Will I eventually go blind in one eye?

Question

I am a 27 year old female, healthy and active. I was born two months premature, and started suffering from decreased vision in one eye in my late teens. I never wore my glasses because my right eye can see perfectly, making it seem like I have perfect vision. I wear them more now but the prescription still doesn't help the left eye much. My eye doctor says it can't be corrected. Does anyone have this problem that can shed some light? Will I go blind? Help!

Answer 1

Without any defining information of your condition, hard to say. However, you are obviously right eye dominant, giving the perception of perfect vision.

Answer 2

On the information you have given, you are no more likely to go blind than anyone else is.

The strong likelihood is that you have an amblyopic "lazy" eye on the left. This is a failure of development, not a progressive disease process.
About one person in thirty operates wth only one "good" eye, so in medical terms it's incredibly common, and apart from a few specific careers and situations makes little practical difference. The good eye does not "wear out" from "extra load."
You are very likely to be too old (sorry about those two words) to do much about the vision in the left eye with patching, the broad consensus being that it needs to be tackled before 9-12 years. A few practitioners think patching for amblyopia can be effective in some cases at almost any age.
What is accepted is that were you to lose the sight of your good eye in an accident, the vision in the left would gradually improve, somewhat, to an unpredictable degree.

(again, assuming the problem is amblyopia: there are other rarer possibilites, such as a degree of juvenile cataract in the eye, but that also tends to be non-progressive.)

Optometrist, retired.

Answer 3

It might be "amblyopia" which is when one eye loses vision from lack of use. You might have a lazy eye or a misaligned eye.

I have a similar problem actually. I have strabismus (crossed eyes) and my right eye is crossed in. Because of this I mostly use my left eye and my right eye gets weaker every year from increasing lack of use.

Since I have an issue that makes another surgery too dangerous, there is no way to straighten my eyes and I will most likely lose the vision in my right eye eventually.

I hope you have better luck than me... maybe patching the stronger eye can work for you.

Answer 4

your eye dr is probably correct. If your brain got use to using the right eye to SEE. It probably is dismissing what your left eye sees. Cover right eye. Can you see? Cover left eye. Does what you see change? When the vision in left eye started to decline did the dr say why at that time?

Answer 5

Vision Complications of Retinopathy Of Prematurity

The retina may become stretched and pulled by the contraction of the scars in the eye. This may physically pull the macula, the most sensitive part of the retina, causing abnormal vision. It may also cause folds in the retina and lead to retinal detachment.
The retina is the light sensitivity “film-like” portion of the eye. A retinal detachment occurs when this delicate tissue is dislodged from the internal walls of the eye. Retinal detachment (RD) is common in patients with ROP. In many cases, it leads to profound vision loss. Early detection and treatment is crucial. In stage 5, the most severe form of ROP, retinal detachment surgery may not be attempted due to the poor prognosis versus risk of operating on a premature infant.
Strabismus is another complication and it is the crossing in or turning out of an eye. This may occur from the loss of vision in one eye or be related to the large refractive differences between the eyes. This difference is called an anisometropia or antimetropia. For example, one eye may be 1 unit of myopia (nearsightedness) while the other eye is six units of nearsightedness.
Due to the vision loss or the strabismus, there is a loss of depth perception. Amblyopia is another condition found in ROP patients. It is a loss of vision in one eye, because the brain does not use that eye to see. Ambylopia can occur from either the strabismus or the large difference in refractive error between the two eyes.
Both cataract and corneal problems can develop. Severe damage may lead to Phthisis bulbi, a shrinking of the severely damaged eyes. Glaucoma may develop either early or as a later in life complication of ROP. Additionally, ROP patients may have high amounts of nearsightedness called myopia.
In patients who experience significant vision loss, nystagmus, a rapid fluttering of the eyes, may occur. Nystagmus is common in all patients whose vision loss occurs at an early age.

Complications Later in Life
Up to 10% of all premature infants may develop glaucoma later in life. Sudden angle closure glaucoma has been found to occur in the 2nd or 3rd decade of life. Additionally, 20% of those without ROP will still develop strabismus (the crossing or turning out of the eyes) and significant refractive problems requiring prescription eyeglasses. Additionally, approximately 3% of ROP patients will develop retinal detachments later on in life. Patient’s eyes must be examined regularly throughout their life.