I had two surgeries as a baby, read about them here and here, and then a third surgery when I was seven years old.
This third surgery was a superior rectus recession and a lateral rectus recession. The superior rectus recession part was meant to address the DVD (dissociated vertical deviation) that I had developed after my initial surgeries. Basically, one eye was higher than the other and they readjusted my muscles to fix it. The lateral rectus recession part was to help straighten my eyes horizontally. A recession weakens the strength of opposing muscles trying to balance the eyes.
I was not interested in anything about the surgery and wasn’t too concerned about the eyes, except for the shot. I had been told that as a baby they’d given me a shot in my behind to put me to sleep. I was terrified about the shot.
We had moved away from Utah by this point so we had to travel back for the surgery. I remember sleeping at my cousisn’s house the night before the surgery. I was nervous and remember throwing up that morning all down their hall. My mom immediately called the doctor wondering if we’d have to postpone. They decided it was just nerves and proceeded.
My parents bought me a special present for the day of the surgery. I remember it so well. It was a mommy stuffed kitty. Her tummy velcroed shut and inside were three tiny newborn kittens that meowed when you pet them. It was literally every 7-year-old girl’s dream come true. I opened it in the waiting room and the kittens kept meowing and wouldn’t stop. I remember giggling and thinking it was so funny and just completely adoring everything about my new toy. I have searched for a similar toy for my little girls to no avail.
The next memory is of being on the table and waiting for the inevitable moment when they asked me to pull my pants down for the shot. I asked and they said they were actually going to just put something over my nose and I just had to breathe. I was so enormously relieved and remember looking up into the eyes of a young man who started counting and then I was out.
The doctor’s notes state that before surgery my eye turn was measured at 15-18 diopters at near and far. After the surgery, it was at 0-5 diopters and the DVD was at 0. It was a success at first, but within a year, the vertical misalignment came back.
I stayed home from school for a week and I still remember going back to school. I waited in the hallway while my mom went into my class and explained about my eye surgery. I remember her saying that my eyes were red, but it was okay because they didn’t hurt. I was so confused, I must have not looked in the mirror for a week because I didn’t know they were red. Then I went in and my classmates were allowed to ask any questions. I remember explaining that it didn’t hurt, but it was hard to go around corners and I sometimes hit the wall. We all laughed and I don’t remember anything else about it.
I was blessed to be with the same group of about 25 kids from kindergarten until 4th grade. We were in a small rural school on the outskirts of Rexburg, ID and either I was clueless and didn’t notice, or I was never teased by anyone in my childhood.
After the surgery, things stayed about the same. The patching was on and off because my acuity had improved to 20/20 and 20/30. Some visits they would tell me to stop because I was doing well, but then I would get worse and they’d have me start patching again. My glasses prescription continued to improve as I got older and I kept wearing glasses.
There was a fateful day in fourth grade at an appointment when the doctor announced that my treatment was finished, read about it here.
A special thank you to my friend, an optometrist, who helped me interpret all of my medical records and for my mom who was a picture taking and scrapbooking queen so that I could piece together my childhood experiences with strabismus.