Strabismus is a misalignment of the two eyes such that a single object in space is imaged on the fovea of one eye, and on a nonfoveal area of the other turned eye. In other words, one eye is turned so that it is receiving a view of the world from an abnormal angle. This is also referred to as a “lazy eye.” Strabismus can result in amblyopia and serious damage to the eye. Amblyopia is a developmental disorder characterized by reduced spatial vision in an otherwise healthy eye, even with proper correction for refractive error.

I can easily relate to the concept of strabismus because I had it when I was a child. It definitely was not an easy thing to grow up with. When I was about four years old, I began to realize that I was seeing double. When I would be looking at an object or a person, there would literally be two people in front of me or two teddy bears sitting on my bed. My parents also started to notice that my left eye looked like it was almost crossing over my right one when I would look straight ahead. In the picture below, my eye looked somewhat like the very last set of eyes. They took me to my local eye doctor and I was pronounced with strabismus. I had to get surgery in my left eye (the eye with strabismus) to correct my vision. In addition to surgery, I had to wear a patch over my right eye (my good eye) in order to help correct the left eye and “force” it to work. I also was prescribed for eyeglasses that I still wear to this day. My prescription has obviously gotten better, but my right eye is still stronger than my left eye. When I take my glasses off it’s very easy for me to notice this. Growing up with strabismus was something very hard to deal with for my parents and myself, but if my doctors didn’t catch it early, I would most likely be almost blind in my left eye today.