Visual Acuity with SOM

I was diagnosed with superior oblique myokymia in my left eye at Mayo Clinic in 1972. (In fact they filmed it for future teaching purposes). The twitching eventually went away on a permanent basis. However, over the years, I have had a few twitching episodes (not lasting more than a day). More often I have had episodes of a "sense" of tightened and pulling, tired eye muscles in the left eye but not twitching.

Over the years, my vision in my left eye has not been as good as my right eye. My visual acuity is less in my left eye. I take exams regularly and no matter what, doctors just can't get the left eye vision to be as sharp as my unaffected right eye. Everything I see with my left eye, seems to be very slightly smaller and blurry compared to my right eye. For example, I can see street signs fairly well with my right eye, but they are somewhat blurry with my left eye. Sometimes I think what I view is on a slight angle too, but it could be just the lenses of the glasses distorting objects as I am nearsighted at -725 in left eye and -625 in right eye.

In addition, I have had multiple retinal tears since 1986 in both eyes and have constant vitreous fluid floating in both eyes. However, I have had the blurry left eye prior to my first retinal tear. Could my reduced viual acuity in the left eye be due to the SOM history, or could it be some other problem?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

SOM does not affect visual acuity. You should realize that pair organs (eyes, ears, kidneys, etc) are not exact duplicates. Most people have a dominant eye that see's better than the other. In addition you are more myopic in your left eye. Your glasses "minify" or make things smaller. Ther stronger the lens the smaller the image (if you are farsighted it's just the opposite and the glasses magnify). Thus if you shift your vision from one eye to the other and you are observant the image will be smaller in the left eye.

JCH III MD

[briarwood]

My glasses I just picked up has prism placed in left lens since last exam showed I wasnt lining up properly. However, I still see double images/blurriness in left eye. Thats why I thought now that it might be due to the SOM.

[briarwood]

My wife says one eye of her's is indeed a bit better than other eye but when we test our vision looking at a clock to see what time it is about 10 feet away - although one eye is clearer than the other for her, she can still see what time it is in either eye. I can't see what time it is in my left eye.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

She may have better vision than you, maybe you can hear better or run faster than she.

JCH III MD