Wow, I think you might have a very similar vision issue as I do!
Left eye as well, although my eye is healthy, it was closed when I was a baby so my vision never developed properly. Eye patching was tried on me as a kid, but just resulted in a cranky toddler me. It took years and years for me being able to verbalize what I could see out of my left eye--I basically have some limited peripheral vision and no central vision. My eye doctor explained that part of the issue is that peripheral vision primarily detects motion while central vision is for detail--so while I can detect motion and light, it's hard for me to put an image together.
I have so many memories of trying to read that big stupid E with my left eye and not being able to explain what I saw. (Um, there's a light on, right?)