posted
One of my son's most lingering symptoms is crossed-eyes. They were severely crossed when his condition was most acute. It was hard for the doctors to ignore it which is part of why we were taken seriously.
They need a loud knock on their heads and it seemed to work. But they had a hard time drawing the conclusion that it could be Lyme because crossed-eyes were "unheard of" with Lyme. They weren't convinced it was "disseminated" Lyme because he wasn't presenting with arthritic knees or Bell's Palsy.
To help them along, my sister, who is a naturopathic MD found 4 similar crossed-eyed Lyme cases in the world. I printed this information for the neurologist and I have no idea what he did with it.
A week later, much trauma later, we were in the hospital and the ID doctor announced that he had found four other documented cases in the world of people with confirmed Lyme and crossed-eyes. Long story short, finally, the diagnosis was accepted.
This was several months ago. My son's eyes have drastically improved. (They couldn't have gotten worse). But he now wakes up every morning with crossed eyes (much less crossed than when he was in the hospital, but they were completely turned inward then, so scary).
He now has to spend 20 minutes or so doing a self-prescribed list of eye exercises he believes helps them uncross. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. His eyes are crossed about half his days now.
I am wondering - is there anyone else out there with this symptom??? Your story???
I'm just wondering and debating if after 6 months of this if we'll go through with the supposed surgery to correct it (the opthamologist's suggestion as a last ditch fix). Any thoughts?
Posts: 43 | From Southeastern US | Registered: Jul 2009
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Is your son taking antibiotics for the Lyme? Do you have a Lyme specialist now?
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96223 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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blaze
Unregistered
posted
I never had crossed eyes, but both of my eyes can be lazy and drift outward with Lyme, so it's possible.
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ping
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6974
posted
Aleigh,
Was your son born with this condition, even in a more subdued state?
It's called Strabismus and the LLMD in Houston some years ago found that it was very common among those either born with Lyme, or acquired infection at a young age. Also called "Lazy Eye", I have it and had surgery in '83 (bef. I knew it was Lyme), which was about 50% successful. During Lyme flares, it would really get bad, even after the surgery.
Has shown some real improvement over the years with abx tx, although some days when I'm real tired, my eye tends to cross a bit.
ping "We are more than containers for Lyme"
P.S. - I had to do all the exercises too when I was a girl; even wore a patch over my good eye to "induce" my lazy eye to work better. Did NOT help one little bit. If you decide on surgery, try to get as much abx tx under your child's belt as possible and get the condition as improved as possible. I'm sure without the surgery, it will cause a real problem with learning (reading), so you'll have to do something pretty quick.
Best to you both and keep in touch.
-------------------- ping "We are more than containers for Lyme" Posts: 1302 | From Back in TX again | Registered: Mar 2005
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Starfall1969
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 17353
posted
I was born with a lazy eye too, and I did the patch thing in kindergarten (real nice, wait till I was in school so all the kids laughed at me). It didn't work for me either.
I never had the surgery because one doctor said it could very easily further weaken the eye because it involved cutting the eye muscles (that was back in the 1970s, it may be different now).
I never heard of Lyme causing crossed eyes, although it has hit my eyesight a lot.
Good luck!
Posts: 1682 | From Dillsburg, PA | Registered: Sep 2008
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posted
okay - I'm here! We just went through the swine flu and it took us out. And I'm a wedding photographer and I just made it through the peak season here (the leaves in the mountains are gorgeous). Thanks so much for all of your thoughts.
Yes, he's seeing Dr J - going through treatment with abx etc.
He has an opthamologist, too. It isn't considered lazy eye because lazy eye is usually chronic, starting in very young kids and my son's crossed-eyes came on approx one month after the lyme rash. He's 11 years old.
Also, they weren't just lazy -- they were turned completely inward. His lyme came down in an severe and acute way. Not chronic although it's being treated as such because of the severity it hit (likely multi-infections).
Anyway, the opthamologist said he didn't need to wear a patch because it's not lazy eye. Also said eye exercises won't work - that's it's completely self-correcting.
My son's eye exercises are SELF-PRESCRIBED. He does (did) them himself in the morning to kind of "shake" his marbles into position. Sometimes it worked.
Okay - I said we had swine flu, right. Well, the craziest thing happened. My son got a fever that lingered for 48 hours between 99.4 - 101.4.
His eyes have not crossed since the fever started. It has been two weeks now - no crossed eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posts: 43 | From Southeastern US | Registered: Jul 2009
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Better late than never....
I have a friend who has Lyme and coinfections and developed (in adulthood) severely crossed eyes. First one eye, then the other.
When treated they corrected themselves. He has since relapsed and the one eye is crossed again.
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