Hi Pete, My name is Patrick , Father of 3 1/2 year old boy with duanes, the big quetion i and many other parents are wondering is whether or not to have surgery on these kids, i have heard that by not having the surgery that the non-affected eye would take over and the duanes eye would just get worse, and do your other senses seem stronger, or your feeling of awareness (like things around you that most people dont notice).

Peter McCann <mccann_peter@...> wrote:

HI Folks...

A couple of thoughts, on this.  I'm 41 and I have had
my fair share of bumping into walls, and partially
open doors, trees etc and still bump into things
occasionaly.  I believe part of the clumsiness is do
to a "lack of depth perception" or rather depth
perception where things are not exactly where I think
they are, and a peripheral field of view better on one
side then the other.  I have discovered that due to my
head turn, things in my field of view most notabily
things within arms reach can be physically not where
my brain perceives them to be. I'm talking within and
inch or so. Also My head turn is to the left, so I
will walk into things on my right side more
frequently.

For those of you without duanes try this experiment,
Close one eye and walk around the house for about an
hour doing what you normally do. You will most likely
bump into a doorway, miss picking up a pen or a spoon.
Try playing catch with only one eye.

So how does this affect me, well my eye hand
coordination is not fantastic, this made playing
baseball, and basketball difficult. However as I grew
older I discovered that with practice (maybe more then
the next person) I was able to play these sports after
I had made adjustments. When I was 14 I sat on the
edge of my bed throwing a ball into the air over and
over again. I've learned how to juggle and play a good
game of ping pong. Recently I've found chopping wood
is difficult, at least in the traditional sense, I've
made adjustments where I line up the wood and
concentrate on the extension of my arms and wrists,
rather then swinging away, and using what my eyes tell
me.

So my advise is simply support your children, help
them pick themselves up dust themselves off, and they
will be fine.

Oh one last thing. When I was in my 30's I took up
Karate, this really helped me with balance, and
knowing where my hands are/were in relation to
everything around me, you may want to consider this
sport when your children are old enough to partcipate.

Pete



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