Pre-Surgery VT – Page 6 – Strabismus Solutions

Click here to read about my last appointment. The last few weeks have seemed pretty similar. I just keep on working and wondering if I am making any progress. Every now and then things happen and I feel like I'm making progress. Other times I forget to do my exercises and wonder if there is even a difference between now and when I started therapy. My garden is in full swing and I decided to try picking strawberries with my red/blue glasses for a little anti-suppression therapy. It was a total fail, but thanks to Instagram I was given the suggestion to try with just the red lens in over my good eye. I tried it and it totally worked! I will admit that it was really hard and was taking forever so I ended up taking off the glasses, picking strawberries with my good eye, and doing the anti suppression work inside. How did My Appointment Go? My progress pictures are looking pretty similar, maybe my eye turn is slightly less, but nothing terribly noticeable. I will have a progress visit next month and all of those stats will be measured. At the actual visit we did the same things as usual; vectographs, virtual reality, tracking, etc. Today I couldn't see anything special when I looked at the vectograph and I couldn't even see both circles because I was suppressing. I forgot my prism glasses so it was disappointing to feel like I had regressed from last week! I've been noticing that even when I do see the two circles on the vectograph they aren't overlapping. I am just seeing two totally different images and my brain isn't putting them in "the same room." I have a hard time explaining this, but I have tried on numerous occasions and I think Dr. Dan finally understood what I was saying at today's appointment. I explained it with one of the games from the amblyoplay program that I use. There is one game that is a maze that helped me discover this deficiency. With the red and blue glasses on, each eye sees a completely different image. The brain's job is to combine those images so that you can play the game. Through the blue lens over my left eye, I see just the maze. Through the red lens over my right eye, I see just the spaceship that I'm trying to get through the maze without touching any walls. Left EyeRight Eye The hope is that my eyes can combine the images so that the spaceship is inside the maze. When I wear my prism glasses the spaceship is inside the maze but not lined up quite right. Without the glasses, I just see the blue maze out of one eye and the spaceship on the red background completely separate out of the other eye. Just like in the above pictures. It makes the maze just about impossible to do. I feel like learning to combine them and make the pictures overlap is a huge key for me. I can do it with my prism glasses on, but I need to learn to do it without the prisms. Dr. Dan assigned me some "rivalry" exercises to help me work on combining both images. Hopefully, my next appointment will bring more success with the vectograph. We also added some different ideas to the vectograph exercises. I am going to do them in front of a window and try to focus on something far away. I can almost see distant objects single and when I do my eyes straighten slightly, I got a picture of the comparison below. So I look out the window, focus on the object, try to make it single and straighten my eyes, then open my peripheral vision to see the vectograph and hopefully magic will happen. Homework OKN Stripes- Do OKN stripes with one eye at a time while balancing on one foot. Work on opening peripheral vision.Amblyoplay- Do at least 15 minutes of the amblyoplay app with a focus on peripheral.Virtual Reality- Spend 5-10 minutes with the headset on, focusing on peripheral vision.Rivalry- While wearing the red/blue glasses, look at a piece of plain white paper. Let it go blue, then red, then try to mix the colors and get a combination.Vectograph Gem- Continue working with the vectograph. Try with and without prisms, with and without +4 lenses, while balancing on one foot, with lights on or off and while looking through a window. Hopefully I can keep being consistent on my exercises so that I can continue to make progress! Click here to read about my next appointment.