HELP! amblyopic, astigmatic, can't adjust to glasses

Hi,

I've been trolling the internet for any information that could help
with my eye issues, but haven't found anything helpful. I'm at wit's
end, so if you have any advice at all, I would be very grateful!

I have amblyopia (and a considerable amount of astigmatism) in my left
eye and have never been able to correct it successfully. I patched it
when I was a kid, but was never able to find a glasses prescription
that I could stomach because of the dramatic difference in
prescriptions between my two eyes. For about 8 years, I exclusively
wore one contact lens in my right eye and just let it do all the work.
2 years ago, I developed some kind of painful reaction to the contact
lens (some suggested GPC, others have said episcleritis or allergies)
and have not been able to use them since. I then started wearing
glasses all the time and just used a "balance lens" in the left eye
(again, letting my right do all the work). I could see fine, but had
terrible depth perception and peripheral vision in the left eye.

In October 2005, I decided to get new glasses. My opthamologist
suggested that I try to correct my left eye. So my prescription went
from this:

O.D. -3.25 (spherical), -1.00 (cylindrical), 160 (axis)
O.S. Balance lens

To this:

O.D. -3.25 (spherical), -1.00 (cylindrical), 160 (axis)
O.S. -3.00 (spherical), -3.50 (cylindrical), 180 (axis).

I knew it would be very difficult to adjust, and toughed it out for 2
months. But there was still distortion, particularly at the edges of
the frames (which were quite large). The optometrist changed the
material of the lens, thinking that would cut back on the distortion.
It did a little bit, but things still looked weird. My opthalmologist
then suggested that I put the prescription in my old, smaller frames to
try to cut back on edge distortion. This has again helped a little
bit, but things aren't perfect. I am able to see quite clearly when
looking straight ahead, but in poor lighting, or cramped quarters (like
at my desk), or when I turn my head, something is off.

I don't know what to do! I have put all this effort into adjusting and
would definitely push through if I knew it would get better.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I'm also wondering if there
is any kind of long term damage I am doing to either my right or left
eye by not attempting to correct the left eye?

THANK YOU!
-julia

 

I was told by one doctor that he would never do Lasik on someone with
my condition because of the repercussions if something went wrong with
the "good" eye. That kind of scared me away. I would do it in a
heartbeat if there was a consensus telling me I was a good candidate.

 

Saying that you're trolling on the internet is probably not a good
idea.. especially on this forum when your email address has the word
'otis' in it ;-)

Ann

 

Hehe I thought the same thing!

Maybe she meant to say 'trawling'!!

Dom

 

Julia I agree with Robert - maybe your ophthalmologist should start you
with a lower cylinder, say -150 perhaps, in the left eye. After you get
used to this (maybe several months or just the next time you need to buy
new glasses) you could then go to say -250cyl then finally the full
-350, although you might find that a lower cyl value is enough to give
you comfortable vision with reasonable depth perception.

Also the material your lenses are made of could be important here, e.g.
perhaps a high index material (or especially polycarbonate) could be
contributing to the off-centre blur you are noticing.

RGP ("hard") contact lenses could be really great for you - really clear
vision, absolutely no distortion problems, and virtually no problems
with GPC, allergies, etc.

Dom