Re: [duane's] Re: Hello all..
Just wanted to share my experiences.
Both I and my older son have bilateral Duane's. For myself, my left eye doesn't quite hit midline and my right eye goes almost but not all the way out. I never had surgery. I adapted quite well as a child and was not hindered at all by my Duane's, except for a tendency to ignore my left side and consequently bumped into things a lot. I didn't develop a head turn until my late 30's, probably because of differential "aging" of my two eyes which caused my to favor my Duane's eye for close vision. After a few years of this (and chronic low-level back pain and one very painful acute episode), I was prescribed progressive bifocals with a prism lens and that has solved my head turn.
My son, on the other hand, was born with very severe bilateral Duane's. Neither eye could hit midline. He was unable to look straight ahead. We chose VRT surgery for him with Dr. R. -- one operation on each eye at approximately 1 year of age. He now sees and looks great. He has a slight vertical deviation as a result of his surgery in that his left eye is higher than his right eye when he looks up and/or up and left. It has not caused any double vision and is not severe enough to warrant further corrective surgery. It is unclear whether he currently has any binocular vision -- his last vision test makes it seem unlikely. However, I myself have only a very small range of binocular vision and it has not been a problem either academically or socially.
As a reassurance to those out there with little ones, if the eyes are aligned when looking straight ahead, they should do fine. I was always a straight-A student and have both an undergraduate and a graduate degree from top-ranked universities. My son, who is in Kindergarten this year, is also an excellent student and is reading and doing math above grade-level. Duane's does not have to cause a problem either academically or socially -- especially if the parents are aware of potential issues and work to address them early.
This is only my experience, but I thought it might be helpful to share with newer posters (I have posted a lot in the past, but have been relatively "quiet" on this board recently).
(Also, regarding the pain issue. Several adults have posted about their surgical experiences and I don't believe that even they experienced much pain).
-- Liane
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [duane's] Re: Hello all..
Your experience may differ from that of many others. Our decision to proceed with surgery was based on several medical opinions and what was best for our child. The point of early surgery is that it has better results and the child is less likely to remember having the operation. Also, as infants not all of our pain receptors are active, so something that would be very painful for an adult is less so for a child.
Each parent needs to come to this decision on their own. Just because you learned to adapt does not mean that every child will. As a child I was tormented because of a mole I had on my face. My parents decided to get it removed. The scar I have is better than the mole in many ways. It reminds me that people can be cruel but there are things out there to lessen the embarrasment if you want it.
And punctuation would help others to understand your point.
janusjaclyn <janusjaclyn@yahoo.com> wrote:
who cares what anybody thinks im 22 and i have had duanes syndrome
since i was born and i wasnt ridiculed for having it surgery at that
young of age is terrible if its not affecting her health who cares its
just her outer appearance if anything shell have more confidence with
herself and not care what anybody thinks people are mean yes we all
know that if anything shell be unique i just cant believe people care
so much about something so little and as you get older you learn how
to control it like i did
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