March has been a great month, full of ups and downs, per usual.
The biggest change to my therapy was working on syntonics. I technically started in February, but I’ve been doing it 6 days per week all month.
I also decided to set a goal to do 10,000 “eye throws” this month. I only got to about 6,000, but I’m continuing the fun in April! This goal has helped me so much!
I had a progress visit as well and am working on deciding whether I want to keep going or consider myself done.
Here are my progress pictures, regular, crossed, and relaxed eyes.
Successes I Experienced in March
I was able to interact with the Gem and the Quoit vectographs without them loosing depth. This was a major improvement and so exciting.
I am also learning to use motion parallax and Gestalt Awareness to help deepen my stereo and improve peripheral. It is making such a huge difference!
I am creating a “Mastering Peripheral” course and have been studying and researching all the best peripheral techniques that have helped me. Revisiting all of these concepts has reawakened the skills and I have noticed a big difference in how the world looks.
The course will be available in summer 2022 over here, be sure to check it out!
I am gaining more eye control at near and far and am learning what it feels like to cross and relax my eyes.
Struggles I Experienced in March
Syntonics gave me THE WORST side effects ever for about a week. I was nauseous, experiencing sensory overload, dizzy, tired and cranky. Whew. I did notice that my stereo vision is improving though so that is exciting.
I felt frustrated with my eye throws because I realized that my right eye moves in and out so much, but my left eye doesn’t. Everything is lopsided and I know that it is probably due to my ARC, but I want it to get better.
March Appointments
March 2– My office had a challenge to set a goal for March and if you made it, you get to enter a raffle. I am all for raffles so I originally set a goal about visualization, but changed it a few days later.
I decided that looking far away without double vision is pretty impossible for me and if I want to get better at it, I need to practice, a lot. And you know what they say, you must do something 10,000 times to become an expert. So I made my goal 10,000 eye throws and it was so hard at first. I could only to 30-40 at a time. It is getting easier now.
To do an “eye throw” I hold a small stick about 6-12 inches in front of my face (I change the range). I switch from pointing my eyes to the stick and pointing my eyes as far as possible out the window. Then I go back to the stick. The goal is to feel my eyes moving in when I look near and feel them moving out when I look far.
March 9– Today was a great appointment. We didn’t do anything very new, but I did have a lot of success with seeing space and Dr. Dan gave me some tips for the eye throws that are helping.
I realized that when I look far away, my right eye image is on the left (for the stick I see in my peripheral) and when I look near, it goes to the right. I’ve made this discovery before today, but it really became more concrete today and I’m using that idea to move my eyes to point at the exact right spot.
It is hard and I’m realizing there is a long way to go, but I’ll keep working on it.
March 15- Today was a progress visit. I was hoping that I was either not progressing at all or progressing a ton so that I would know whether to keep going or be done.
But of course, I have just been making small incremental changes.
On the stereo test, I was able to get to the 5th set of dots! I wasn’t 100% confident, but I was guessing right and was seeing something. It was coming in and out, but I was really confident on 1-3 and I’m usually guessing more with those ones too.
My fusion distances are improving…very very slowly. On the Worth 4 Dot test I was about 10 inches away last time and more like 18 this time…which is good but such slow progress.
My ARC is getting slightly better. I was more in the 6-8 range instead of the 16-18 range.
My eye turn is still the same in the distance, around 10 diopters, and at near it is pretty consistently zero. I could feel a difference at near, my eyes felt more relaxed.
Of course I was disappointed and felt like therapy might last for the rest of my life. I’m still trying to have a good attitude about progress visits.
March 22- No appointment, vacation fun!
March 29- Today we used yolked prisms while I played with a balloon. It was harder to keep my focus soft and open my peripheral with the balloon. It was a little faster moving.
Dr. Dan said that my near far switches are getting much much better and my eye control is improving. He gave me a piece of cardstock in the shape of a wedge that I now hold on my face to help my eyes work evenly. It makes a big difference, but I can still tell that my right eye moves a ton and my left only moves a tiny bit.
I had huge success with the overhead quoit. He gave me a large stick with an open circle at the end, kind of like a giant bubble wand and I had to move it so that it went around the rope. I was able to truly see the rope going through the wand. It was so cool to actually interact with an illusion and have the illusion stay there. I’m working on this at home with my gem and a pipe cleaner now.
Overall View
This month definitely has been one of growth. Even with a few setbacks, I am still moving forward and noticing positive changes in my overall vision. I am finishing out the school year with weekly visits and will probably take a break over the summer and see if I can maintain my progress. Fingers crossed for success!