I have been crazy busy for the last few weeks. It’s been amazing time, and I’ve learned and grown in a lot of ways, but my vision is not one of those ways. When you’re on a journey that can take a few years, there have to be breaks.
I hosted Thanksgiving then a week later put on a fundraiser dinner and silent auction. I can now add to my resume that I prepared and served dinner to over 3oo people successfully, some people even asked who catered it! I’m not sure how that is going to help me get a job in math education, but I think it’s awesome and I’m proud of myself!
Now I’m gearing up for Christmas with four kids. This means concerts, recitals, visits with Santa, shopping, wrapping, serving, decorating cookies, and family, friend, and work parties.
I love it all and just wish time could slow down in December. Christmas with kids is magical.
That being said, I don’t have a lot of time for blogging or vision therapy at the moment. I wasn’t able to blog about my last appointment so we are just going to pretend it didn’t happen. It was pretty similar and there was not really anything new.
Here is the progress picture from last week, my eyes are getting straighter, especially when I focus at near.
Over the last month the world looks strange from time to time. Everything seems to be moving. Like I’m on an unsteady boat or something. Objects keep shifting and I feel disoriented.
I went to the movies and the hallway felt so wide, and big, like I was inside of a movie.
Driving is sometimes a bit sketchy, I have to turn off the radio to help keep things still. 😂 Go figure that one out, it makes no sense but totally helps.
I’m not really sure what is going on, but I’m guessing it has something to do with my eyes trying to both work simultaneously. I’m wondering if I am switching between each eye and it’s giving me slightly different views of the world.
Maybe there were a few moments of stereopsis in there.
Although I’m not welcoming the nausea and dizziness, I’m glad that my brain and eyes are trying something new. It feels like a step in the right direction.
Other than that, things have been pretty normal and similar, nothing new to report.
The Progress Visit
I had several appointments, first a progress visit, then my son had a progress visit, then I did my normal appointment. I felt like we were at the vision therapy office forever today.
The results are never as exciting as I imagine they might be. I’ve had a ton of improvements and I need to focus on that and not on the fact that I saw absolutely nothing on the stereogram.
When I first started my eye turn was at 35 diopters at near and far. When I’m relaxed and not trying to force both eyes to see it is now at 25 which is great! We are seeing improvements.
When I really work to engage both eyes the turn is only at 8 diopters which is fantastic. I didn’t even know how to do that when I first started so that is huge.
On the “Worth 4 Dot” (I think that’s what it’s called) I only saw 3 dots and occasionally 2 at the beginning, now I see 4 or 5. This means I’m learning to not suppress my right eye.
I’m also learning to cross my eyes, not perfectly, by any means, but I’m getting closer. The top picture is what I have looked like my whole life when I try to cross my eyes. One goes in and the other out. Now I can sort of cross them like in the bottom picture.
But that dang stereogram. I stared and focused and relaxed and tried all my tricks, but I could not see any stereo, not even a flicker. I was trying to see which “button” looked like it was sticking out. They all just looked hopelessly flat.
It made me question whether I’ll ever have stereo vision. I still think I will, but not anytime soon.
My plan was always to do vision therapy until the end of 2019 and then decide on surgery. After today, I’ve decided to continue with vision therapy for another 24 weeks. I am still improving and haven’t reached a plateau so I’ll keep moving forward.
I’m still considering surgery as an option, but not until I’ve gone as far as possible with vision therapy. I feel like the surgery will be able to “stick” and actually be successful if my eyes have been trained to work together first.
Appointment #17
I only have one picture because both looked pretty similar and I forgot to include the view from looking with my right eye. I’m realizing that when I take a close-up selfie, I focus on the screen which straightens my eyes. They aren’t nearly as straight as this picture in daily life when I am not laser focusing on something.
My exotropia is becoming more intermittent. My right eye still tends to wander, but if I really “look” hard at something, it will straighten out.
Binovi Touch Board
I am getting better at maintaining my balance on the balance board while trying to push the colored buttons on the touch board. I wear red/green glasses and then take turns with each eye seeing how quickly and accurately I can push buttons. It is awesome for my peripheral vision.
Today he had be balance on the board, alternate between my left and right hand, using both eyes (randomly assigned depending on which colored dot came up), while counting backwards from 100 by 3’s. Counting up was too easy, I am a math teacher after all. haha. But backwards from 100 by 3’s into the negative numbers was quite a challenge.
VTS4
I definitely noticed some regression with VTS4 today. I wore the polarized glasses and looked at the ring and the frog and the fish on the screen and I struggled much more to see the depth. I could still figure out which things were closer and further, but it wasn’t as exaggerated as in the past couple visits.
I didn’t feel like I could reach behind the ring like last time. And when I tried to touch the frog’s mouth it didn’t look like my finger went right inside.
I also got fatigued more quickly.
Drats. I guess home exercises do make a huge difference. Last week I only did exercises on Monday and Sunday. Oops.
Brock String
Same deal on the brock string. My eyes just felt more tired and I was able to do as much as before. I can still see an X, but only if the beads are pretty close to me, within about 18 inches.
Dr. Dan challenged me to make the strings cross somewhere besides at the bead. The trick is to pretend there is a bug crawling up the string and watch the X move from one bead to the next. I tried so hard, but couldn’t get it at all. I was able to almost see an “X” if I actually touched the string with my finger. I am going to work hard on this one this week.
Optics Trainer
Dr. Dan blurred out my good eye partially on Optics Trainer and then I attempted to do “Star Search.” It was kind of fascinating to see how much I use my left eye over my right and try to combine the images and make it clear.
It was super annoying, but I’m hoping that it is a way for me to get more feedback about if and when my eyes are working together. Getting feedback helps SO much!
Homework
- OKN Stripes- I am not excited to add this back in, but he checked it during my progress visit and I had regressed a lot. Sadness. I’m supposed to use L, then R, then both for 1-2 minutes each.
- Pola Mirror- Work on increasing the distance that I can stand from the mirror and still see both sides of the glasses as clear.
- Brock String- Open Periphery and try to see double with the beads before and after the one I’m concentrating on. Also try with the yoked prism or red/blue glasses to help give feedback. Make the X happen somewhere besides at a bead.
- Gem Vectogram- Tap with a pencil, and add balance
- Virtual Reality- New prescription with blurred left eye.