Exophoria

[gauravsolanki]

Dear Sir,
I am a 23 year old male from India. I am a software engineer. I used to read and work on computer a lot. About 6 months back I started to feel pain in eyes after working. I started to have problem in focusing after even 20 minutes work on computer. The problem increased rapidly and situation worsened in a week. I could not drive comfortably, I could not read moving letters on computer screen or TV, I had double vision also in which shadows are there around boundary of a object. I consulted with doctors. They told me that it is exophoria and you will always have this but your vision can be improved in 1-2 months convergence exercise. At that time I was unable to read even for 15 minutes continuously. I had to leave my job. Though my vision has improved and now I can read for 1-2 hours but after that my eyes become red and I feel pain in eyes while moving my eyeballs or reading. If I continue working after that, earlier problem of slight double vision comes and its hard to maintain focus.
Is it really exophoria?  If yes, what may be the reasons? Will I have to face these problems whole life or it can be unsymptomatic after few more months exercise? Please tell me as I am a writer too and even if I dont work much on computer, I'll have to read and write a lot. Should I leave computer work completely? Or surgery is the solution?

Thanks
Gaurav Solanki

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I can't tell if its a exophoria. I suggest you see an ophthalmologist, ideally associated with a medical school, that specializes in strabismus (sometimes called pediatric Eye MDs since mose cases occur in kids).

Options include prism glasses or eye muscle surgery. I would not change professions.

JCH MD

[gauravsolanki]

Thank you sir!
Do you really think that it can be some other problem and not exophoria? I have consulted at one of the best Institutes of India PGIMER, chandigarh.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

From in front of my computer I can't make a definitve diagnosis. There's no reason to doubt your Eye MDs. Next step however would be to see the strabismus Eye MD
JCH MD