Strabismus and Fragile X OR Another Reason I Want Corrective Surgery

In my post 26 Reasons to Get Eye Corrective Surgery I listed as #3:

My character and intelligence should get a fair chance to speak for themselves.

Strabismus is often associated with lower intelligence. It's usually a subconscious perception, but nonetheless. One reason for this is because strabismus is linked with Fragile X, or in laymen's terms, a common cause for mental retardation. So on some level many of us associate crossed eyes with mental impairment.

Of course the minute any of us who do not suffer from mental deficiencies open our mouths, that notion is dispelled. Still, it is a valid reason, one of many, to want to have strabismus corrected.

How much does this really affect someone else's perception of me? Consider this from Negative social bias against children with strabismus (2003):

"Strabismus might also be a handicap from an educational point of view. It is particularly interesting and important to note that children with strabismus may not be given the same opportunities as others at school. We demonstrated that teachers have major preconceptions regarding the performance of strabismic children. They believe that these children may not be as capable of learning as 'normal' children and may not be able to fulfill responsibilites given to them. Besides, they prefer to assign duties to 'normal' students during cultural activities at school. These results strongly support the suggestion that strabismus may potentially have a negative impact on a child's education."

While it's true that many adults go on to overcome such bias, they no doubt are continually facing a subtle, and biologically wired pre-judgment at the perceiver's sub-conscious level.

Status Update

So, yeah. Apparently it takes my insurance company a month to send me a directory of potential surgeons that they will cover.

It's hard to give you an exact update. Boston Children's Hospital Boston has been as helpful as they possibly can be. A surgeon there is going to review my list of potential surgeons that are IN my network and we'll go from there.

Stay tuned.