Seeing With Crossed-Eyes: My World in Double Vision
I was four years old when I went for an afternoon nap. My eyes were straight. When I awoke, my vision was jumbled. I saw everything in doubles. My mother slapped me across the face, thinking/hoping that would make things go back to how they were before.
Thus began my saga of Bonni being cross-eyed and having double vision. It’s called strabismus, an abnormality of the neuro-muscle causing weakness or misalignment. Poor eye muscle control causes the eye to turn in.
Unlike most people, my eyes don’t fuse images. As a result, I have the distinction of having diplopia — “dipl-” (meaning “double”) and “-opia” (meaning “vision”). Treatment may include eyeglasses, prisms, vision therapy, or eye muscle surgery.
In my lifetime, I’ve tried them all.
When I was six years old, I wore a black eye patch. One summer afternoon at the pool, I was in line for popsicles. A girl behind me said, “Look at the pirate! Look at the pirate!”
I turned around and said, “You know, I can’t help that I’m cross-eyed. You really think I want to look like this?”
I felt like saying, “SHUT UP, you little piece of *%#*+ !” but a) we were taught never to say “Shut up” and b) I felt sorry for her for calling me a pirate.
When I recounted what happened at the pool that day, my father thought of a perfect remedy. So on my next visit to the ophthalmologist, my mother asked if I could switch from a black eye patch to a beige.
My father took something so plain and turned it into a masterpiece:
He cut out a photograph of a monarch butterfly from a magazine article he was reading. Then, my father glued it onto the patch, and here’s the part that is so sweet: he lovingly coated it in clear nail polish. I love the image of watching him do this.
“Here you go, Bonchi,” this is the nickname my father called me. He slipped the patch over the right lens of my cat-framed eyeglasses. “You look like Madame Butterfly now.”
No one ever called me “a pirate” again.
*Author’s Note: “Seeing With Crossed Eyes: My World in Double Vision” is part 1 of a 4-part series. To read parts 2, 3, and 4, click below:
Bonni Brodnick is the author of the just-released memoir, “My Stroke in the Fast Lane: A Journey to Recovery” and “Pound Ridge Past,” now in its second edition. Formerly with Glamour and House & Garden magazines, Bonni has written scripts for Children’s Television Workshop, was a weekly newspaper columnist, and was editor of two academic magazines. She is an award-winning communications specialist, a member of Pound Ridge Authors Society, and has a blog (bonnibrodnick.com). Bonni is also an ambassador for the American Heart Association and a proud Stroke Survivor.
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