The story of Elodie
Hello! I’m Elodie and i’m 16 years old. When I was born, I was diagnosed with Duane Syndrome, means I have a nerf in my left eye that wasn’t developed. At first, you might say that it isn’t really a big deal but it actually is sometimes. When I was about 3 years old, I had a surgery to « fix it », it actually didn’t work. At school, I was the shy kid, I was really quiet and trying everything to be appreciated by everyone. My disease makes me unable to look left with my paralyzed eye so, when you’re a kid unable to defend yourself and you got something « not normal », you’re an easy victim. It was always the same thing, « are you looking at me? », « i can do that too look!! », « look, her eyes are so weird!! ». There’s three types of Duane’s, type 1 is :« the ability to move the affected eye(s) outward toward the ear (abduction) is limited, but the ability to move the affected eye(s) inward toward the nose (adduction) is normal or nearly so. » Type 2 is : « The ability to move the affected eye(s) inward toward the nose (adduction) is limited, whereas the ability to move the eye outward (abduction) is normal or only slightly limited. » And finally the last type is : « The ability to move the affected eye(s) both inward toward the nose (adduction) and outward toward the ear (abduction) is limited ». I’ve always also had an eye smaller than the other, I think that was the thing about my syndrome that I always hated the most. Of course, we all do have one smaller but Duane affect sometimes the eye in question more than anything. There isn’t sadly a cure for this disease at the moment but I hope there’ll be one soon. If you’re reading this and your DS is something that makes you insecure, it’s okay! we’re all different and we all look good in our owns ways! Don’t forget that we have a nice trick to show when we’ll want to impress someone :).