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Strabismus and FHC (Family Hope Center)

898 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  HeatherSanders 
#1 ·
Okay, I'm shooting in the dark here. I have recently been contacted by another MDC momma that happened across a thread of mine mentioning my Meredith's eye surgeries for Exotrophia. She sent me information on alternatives to surgery through the Family Hope Center.

A bit of background. Meredith, at 6 months, started showing symptoms of eye deviation. Her left eye turned outward. By the time she was a year old her eye was deviating more often than not and she lacked control of it. She had surgery at the age of 1 where they went in and cut the muscles and re-attached them to re-align the eye. After it healed they looked perfect.

Up until this time she had not crawled, pulled up or walked (obviously). She had a developmental surge. She pretty much skipped crawling and started pulling up and then walking within weeks of the surgery.

Fast forward 6 months and we started to notice that her left eye was turning inward. It seemed to have been 'over-corrected.' By the time she was two she was nearly always cross-eyed. Living in a different city and state, we were seeing a different specialist. He said that it seemed the muscle that was originally detached and re-attached had slipped. He did the same surgery (basically) and re-aligned the eye when Meredith turned 2. After surgery it always looked a bit 'off' to me, but no one else seemed to notice it.

Fast forward 6 months again and Meredith is 2 1/2 years old. We notice when she is tired, just woke up, or has been crying . . . the left eye is deviating outward. She is 3 now and basically she is headed for another surgery if the specialist has anything to do with it. He has stated that he does not understand the lack of alignment. I am not comfortable with another surgery - we are talking eye surgery - scar tissue - anesthesia. SHE IS 3!!

She gets frustrated by them. We call them 'crazy eyes.' She handles it better that way b/c she can make a joke of it, "Look momma I have crazy eyes." And it is funny b/c she knows they are that way when she is tired. I will often say, "I can tell you are tired Meredith" and she will say, "Look at my eyes - do I look tired?" :LOL

Anyway, the FHC offers a sort of creeping/crawling therapy to teach the brain differently. They believe strabismus to be a mid-brain injury.

Has anyone had experience with this that can share? I'm not sure this is the most appropriate forum, but I don't know which one is if it isn't.

Thanks for reading this far - if you've come this far.
 
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#2 ·
Heather,
My dd had exotropia. She had surgery when she was 2. (Incidentally, she skipped crawling and went straight to walking as well.)

When she was 7 the doc started talking about a second surgery because her eyes were not holding their position. We got a second opinion and chose vision therapy, which did help. Her therapy wasn't crawling therapy--she worked with near and far eye charts, did some exercises on the computer, and had to do a lot of close-up eye/hand work, like mazes and other pencil games. A few months ago, the issue of surgery was brought up again by her doctor.

Dd does not want to have the surgery. Her vision is not perfect, (she sometimes has doubling) but she can compensate. Even before therapy, she'd taught herself to read at the age of 5. Now, at 8, she reads just about anything she can get her hands on. She also is very "into" crafts and art projects and has no trouble managing even the fine work.

I am not at all pleased with the idea of more surgery, as you said--the issue of scar tissue, the anesthesia, plus the fact that the odds of it helping aren't that high. It wasn't until recently that I learned that it's not uncommon for children to have multiple eye muscle surgeries. (Wish I'd known THAT in the beginning!)

Anyway, what I really wanted to post was a link: http://www.childrensvision.com/
Lots of info--alternatives--etc.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally posted by Joan
It wasn't until recently that I learned that it's not uncommon for children to have multiple eye muscle surgeries. (Wish I'd known THAT in the beginning!)
We are all too familiar with the push for multiple eye muscle surgeries and it certainly has not faired us well at all.


Thank you for the link, I'll look into that.

My heart is wrapped around this subject and I'm so glad I have my husband for objectivity. My heart even skipped a beat to see someone had responded to this thread. We are searching right now - wanting to do right by her - not wanting her brain to basically 'turn-off' the 'connection' to the deviating eye.
 
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