How much time did you give wearing the patch? I have both strabismus and amblyopia in my left eye. I've had a couple of corrective surgeries in my lifetime and could use another one at this point, but each subsequent operation brings added risks (due to scarring of the muscle tissue I believe). However, I'm also neurologically incapable of processing full input from both of my eyes at the same time, so they can't fully correct the strabismus or I'll see in double vision all of the time. Due to all of this I've experimented a bit with an eye patch in the past for a few different reasons. I'll admit that I didn't care for this much, but I did find that the more time I spent with the patch the less irritating it became. Eventually I suppose that I could end up wearing a patch for a variety of tasks. My conditions will only worsen with time. If it eventually comes down to my needing to wear a patch for whatever reason I'm sure that I'll have a somewhat lengthy adjustment period on my hands. But I feel like I could grow comfortable enough with a patch that eventually I wouldn't give it much thought. The ironic thing is the actual vision in both of my eyes is still quite good.
If your preference would be to just go with an AF camera then I can understand that. But if you're truly unhappy about being forced to relinquish the cameras and lenses that you've come to prefer using, you might simply try giving the eye patch more time. Wearing it around the house when you're not focused on photography for example or during other situations when your not focused on photography. Just a thought. I'd also be curious to know if there are exercises that you can do to strengthen your left eyelid (you mentioned that it was weakened as opposed to damaged) to improve it's independent movement over time.
Like the others, I too am sorry to learn that this has happened to you. But I'm glad that you did not lose vision in your left eye. Whatever you end up deciding to do in the long run I hope that it works out for you as well as possible.
