My daughter is visually impaired.  She has profound strabismus (cross-eyes) in both eyes; most kids only have it in one eye.  She’s also severely farsighted (can’t see things up close).    Also, she only sees with one eye at a time and therefore  cannot see in 3D and has no depth-perception.

The eye that is working, looks straight.  The eye that isn’t, turns in.  Without glasses her working eye has to work over 12 times harder than a normal eye to see (legally blind).  With glasses about 7 times harder.

After several examinations and prescriptions and measurements, we finally have a surgery date (February).  The ophthalmologist is going to alter muscle placement so the eye that isn’t working doesn’t turn in as much.  This will also provide her brain and her eyes with tremendous relief reducing headaches, eye soreness, and irritability.

 The least dramatic result (and most likely) will be straighter eyes and the addition of some limited depth-perception (some is better than none).   The most dramatic result would give her a type of monocular vision where both eyes see at the same time but do not work together like normal eyes (binocular vision).   There are professional athletes and Olympians with monocular vision. 

Dealing with this has been very stressful.  At one point we were told that she may go completely blind in one eye or both.  This isn’t over yet and now that you know a little about her story you might think of her when she goes for surgery and hopefully celebrate the results with us.

Related articles

• Your Child’s Vision (education.com)
• Teaching Cross-eyed People to See in 3D. (psychologytoday.com)