We saw the Ophthalmologist this week for DS2. Apparently patching 1-2 hours per day, even though I remembered only half the time, payed off for the babies strabismus. The Ophthalmologist didn’t see the left eye start to dominate as before and we are at a steady 40 prism diopters. He recommended strabismus eye surgery and we are now scheduled for surgery at the end of next month. I’m not looking forward to it but the research supports the benefit for surgery for such a large alignment deviation and the earlier the better.
In the mean time, I’ve contacted two behavioral Optometrists. One was a little too non-conventional for me and seemed to not feel surgery is ever warranted but the research I’ve found, even from The College of Optometrists for Visual Development, says it sometimes is and therapy can’t correct alignments greater then 20 prism diopters at best. The second seems more up my ally. She has years of experience and teaching credentials. She is also not anti-surgery. I was disappointed, however, that she didn’t have any names of Ophthalmologist that are supportive of vision therapy. Our Ophthalmologist is great in many ways but is not at all supportive of vision therapy. Apparently Ophthalmologists and Optometrists don’t generally get along anyway. I believe that vision therapy can help post op to prevent the eyes from going crossed again which is a risk for DS 2 especially with his brain abnormalities. I’m still debating if our first visit with the Optometrist will be before or after surgery as she doesn’t take insurance.