Amblyopia and school ability

There are a few things I'm curious about amblyopia.  First, can the length of time reading cause headaches and reading fatigue?  Second, my son's opthamologist thought one of his eyes had such a slight misalignment, that any surgical proceedure may result in the eye returning back to the original position... do you find this to be the common course?  Third, it seems like my son's (12yr old) amblyopic eye sight still changes after a few months... will this continue throughout his life?  

We had gone through years of patching, drops, and some therapy, however... the pattern seems to repeat itself.  He would get a prescription for glasses and he would wear them for 2 months before he finds them useless.  We change the prescription because his amblyopic eye improved and for the next month or so, he will cease to wear the glasses before he finds them completely useless.  A month later, the eye returns back to the way it was.  This has been the case for the last 5 years... and if my son could have his way, he would not want to wear any corrective lenses at all (even contacts).


He has an uncle that has the same problem and has very little sight ability of the amblyopic eye, while I hear from his doc to avoid this.  Why won't his vision stabilize?

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear justTess,

I would recommend that you seek the care of a pediatric eyeMD to determine the best treatment options for your son.  A complete eye examination including cycloplegic refraction is indicated to determine the prescription changes along with motility disorder of the eye.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[justTess]

I don't believe my son had this type of examination before.  Is a pediatric eye MD different from an opthamologist?

I had recently talked with my son's prior opthamologist and current optomitrist and I am getting a hint that perhaps I haven't properly patched his eye according to as prescribed.  I truely have, and very sternly for many years in the past.  The opthamologist suggested a neuroopthamologist however, getting preauthorization seems useless for amblyopia.

Any ideas on how to proceed?