Strabismus Surgery - Elgin,IL

My daughter was born with Torticollis, Strabismus, and craniosynostosis. She had full skull surgery at 6 months. At 3 years she had the mastoid muscle cut and stretched, and she recently had Strabismus surgery. It did not help a lot. She still has it where her eye wanders but now its only when she looks in 1 specific direction. We are working with an Ocular Specialist. We are now doing patch therapy for 4 hours a day. You patch the eye that is strongest. That makes the weaker eye do all the work and eventually it is suppose to make them equal in strength and train the lazy eye to center itself. So far we have done it for 6 months. No real effect. Might be that its meant to wander. There are other therapies available you need to find one that is right for the child.

My doctor warned me that in about 10 to 20% of all surgery cases for strabismus the surgery will not "take" the first time and need to be repeated.

I was prepared up front for us to be in that group, so if we had to do it again I wouldn't be freaked out about it. We didn't have to repeat it...at least not yet. I do know some kids with this can have it show up again after a good repair around the age of 8 or 9 years old...due to a growth spurt around that time.

I really really liked our surgeon he even gave me his personal cell phone number after surgery to call him with any questions. What information has your doctor or his office given you about the "blind spot syndrome"?

I will go Google it now...

I don't know much about it, but my friend's daughter had surgery for it twice as a baby/toddler. When she was 3 or 4, they thought it might be recurring, but surgery wasn't needed. However, she is almost five and just recently got glasses. Not sure how helpful any of that is, but it is a story of a girl who was not cured of her strabismus after just one surgery. Sorry I don't know more details.

http://www.mdjunction.com/ is a place where you can find online support groups where they might have more information for you. Good Luck!

Thanks for the info. Having trouble figuring out how to respond to each individual post.
I was prepared for it not to work the first time also. Dr. is concerned because it turned in to the degree she was before surgery so quickly. have been doing the patching and have noticed her to be straighter when patch taken off.
Office didn't give me any info on blind spot syndrome. Will ask next time I go. Dr. says she has only seen this 1 other time. So I think it is pretty rare.