Supporting people with aniridia and their Families
Just Diagnosed? click here
Supporting people with aniridia and their Families
Just Diagnosed? click here
Beth's NystagmusI have CN, congenital nystagmus, which means that my nystagmus has been present from birth. The movements I have are pendular and horizontal, which basically means that they move from side to side. Many people with nystagmus have a null point, a place where the nystagmus is dampened or slows down. I am one of those people. In both eyes I seem to be able to dampen my nystagmus if I look out of the corner of my eye by my nose and the other eye looks straight ahead. The other eye looks straight ahead because I only use one eye at a time as there is an extremely significant difference in the level of sight, my left eye is 3/60 and my right eye is 6/36. People who have a null point often have an abnormal head posture, which helps them to achieve this null point. I often turn my head to one side when I am concentrating on something. This means that I am able to keep my eye in the corner and I am able to achieve the best amount of vision I can. People with CN don’t see the world as moving or wobbling, it just looks still too me. Although I can have problems if something is moving faster than my nystagmus. The only times I notice my nystagmus is when I am tired, nervous or concentrating hard on something. At these times I find it difficult to keep my eye in my null point or to control the movements to any extent what so ever. I have read, on many occasions, about people who have had surgery to improve their nystagmus or their appearance because of the nystagmus. Surgeries include tightening the muscles of the eyes to decrease the wobble or to change the site of the null point so the person does not have an abnormal head posture. Sometimes surgery is necessary because abnormal head postures can cause neck and shoulder injuries later on in life in the null point is not corrected. Neither my parents or I have chosen surgery because we want to preserve what sight I have left and we would not like to risk the chance of the operations going wrong or to damage my eyes so that other operations could not take place. Another reason is that my AHP is not likely to give my any problems in the future. I would be happy to correspond with any individuals or their relatives who have nystagmus. My e-mail address is B_Laskey@yahoo.com back to nystagmus |
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