Strabismus Solutions – Practical strategies to help manage and correct strabismus and amblyopia, from the patient's perspective.

Click here to read about last week's appointment. How did the Last Week Go? The last week went okay. I feel like my right eye (the one that drifts) has been soooo lazy. I can just feel it so far out and I don't feel like I have as much control over it's movements as I used to. I've only been getting in 4 days of VT homework a week and then one appointment so I think that may be why I am regressing. Consistency is so so important! I am trying to prioritize and have been getting up early to do my VT before the kids get up the last few days, hopefully I can keep it up. I have been enjoying watching lectures and interviews on iheart VT. This week the highlight was watching an interview with Sue Barry. I was totally star struck! What I wouldn't give to be able to sit down and visit with her someday. A girl can dream. She "finished" vision therapy 15 years ago, or so, but during the Q&A portion I learned that she still does vision therapy exercises 4-5 days a week. That was shocking and a little discouraging for me. I have been thinking that I will work hard and then be done. But she said that, for strabismics, it takes maintenance, especially if you wait until you are older for vision therapy. I heart VT and everything, but I don't know how I feel about doing it every day for the rest of my life. When I told Dr. Dan at my appointment about what she said, I narrowly escaped bursting into tears. I swallowed them real quick and laughed and pretended that it was funny...but it doesn't actually feel too funny. This journey has been a spiritual one for me from the beginning. I feel like God pushes me in the right direction and always seems to enter when I need extra motivation the most. Just the day after watching Sue's interview I got just the extra push that I needed. In my church every teenager gets a special blessing called a patriarchal blessing. It is a really profound experience. The blessing talks about your life and gives different advice and blessings. I still have a copy of mine and I read it from time to time, but hadn't pulled it out for a few years. When I read it on Wednesday a few lines really struck me. The first one that hit me was, "I bless you with the desire to succeed. The Savior said you came here to succeed and to have joy and to have it abundantly..." Sometimes I feel like wanting stereopsis and straight eyes and putting in the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time is selfish and frivolous. Reading that just calmed that thought right down. There is nothing that brings joy like the wonder I experience every time I have moments of stereopsis. It takes my breath away. Those words just made me feel like my desire to accomplish this goal, even if it's only purpose is to bring me joy, is worthy and good. The second line that hit me was about the Word of Wisdom, which is a health code in my church. It talks about what not to eat/drink; tobacco, alcohol, etc. But most of it is spent talking about what you should do; eat fruits and veggies and whole grains and meat (sparingly). So my blessing says that "through obedience to the Word of Wisdom, you can receive 'wisdom and great treasures of knowledge.'" I have noticed so many times over the last few years that when I am taking care of my body and eating healthy, my eyes work better and I have so much more success with vision therapy. I am able to focus more effectively, and my eyes don't struggle to hold still so much. When I read "great treasures of knowledge," I immediately felt like that was referring to my vision and gaining stereopsis, which is a great treasure. So now it's final, I'm definitely on the right path and I need to keep up that desire to succeed, and the "how" is by eating healthier. SO much easier said than done, but I definitely have some renewed motivation and determination. How did the Appointment Go? Near Focus: Forced Right Eye, Forced Both, Relaxed Distance Focus: Forced Right Eye, Forced Both, Relaxed Every appointment I drink a water bottle with a packet of "zippfizz" in it which is supposed to be a natural, healthy energy drink. It has lots of vitamins and caffeine. I feel like it makes a huge difference for my ability to stay focused and keep my eyes engaged. It almost has the opposite effect on me and slows me down. I decided to not have any for this appointment, just to see if it makes a difference and I think it did. I was definitely a little more spaced out by the end of the appointment. I just didn't have the visual stamina to make it through the full 45 minutes as easily. Binovi Touch Board We started on the touch board, nothing new to report there. I did struggle some with getting the buttons right on the center. I had to slide to the correct position multiple times. My numbers were pretty typical of the last few months. 60's for my bad eye and 70's for the good one. Boring. Gem It has only been 24 hours and I honestly can't remember much about the gem except for the fact that I did it. I was getting more double with base out, which is very unusual for me. I never get double with base out on the gem. VTS4 I did pretty well with the stereopsis ring. Dr. Dan stood between the ring and I off to the side and I could almost visualize it next to him, floating in the air. I can feel that we are getting closer. The multiple choice vergence was a huge blow. On base in where I normally get up to 25-30 diopters (I think that's the measurement), I got to 1.5. I struggle so much and just wasn't able to do it. It was so incredibly frustrating! I had thought I was doing base out and so I kept trying to cross my eyes more to see it, which is the opposite of what I needed to do. I insisted on trying again when I realized it and I tried with all my brain power and got to 19. I was frustrated that it took a conscious effort to diverge my eyes and that they wouldn't just do it automatically. Eye Control We went back to some more basic exercises to keep my eyes strong at the end of the appointment. Dr. Dan had me patch one eye and watch the pencil that he was holding. He would move it around the beat of a metronome and I tried to keep my eye(s) focused on it the whole time. When I was using both eyes, the pencil appeared to be double out on the sides, but in the middle, I could keep it single. I'm going to work hard this week on keeping it single all the time. I have lots to work on and plenty of motivation to back it up. Let's do this! Homework Eye Control- Turn a metronome on to 45-55 BPM. Imagine a 9 point grid in the space in front of me and move a pencil on each beat to a different spot on the grid. Focus on keeping the pencil clear and single the whole time. Repeat with each eye and then both together.Virtual Reality- Optics TrainerThumb Pinky Rock- Try to extend the distance that I can keep the single/double effect.Marsden Ball- Swing the Marsden Ball along the z-axis directly in front of me and extend both arms. Try to catch the ball between palms with arms fully extended. Repeat but put hands in fists and then use just thumbs.

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