Harada-Ito eye operation

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Due to the traumatic brain injury (TBI) the nerve that controls one of my eye muscles in each eye became paralysed. This resulted in not only having double vision as my focusing vision was okay, but the eyes were rotationally twisted and no longer able to move correctly or track together. To help, I needed to cover one eye every day to eliminate the double vision. Initially I started wearing eye patches that weren’t very flattering but they did come in useful for my pirate themed birthday party. However, these were easily dislodged and became very hot when having physio sessions so we had to get creative and fashioned two pairs of safety glasses with opaque tape (one for each eye to be covered on alternate days). This meant I could see, but in two-dimensional (monocular vision) and the image my brain received was twisted having great impact on my already impaired balance and caused a head tilt as my brain tried to correct it.

Tip: do not opt for the pink patch supplied by the NHS as this is a pale pink and if you have a pale complexion it looks like you have a giant nipple on your face!

Here are my vision measurements before medical intervention:

If someone with normal vision took this test the green lines would line up with the small black dots on the grid.

Thankfully, there was a procedure to help straighten my sight called a Harada-Ito. I needed to wait 18 months from the date of the accident to ensure my eyes had settled so once the procedure was done, my eyes didn’t over correct themselves.

Here is a link to an example procedure or use your search engine for more graphic videos!

http://www.squintclinic.com/videos/tyspe_of_squint/paralytic_squint/superior_oblique_palsy/superior_oblique_palsy_surgery/

The surgery had to be adapted as my injury didn’t follow the textbook and Mr Pharoah told me the bad news that he had only performed the surgery once before, but the good news was that he had performed the surgery once before.  As soon as I woke up I had binocular vision, it was like having a VR headset on, everything was jumping out – very surreal and exciting. I can’t thank Mr Pharoah and his team enough and so far, so good.  I only have double vision by looking to the extreme right and left or upwards so as long as I’m not a pilot or professional snooker player it’s no big deal.

Vision measurements after the surgery:

You can see that the majority of the green lines line up with the small black dots.

A few hours after the adapted Harada-Ito eye operation

 

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