So your eyes are 20/20 or you had lasik..

[Stumpalump]

"I don't need glasses or my eyes are 20/20 so I don't need an eye doctor" I here it all the tiime. I started a new thread because I wanted those not interested in the lasic thread to catch this. You still need to go get your eyes checked at least every other year or at the first sign of trouble or you may go blind. I've seen it thousands of times and it's sad because it could be stoped very eaisily. Two things happen. Tunnel vision or Glucoma is high pressure in the eye. Somtimes it comes on slow or somtimes overnight. The pressure presses the nerves and blood flow to the retina and it dies. This is the most hydiouse disease because your vision dies from the outside in and you don't notice untill you get broad sided or you pull into traffic that you never saw. Everbody needs the pressure test and the cure is common. The other common cause of vision loss is from screwed up blood vessles in the eye. They can grow all twisted and block vision and leak. Diabetics have this bad. They can fix the leaks but it's like fixing rust spots on your jeep with a big hole saw. They just burn the blood vessle ussually leaving a small blind spot. Wait till it's too late and they burn out a lot or all vision. Your retina is the consitancy of wet tolit paper and it dies or gets damage on it's own real easy. Get them checked even if you have perfect vision. One of the worlds largest trade shows is eye care equipment for a reason. You would trade your dick for your eyes given the choice so spend an hour and get them looked at. Oh and protect your eyes when welding and using an Oxy torch because your cornia may get irritated which is no big deal but it's also a magnifing glass that burns the tiny retina nerves a little every time you look at it. The retina clinics are a horribly sad place to visit when you see folks in their prime hoping for a miricle that will never come.`Once it's damaged or dead their is no bringing it back.

 

[ZacSquatch]

Haha, after looking at the compute or a book for more than 30 minutes I can't see further than 50 feet, its all blurry after that.

 

[Muad'Dib]

Seems like your educated... let me ask you this... first a bit of history:

When i was 5-6 months old i was in a fatal car accident with a train. The accident damaged my optic nerve in my left eye (among other things).

Now i have 20/400 vision in my left eye (and its outward lazy), and 20/10 in my right. The last time i went to check into my eyes let alone my damaged optic nerve, was about 12 years ago (im 27 right now). Have there been any advances in medicine that correct something like this? (doubtful since its a nerve).

I dont really care about the vision so much as my right eye has compensated (thus 20/10) providing more then excellent vision.
The problem i have is more cosmetic then anything. Self confidence plays a huge role, and its frustrating to talk to someone and they look over their shoulder like your not even talking to them. Also, when i am talking to someone i tend to rotate my head slightly to the left to give my right eye more of a "straight on" approach (subconsciously).

I know there was/is surgery that can "tighten" the muscles that make my left eye lazy (since its not used). The problem however is that they can just about guarentee that within a few years since the eye is not used, the muscles will start to relax again leading to a lazy eye all over again. The worst part is that they cant guarantee it will go back to being lazy outward, it could end up going inward. That would be even worse to my mental state. Not to mention this would also not correct the head tilting problem. That is why is so important to me to see if this is something that can be fixed... just figured hey why not ask.

Even if you cant provide information, thanks for the heads up... I know eye for one (pun intended) havent gone in years, and i should. Thanks for the information.

 

[fubar XJ]

Seems like your educated... let me ask you this... first a bit of history:

When i was 5-6 months old i was in a fatal car accident with a train.

The fact that you can see at all is amazing, being dead. I wouldn't worry about it, most dead people are blind.

 

[Muad'Dib]

My mother died sorry. Thats why i refer to it as a "fatal" accident.

 

[Stumpalump]

Seems like your educated... let me ask you this...

Now i have 20/400 vision in my left eye (and its outward lazy), and 20/10 in my right. The last time i went to check into my eyes let alone my damaged optic nerve, was about 12 years ago (im 27 right now). Have there been any advances in medicine that correct something like this? (doubtful since its a nerve).

I am not a doctor first and formost and would put anything they tell you above and beyond anything I may tell you. As far as your lazy eye goes i would get it fixed or adjusted. This is a simple procedure and the sooner you get it straight the more lickly it will stay straight. They do this all the time and I don't think it's a big deal or comes with many risks. The nurses I talk to act like it's nothing. As far as advancments in the last few years the anser is yes. Big time time yes! I worked for Carl Zeiss Meditec for years and they are a world leader in diagnostic eye instruments. About 4 years ago they came out with a new optical coherance tomographer. OCT. It has done more for eye care than anything in the last 25 years. I have had dotors that were swamped with patients and so busy they could not keep up chase me down hallways after leaving just to tell me what that instrument has done for eye care. It basically shines a low powered laser light into your eye and onto your retina or optic nerve. The light penetrates the tissue and bounces back. They can manipulate the light data into a 3D image of your retina and optic nerve. Why is this an advancement? Because all they could see before was the out side of the nerves. Now they can not only see deep into your tissue but tell if it's scar tissue,a blood vessle ,a cyst or just a freckle like I have in my eye. They will be able to see the damage to your optic nerve. Who Knows maybe they will see some scar tissue they can zap out with a laser or relive pressure from a goofy blood vessle that grew as a result of your injury. I would seek out a retina clinic but you may need a referal from a regular eye doctor. This is where they differ. You must have a doctor that has an OCT. If he dosn't then you must insist that he send you to one that has one. Ask specifically for a Zeiss OCT scan. Don't let a cheaper doctor that dosn't have one tell you otherwise. They are expensive and not all doctors have them. Some great opticians even know the benifit and have bought them so if you find an optitian or doctor that has one then you know you have a doctor that really cares. This is what you need. I was one of the first groups of engineers trained to work on them and actually helped in comming up with ways to calibrate them to perfection. They are tits when it comes to seeing whats happening in your eye and you may benifit from what the doctors can now see.
Zeiss is now my competition but as in all health care whats is best for the patients is what is just plain best reguardless. OCT is awsome.http://www.zeiss.com/C125679E0051C774/Contents-Frame/A3AB66669271C19641256A7000442223

 

[Rob Mayercik]

Can't argue with your suggestion, Stump - an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

Me, I go every 2.5 years, and a glaucoma test (the air puff into the eye) is a regular part of the ritual.

 

[Muad'Dib]

Thanks for the encouraging words, its appreciated. Ill have to get myself an appointment around here very soon.

EDIT:

For shits and giggles i googled and found this:

http://www.medrounds.org/medical-answers/2006/05/can-damaged-optic-nerve-be-repaired.html

Seems the answer is still no.

 

[streetpirate]

so, Mr. Paul Atreides, just wondering if you ever wore an eyepatch over your good eye to strengthen the muscles in the bad one? excuse my ignorance to the type of damage you had, i had a regular lazy eye that showed up around age 7 and the eyepatch trick worked for me. also gave me and excuse to brandish my cutlass during first grade storytime.

 

[Trail-Axe]

Thanks for the info Stump. I am due for a physical myself. Just for info to those who may not already know, 20/20 vision is not the best, just the average. I have 20/15 in my right eye, and 20/10 in my left eye (left eye is the dominate eye). The higher the second number, the worse the vision, the lower the better. It has to do with how far back you can stand from the chart and read it. Someone with a higher second number would have to stand closer to read the same symbols, and it is not an indicator of being near-sighted which is a refractive defect of the eye.

 

[Muad'Dib]

so, Mr. Paul Atreides, just wondering if you ever wore an eyepatch over your good eye to strengthen the muscles in the bad one? excuse my ignorance to the type of damage you had, i had a regular lazy eye that showed up around age 7 and the eyepatch trick worked for me. also gave me and excuse to brandish my cutlass during first grade storytime.

Unfortunatly i have some drain bamage (pun intended), and have trouble remembering things from my past as time goes on. Partly im sure because i subconciously block things out, but then again i do have a good sized dent in my frontal lobe region of my skull (pics can be supplied).

If i recall correctly i was later told that i was supposed to wear one, and i just flat refused. My adoptive parents say that i would put it on, and when they were not looking i would take it off. I have heard that this technique works very well with children helping to keep the muscles strong for the weak eye. I wish i would have known then what i feel/know now. I have also heard that it is worthless to try and do as an adult. Although, if i cover my right eye for over a minute or so just plainly looking around with my left eye (everything is extremely blurry) the muscles for my left eye start to feel strained.
I have yet to try and see if a patch would help me now, as 100% of everything you do requires sight. I cant just walk around / drive / work with a patch on my good eye. I wish i could sometimes just to see what would happen with time.

One thing i am thankful for is that the only thing i think makes me look ugly is my lazy eye. Even with a dent in my head, chopped of ear (that was sewn back on) and thousands of scars on my head / face. These of course are the only normally visable things that were impacted.. there was much more harm done.
As i am getting older, my self confidence doesnt suffer as much as it did when i was younger (im still not "old" by any means). I will admit that it does have its days though.

 

[5-90]

"Death isn't the handicap it once was..."

Something else I'd found out (as a result of my own recent, er, "adventures") that might apply to the lazy eye was botox injections. Having suffered some massive skull trauma myself a couple of years ago, part of the involvement was my left orbit (roof and zygomatic arch.) After extensive consults with an optometrist, opthalmologist, and neurologist (she was kinda cute...) and a boatload of MRIs and CT scans (with and without contrast. I can probably sketch the innards of my head from memory by now...) they decided that I wasn't tracking because the fracture of the zygomatic arch had lacerated some of the muscle fibres that move my left eye. This resulted in a noticeable "lag" when I had to track things that were moving fairly quickly - or just wear an eyepatch so I saw only one of everything (without the patch, I saw "one and a half" of everything.)

Since these aren't muscles that can be targetted with exercise and therapy individually, I was presented with two potential options.

1. Botox. This would be intjected into the "strong" muscles and the "weak" muscles would be allowed to heal.
2. Time. It was possible that these muscles would heal themselves, with some care, in 3-5 years.

Dunno, but I didn't like the idea of going to yet another surgeon, then sitting in the chair and watching a longish needle coming at the middle of my face. And, if you don't want me to react, you'd better strap me down damned tightly - I tend to bite and scratch.

I am happy to say that A) the muscles healed on their own, and I no longer require the patch; and B) it only took about eighteen months.

Fortunately, despite the gross cranial and brain trauma, the eyeball anatomy itself is fine. So, it was just a control issue - there was nothing wrong with the camera itself.

I go in for opthalmic consults every year - at least for the next couple of years (until 2010 or so) then I can return to regular optometric consults (which I get annually.) My eyes haven't been anywhere near 20/20 in years - genetics are against me (myopia and astigmatism run in the family,) and I've managed to accelerate the process. But, I can still see - and I do take as much care of my eyes as possible. It's probably being so bad in vision that makes me doubly cautious...

But - if they perfect cybernetic eyes anytime soon, I'll be in line! I'd like mine with thermal night vision, light-amplification (starlight vision,) inbuilt rangefinder, and I'd like to be able to cue up about 20X magnification for fine work, please... (Hey - if you're going to dream, dream BIG!)

 

[Muad'Dib]

But - if they perfect cybernetic eyes anytime soon, I'll be in line! I'd like mine with thermal night vision, light-amplification (starlight vision,) inbuilt rangefinder, and I'd like to be able to cue up about 20X magnification for fine work, please... (Hey - if you're going to dream, dream BIG!)

Ahh man the possibilities!


In all seriousness however, i am sorry to hear about your unfortunate endeavor.

 

[5-90]

Ahh man the possibilities!


In all seriousness however, i am sorry to hear about your unfortunate endeavor.

I must be doing well - I can joke about being killed (I was dead - but I got better. Interesting story for the firemen, tho...) and I've been asked "Why aren't you dead?" by enough surgeons that I laugh off the question. Not the nervous titter - actual belly laughs, like you get from a very good joke.

Apparently, I was written off as dead at the scene, and they had a sheet over me and were starting to get things cleared up. Then, a voice from under the sheet - "What the f*** is going on?" I was apparently starting to pull the sheet off of me to look around when they came over en masse. Fortunately, I didn't try to get up (shattered face, broken nose, fracture of C5, three broken ribs, broken pelvis, dislocated knee, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.)

Spent four days in hospital while they were debating on whether or not to drill a hole in my head (subdural haematoma - they didn't) and they had me on morphine. Came back to my senses two weeks later in bed at home wondering what had happened. Ouch.

Scarring? There's a little road rash on my left elbow that took a while to heal, that's about it. All of the fractures were non-displaced, and I just had to stay off my feet for eight weeks (still trying to lose that weight. When I have to heal any major trauma, I eat like a fool. Gained thirty pounds - lost fifteen of it so far.) Changes in the barometer are Hell, and I've got a pretty damned good idea when it's going to rain. Short-term memory is half shot, and I need to get my eyeglass prescription updated (again - now that my eyes aren't crossed anymore.)

Not bad for a guy that got hit by a car doing 65. Got even - the car was totalled. Take that!

 

[Stumpalump]

The closer you get to death te more alive you feel! I can apreaciate your understanding of the world from your post 5-90. I was drinking and druging heavily by age 14 and by the time I was in my late 20's I had seen a lot. I watched frinds loose their life and the closest thing to a brother I had sucumed to addiction and died. I knew I was next. Drugs guns and drunk blackout driving were going to kill me and I saw death. Would not trade the experiance for the world because it sure makes everday seem like a true blessing. Is my brain fried? You bet! but I work with the skills and talents I have left to make my life the best it can be. And from where I came from I'm doing alright and glad you guys with the issues are too!