he was really struggling to see clearly.
I am so relieved, because I have felt for a long time that something wasn't right.  His eyes did not look right.  His eyes seemed to dilate and his pupils go in and out as if they didn't know what to focus on.  I noticed it with close up work and also if he was on the trampoline (so he would be getting near and distant vision as he bounced).  The Optician said what I am seeing is the eyes are trying to work together, but when it gets to the distance where the muscles can no longer cope the left eye gives up and focuses on something further away (hence the difference in pupil size).
So, I just wanted to say to all you parents out there make sure you keep the regular check-ups and to also believe in your gut feelings.
We have got to do eye exercises every day for a couple of months to see if there is any progress.  If not he will be referred to hospital.
I am not expecting it to solve all his problems.  But if we can fix this one it is one less thing he has to cope with.

[mum2beagain]

My son has eosotropia, his right eye is the weaker one. He will hopefully have surgery later this year.

[Sally44]

This visual problem (with binocular vision) cannot really be 'seen'.  The eyes do not turn in, they look quite normal.  I had just noticed that he seemed to be straining with things close up and sometimes he would do a really big blink.  At other times his pupils seemed to reacting differently and not together.  It was very subtle, but I knew something wasn't quite right.

[mich97]

interesting..the one thing the neurologist did notice about my son while doing physical exam is his eyes did not align 100 %..she did some light test and i honestly never noticed it..i was always looking for b/c his older brother had a strabismis called intermitten exotropia(eyes drifted out,noticably) and had eye surgery to correct...we are still waiting to see optamologist(-? spelling)

[Sally44]

Having floaters etc in your eyes is something I've heard alot of other people say.

[Sally44]

The thing is with this binocular vision is that you cannot really see any difference in how the eyes look.  They don't turn it at all.  I could just see that at certain times they just didn't look right, and they looked like they were straining.  He would sometimes do a really big wide eyed blink, and his pupils sometimes didn't look the same.

[MJIthewriter]

Interesting. I hope all goes well. Interestingly, my dad was crosseyed for a while as a kid.

So far I haven't had any opticians say anything about my eyes, other than myopia. (problems with distance vision). As a result looking off into distances causes eye-strain unless I can get new glasses. I tend to look down more and avoid looking at things off in a distance if I can perceive the slightest disturbance. For some reason, even though my eyes seem to be correctable to have 20/20 to almost even better, I expect everything in perfect focus...as if mechanically sharp. Having nasty floaters in my eyes bothers me tremendiously...but no one seems able to do anything about them. Whenever I look up at the sky, it's like looking through a window with water pr dust spots.

Once again, perhaps I'm being too rough on myself. It seems to be my nature. Part of successful autistic living, is learning not everything is perfect...and there's a huge gap between KNOWING things aren't always perfect and BELIEVING that things aren't always perfect. Trying to lesson that chasm is an ongoing process.