My left eye is amblyopic. I wish I could say it used to be amblyopic, because now it can see, but it cannot see as well as my right eye, even though both of my eyes see 20/20. Isn’t that weird?
Amblyopia occurs when the nerve pathway from one eye to the brain does not develop during childhood…Strabismus is the most common cause of amblyopia.
As a result of vision therapy, my left eye stopped being a non-seeing amblyopic eye, but it is still amblyopic…how can that be, and what am I experiencing?
When I am looking at something detailed with just my left eye, I can see it, but it’s difficult to perceive. It is not blurry, but it is tricky. My brain is working hard just to see it, maybe the way the brain works hard to listen to a faint noise.
The Hart chart pictured here is where I really notice the amblyopic quality of my left eye. It is easier for me to read the letters on the edges of the chart, but the letters in the middle of the chart are very difficult to track. I loose my place.
It’s like trying to count two dozen ducks floating on a pond as they move with the waves and one of them flaps its wings and another bobs its head under the water…you just want them all to freeze motion for just a second so you can track them. It is hard for me to track and hold on to those wily letters in the middle of the Hart chart.
bars around the H
Everyone in the strabismus biz knows about this phenomenon. It’s called crowding and Dr. Len Press has a nice discussion of it on his blog.
When my eye doc examined my vision the other day, I looked at the line of letters across the room and recited them; everyone knows that routine. With my right eye, she projected regular letters. But for my amblyopic eye, she used letters like the one pictured here…the contour bars around that H are magical. With those bars, I can see the H. Without them, it’s harder to keep my eye on it…like those diving ducks.
My eye doctor explained my amblyopic eye this way, the signal coming from my left eye to my brain is not as strong as the signal from my right eye. This concept makes me think of how we are right-handed or left-handed…all of that writing we do with the right hand, day after day, makes the right hand strong and capable.
“It is not blurry, but it is tricky” that sums up what I’ve known for years but hadn’t figured out how to articulate! I always learn something from your posts, thanks.
This has been a good reminder for me to develop the vision in my weaker eye and the saccadic movements. I’ve made a lot of progress over the last 10 months, but I’ve kinda reached a plateau as well. I’ve started playing my First Person Shooter video game Battlefield 3 eye and studying with the good eye covered. I simply wear a toque and pull it over the good eye.
I can really tell how slow my weak eye is when I play Battlefield 3. The game requires you to constantly scan the screen looking for the enemy. You’re playing against other people, so you really have to be fast. It’s frustrating, but it really gets the eye scanning and jumping all over the screen.
Thanks for the wonderful post!
I hope everything is going good with you Sally. You have not posted in quite some time.
I’ve obtained occlusion lenses for my glasses now. I use the occlusion lens on my good eye. The patch is rated at 20/70 vision.
The obscuring effect, instinctively causes my weaker eye to become more active. While reading it becomes dominant, during other activities it helps fusion, although things are quite blurry in the good eye.
I have varying degrees of obscuring lenses to use. My plan is to wean myself off to weaker and weaker occlusion lenses, as my eyes get stronger.
My plan is to adjust to this first lens for the month of September, before going to the next weaker lens. I’m still making gains in my vision, although I think I have plateaued for quite some time. I believe that this is the next major step in redefining my vision.
I hope to have very good results by Christmas and be almost 100% by then. Perhaps, I am being overly optimistic, but only time will tell. The most important thing is that I am making gains again.
Take care.