Melissa – Page 21 – Strabismus Solutions

Click Here to read about my last appointment. I had a surprise vision therapy appointment on June 5. It was supposed to just be for my son, but there was a cancelation so I was invited to stay for an appointment as well. My day had been spent laying sod and doing yard work and I was exhausted and filthy, but they still let me in. haha Here is the progress picture, my head isn't pointed exactly straight, dang it. That means that it looks better on one side and worse on the other. I need a professional to help me point my head straight! We left town right after so I never had a chance to write about the appointment until now, hopefully, I can remember it all! How Did The Last Two Weeks Go? Things have been staying pretty consistent and similar with my exercises. I am just making small improvements. I notice that I have more control over my eye movement. Usually, when I switch from my left to right eye, there is a big jump and my eyes just sort of bounce from being straight to being "lazy." I have been putting a focus on switching gradually from one to the other so there is no jump. I do it by telling my eye muscles to move in and I can focus and keep both eyes engaged and then smoothly switch. The more I practice this, the better I get and the closer I am getting to being able to point both eyes straight at the same time. One huge success I had this week happened while I was playing a fun yard game called Kubb. Opponents stand on opposite sides of the game and toss batons trying to knock over wooden blocks. I usually do okay at this game, especially considering the fact that I have terrible depth perception. It was my first time playing since I started vision therapy and I was doing HORRIBLE. Like missing everything by three feet horrible. I was throwing them way too far and way to short and it was pretty frustrating. I feel like my depth perception has gotten way worse since I started therapy (it's one of those, gets worse before it gets better things) and it was showing! I am a little (or a lot) competitive and was sick of loosing so I decided to try focusing both eyes really hard on the block I was trying to hit. The block went double, then single, then double, then super clear, then double. I tossed and I hit the block square. I kept trying the same technique and it kept working. I was either hitting the block or getting super close each time. I was a superstar and even beat my husband in one game, which NEVER happens. I was amazed and so excited. My brain is figuring things out! I told Dr. Dan about it and he thinks that I was maybe fusing the images from both eyes for a moment. Whatever was happening was definitely a good thing. Onto my appointment- spoiler alert- it was almost exactly like last week. lol Virtual Reality After we went over my progress from last week we went straight to virtual reality. I put on the headset and played a few different games that I was terrible at. All of the virtual reality is focused on getting my peripheral vision working better. I used the Occulus Go in the office and it is super nice. I love that it comes with a remote and it's all built in so I don't have to worry about my phone being perfectly centered. It is on my Christmas wish list for sure! Homework: For the next two weeks I will be doing 5-10 minutes of virtual reality at home. I need to patch my "bad" eye for 15 minutes right before I start. I am just using this inexpensive virtual reality headset from Amazon, my cell phone and You Tube's huge collection of VR videos for now...hopefully, I'll be the proud owner of the Oculus go ASAP! Vectographs Right after the virtual reality we went straight to the +12 lenses and vectographs. I am starting to dream about vectographs, I spend so much time staring at them these days. I had the Optometrist and a Vision Therapist both in the room during the visit, each watching one eye while I looked through the crazy lenses at the vectograph, working on peripheral vision. They both offered so many suggestions trying to help... Relax and open your peripheral vision Focus Try to engage both eyes Don’t force it Try crossing your eyes Just relax and let it happen Then they gave me constant feedback, “that’s it, do whatever you just did again! Your right eye is in, now the left, now the right.” I finally just burst out laughing and they started laughing too, realizing that they were giving me contradicting directions. I had to stop because my brain was fried, but we made some big progress! I was able to point both eyes straight a few times which got us all pretty excited! I made a huge breakthrough mentally which is a little tough to explain, but I'll try with my super fancy pictures. When I do these exercises I see double most of the time. The images are the opposite of what you would think. The image from my right eye is on the left and the image from my left eye is on the right, you can see it in the picture. It is counter-intuitive. You would think that since my right eye is pointing to the right the image would be over there, but it's not supposed to be. I can actually make it jump to the other side, but I try to keep it as in the first picture. When I would try to fuse the two images into one I would try to force the lighter image right by moving my eye to the right. Seems intuitive, right? My aha moment during vision therapy was recognizing that for the star to go to the right, my right eye needed to turn in, not out more. As the eyes become more straight, the images get closer together. It makes sense now, but it's quite mind-blowing to tell your brain that turning your eye to the left will move the image to the right. Once I figured this out, I suddenly was able to point both eyes in. It was only for a few seconds two or three times, with both professionals coaching and helping, but I felt like it was a breakthrough. I always ask for the why and Dr Dan says to not get so worried about it and just let it happen. After I explained my discovery and witnessing it work, he said, "maybe you do need to understand it on a technical level, with your math background and brain, you need the how." And I said YES! Doll Head Turns - With Balance I am going to continue doll head turns but now on one leg. I couldn't even rotate my head 45 degrees without losing my balance so there is a lot of room for improvement there. The more senses that we can involve, the more my brain will be willing to learn and adapt. My kids enjoy watching this one because I fall over so easily. The key is to keep the peripheral vision open, so I am going to focus on that. Homework: Patch one eye, then while standing on one foot, focus on something straight in front of me in the distance. Slowly rotate my head from side to side 10 times, then up and down 10 times, all while staying focused on the same object. Then repeat with the other eye. Pen Jumps and Tracking I haven't mastered these activities yet so I am going to continue the exercises from last week. I have been sitting down for all of these exercises so this week I'm standing and trying to balance on one foot while I do them. Homework: For pen jumps, I patch one eye at a time and ideally have another person hold two different colored pens and move them slowly around, up, down, and across in different directions in front of me. Then they call out a color and I switch my focus from one to the other. The key for me is to keep the "other" pen in my peripheral so that when I jump to it, I know exactly where it is. For Tracking I am still doing "hide-and-seek." This exercise is also done one eye at a time. I watch a pen and focus on it, then close my eye for a few seconds then pop it open and try to be looking at the exact same spot. It is getting easier, but I have not mastered it by any means. I am working hard and trying to stay motivated by celebrating small victories. I know that I am improving my vision and it feels really hard, but good. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started vision therapy, but I'm glad I didn't or maybe I wouldn't have tried. Now I'm committed and there's no turning back. Read about my next appointment here.