Melissa – Page 13 – Strabismus Solutions

How did the Last Two Weeks Go? After my amazing experience with stereopsis after my last appointment, I figured that I was going to be seeing in 3D anytime that I wore my prism glasses. As it turned out, my success last time came, in part, because of my appointment and the hard work we did. After I got home and got back into my busy life, things just sort of went back to normal. I started suppressing again. It was Halloween weekend and I was SO stressed, I don't know why. My heart rate was crazy high for several days in a row and I realized that I was doing TOO much. I wasn't seeing in 3D at all because I was too busy to slow down and look for it. My solution was to cancel pretty much everything the next week. No more farmer's market, helping at the school, vision therapy appointment or big projects. I tried to just allow myself a week to just recoup. Relaxing isn't a great strength of mine, but I got to relax some and it was so good for my soul. I had my post-op appointment with the opthalmologist last Friday so instead of packing up the whole family I just drove the 3 hours to Salt Lake by myself. I listened to podcasts, music and nothing and it was just what the doctor ordered. I went early to squeeze in some time with my sister and it was so fun! We went to downtown Salt Lake and rented scooters and cruised around. I loved being with her and laughing, but if I'm being honest, the scooter was terrifying! Trying to keep up with my adventurous sister, who was at max speed, mixed with my apparent lack of balance and basic visual skills, was...interesting. I just couldn't see the big picture. Seeing other traffic, pedestrians, stoplights, the road, bumps and trying to see the sights at 15 mph was impossible for me. I could have maybe managed at 3 mph. There were so many times that I realized that my teeth were gritted and my eyes open super wide. I'm sure it was a sight to see my sister go first with a huge smile of pure excitement, followed my look of terror. Me trying to smile for the video and act like I was having fun, quickly turned to my look of uncertainty....electric scooters are hard. I was able to laugh about it and realize that I have some room for growth in the balance and seeing big departments. I am definitely doing this activity again next year so that I see how much I improve. Then I was able to go to my appointment and miracles happened people!!! I was able to see the fly's wings. Clearly. No doubt in my mind. I KNOW that I saw them floating. I was as giggly as a school girl and so excited. I still believe that I will learn to have even better depth with the legs and body, but the wings were definitely floating. I was also able to get to the 4th set of circles! It was so fun and exciting. Everyone at the office was so happy for me. I was ready to have a big party and was on such a high. These pictures that I have stared at for 34 years and NEVER had any sort of success with, finally came alive. YAY! They did take my measurements and I am sitting at 12-13 diopters of esotropia. Dr. Peterson is excited about my success and feels like vision therapy will be able to finish the job. He did mention that if things aren't falling into place with vision therapy, he can do another minor surgery to adjust just one of the muscles to get my eyes exactly straight. I told him that I am all in on VT until the end of May and then I will reevaluate. So it's time to dig in because I have no intentions of having any more strabismus surgery! How did the Appointment Go? Stereo Test After my big success at the ophthalmologist's office last week, Dr. Dan was really excited to have me try his stereo test to see if we could recreate the success. I was ready to show off and he pulled it out and I couldn't see anything. It wasn't the same test that I had done before, but it was similar. I had to determine which circle was closest. It was pretty disappointing. I kept shaking it and bringing it close. I thought that I was seeing it, but then it would switch to a different circle. I kept trying and trying, but I got nothing. Darn. Apparently the fly is the easiest one to see. Projector Quoit Next we spent quite a bit of time with the quoit and the projector. I started out standing in the middle so that the quoit went all around me (my shadow, actually). I could see the depth right away, or at least I could tell the rope looked like it was behind my shadow. When I tried to see the distance between the shadow and the quoit, I couldn't really visualize it. It was pretty flat, but I still knew it was behind. When it shifted forward I could see the sides moving in front of my shadow, but again, I couldn't at all visualize the space between the rope and my shadow. I am happy that I can see the difference, but I'm really hoping that the depth will also start to improve. Sometimes it feels like I will always be stuck in this limbo. Body Lifts After the quoit we moved to the floor for a rather eye opening exercise. I laid on my stomach with my arms down at my sides and my head turned to the side. Dr. Dan would tap my head or one of my arms or legs and then I had to lift it straight up. Then he did two at a time. Then he started doing sequences. This is my sweet husband, Zac, helping me out with my exercises at home. And I realized that my brain is not firing on all cylinders. I could barely keep track of sequencing 4 in a row, 5 in a row was really hard. I'm hoping that some practice this week will bring some improvements. Divided Columns Then we moved on to a fun whiteboard game. Dr. Dan drew a line down the middle of the whiteboard and put letters and numbers on each side. Then I held a folder against the line and my nose (vertically) so that only my right eye could see the letters on the right, and only my left eye could see the letter on the left. Then he called out numbers and letters and I had to quickly move my eyes to whatever he called. I felt like my eyes were lagging a few seconds. It was hard to concentrate and keep my focus. It is amazing to see how quickly my ability to focus and multitask disappears when I start trying to do these visual tasks! I have a lot of work to do! VTS4 Today the stereopsis ring felt more normal than it has since surgery. I am still having a hard time visualizing the space, but it is definitely easier to see the depth and small differences in the depth than it was 4 weeks ago! I feel like I am making progress so quickly, it's actually kind of fun as opposed to the snail like progress I had before surgery. I feel so positive and excited about the work I am doing right now. I feel like it is changing and transforming my whole life! Homework Body Lifts- Repeat what we did in the office.Divided Columns- Repeat what we did in the office.Gem- Work on seeing the space, especially with Base In.Vivid Vision- Keep making progress and being awesome. Click here to read about last week's appointment.