Melissa – Page 21 – Strabismus Solutions

Click here to read about my last appointment. The last two weeks have been a blur. Summer has been so busy. We've had some fun times and some rough times. As far as vision therapy goes I felt like I plateaued a little bit. I am discovering that I need to spend at least an hour every day on my exercises in order to maintain and make new progress. With four young kids and a house to manage, finding an hour of uninterrupted time feels impossible at times and means going to bed early and getting up before the kids. That doesn't always work out because kids are kids and surprise me with special treasures. This week I think we might break a record for some of the worst kid messes I've had in my 11 years as a mom. We've had Vaseline all over the baby, wheat all over the kitchen floor, permanent marker on my cream couches, a water fight (with a hose) inside my living room, a row of my garden plants pulled out, poop everywhere, and just a continuous stream of normal life. Getting time alone has been presenting quite the challenge! Good news though, I can make it work. I will figure it out. Last week was rough and I didn't get to spend as much time on vision therapy as I wanted to. Instead of getting down on myself, I'm trying to just be curious about it. Why did my life implode last week? I wonder what I could do differently to get my vision therapy done and give my kids the attention they need and give myself five seconds to breathe? I re-evalutated my schedule and time and I've made some adjustments. I'm ready to hit the ground running, part 8. How Did the Last Two Weeks Go? As far as vision goes, the last two weeks were pretty good. I didn't make any huge progress. The pictures definitely look the same. My balance improved a ton during my doll head turn exercises. I am still not perfect, but I can rotate my head from side to side without falling over a few times. It is always hardest when I reach the right side end range, my head jerks and I fall over. Dr. Dan noticed this and suggested that I have my husband, Zac, work on my neck. He is a head and face specialist in Physical Therapy so he is going to treat me a few times this week to see if we can continue to make improvements. The Appointment: The appointment was similar to the last few. Lots of time on vectographs and virtual reality. I made more progress though so it feels like everything is working. Virtual Reality I watched a dinosaur virtual reality show that I've seen a few times. There were moments when the leaves and tree branches seemed to be floating. It looked like what Sue Berry described in her book, like I could see the space between objects. It is hard to tell if I was seeing 3D is some way or if it was just really good artwork. Vectograph Today we still did work on the vectograph but I used my glasses with a prism for the first time in the office. With my prism and the +12 lenses I was able to actually see some new things. A vectograph consists of two see-through panels, with matching images on them. While wearing the polarized viewers (glasses) each eye can only see one of the panels. If both eyes work well together, then when you line up the panels you see a 3D image. The eyes combine the images. If the panels are slid so that the right eye image goes right and the left eye image goes left the eyes must relax and you see one circle that looks further away and larger. If you slide the panels so that the left eye image goes to the right and vice versa, your eyes must cross and the circle gets closer to you and smaller. So even thought you are sliding the panels left and right, the image is going forward and back. If your eyes don't work together, then when the panels slide left and right you just see two circles, moving side to side. No tricks, you're just seeing exactly what is actually happening. If you are suppressing then you will just see one circle moving left and right. I generally go between seeing both circles moving side to side and one moving side to side. But yesterday I saw the circle hold still and get bigger two different times. Then later I saw it go further behind. I know it was happening for real because everytime I saw something new, my brain went into overdrive. The spot between my eyebrows burned and hurt and Dr Dan said my eyes were looking straight! All of these were small momentary successes and I couldn't hold it very long, but things are changing! I am making progress every week and it is pretty exciting! Balance Board We practiced a lot of my exercises on a balance board and it was pretty comical. I could barely stand on it without falling off, let alone follow targets and move my head. I am going to invent my own balance board to use at home so I'll keep you posted on that. It turns out that the more senses you can involve at the same time, the more your brain will adapt and change. So I think I'll listen to rock n roll while cooking bacon and balancing on a ball next time I do my exercises. Homework 1- 15 minutes on my amblyoplay app. It is a computer program that works with red/blue glasses to help with suppression. I do all the exercises in a way that focuses on peripheral vision. 2-Patch my Bad eye for 15 minutes 3- Gem Vectograph- I spend 10-15 minute looking at the vectograph trying to make it work and focus on peripheral. I need to do some with my prisms on, some with them off. I also will be spending some of the time on one foot or on a balance board. 4- Virtual Reality- Spend 5-10 minutes watching virtual reality in the middle of the vectograph. Relax and open the peripheral vision. 5- Doll Head Turns- Focus on a point in the distance and move head from side to side, keeping the focus forward. Try it while standing on one foot or on a balance board. That's a wrap for this week, it's a good day to have a good day! Click here to read about my next appointment.