Post-Op Appointment #10- Floor Exercises for Brain Balance

How Did the Last Two Weeks Go?

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving, which was so fun! The not-so-fun part was have 3 of my 4 kids get strep throat. I ended up keeping all of the kids home (just to be careful) and doing homeschool for the week and a half before Thanksgiving.

While all the quality time with my fun kids was great, the unplanned nature meant that my vision therapy exercises did not get done very regularly. I was still doing it about every other day, but I slacked for sure. Then the holiday happened and I had company so it was hard to keep going then as well.

I can make excuses for days, but the reality is, I didn’t make my therapy a priority and I definitely stopped making so much progress. My family was the priority, and that is how it needed to be, but now I’m back to being organized enough to do both!

I was feeling my peripheral vision improve so much and seeing stereopsis in a lot of ways. I even saw the Gem float off the plastic vectograph card for the first time. The decline is always delayed by a few days after I start slacking.

Note to self: having success is not an invitation to stop trying. Let it motivate you to try harder!

My progress pictures look similar. I was working really hard to keep my vision open and my eye didn’t automatically severely turn in so I was thrilled about that. My right eye definitely turns in though.

How Did the Appointment Go?

The appointment went really well, there has definitely been a shift since I started doing home Vivid Vision and I am excited about it. Because I am doing most of my computer vision therapy work at home on VR, we spend my appointments doing more free-space exercises so I am getting a good balance.

We talked about how Vivid Vision is going and we are going to make a few adjustments. Pepper Picker is an awesome game on there that I am starting to have more success with in lining up images for both eyes. We are increasing the time there. I am going to alternate days on starting with Vivid Vision or starting with my free space exercises to make sure that I don’t just put all of my focus on the VR and not on real life.

Body Lifts

I have been working hard on these exercises at home for the last few weeks and I was so ready to impress. ha. I did pretty good, but there was one sequence where he had to do it three times in a row before I got it. LOL. I thought I was right the whole time.

He did right arm with right leg, left arm, right leg and head in that order or something similar. I kept doing my right arm instead my right leg at the end. I was so shocked when I realized I hadn’t been doing it right.

Dry Land Swim

We stayed on the floor and I got to do more things that should be simple, but are so challenging for me!

For the dry land swim I lay on my stomach and have my head facing one side. One arm goes down the the side and the other bends up. The legs are opposite with one leg bent and the other straight.

The object is to smoothly change from one side to the other, completely in sync. So the arm/leg that was bent goes straight and visa-versa. I was able to do it correctly, but not smoothly and all together. It takes so much concentration and focus.

I can’t remember what this is called, something with bilateral, the idea is to get both sides of my brain and body to be connecting and working fluidly together.

He also had me try doing the same thing, but the arm and leg on the same side are bent. It is almost harder for me. so fascinating.

It was so interesting to take these pictures and even a few videos of myself attempting to do this exercise. I was SHOCKED to find out that I was not doing it nearly as well as I had thought. I thought that I was doing it perfectly as a great example to post here, but alas, it is definitely going to take some practice for me!

VTS4 Base In and Base Out

We spent the rest of the appointment on VTS4. It is amazing to me that something that is pretty similar to some of the games on Vivid Vision is SO different outside of virtual reality! I really had to work hard to see the depth. At first it was so challenging, but after about 10-12 minutes I started to see it better and better. The ring started gaining shape and depth. I wish I could spend an hour on it!

I am learning that all of this takes time. I can’t just look and expect to see things instantly. I have to allow my eyes/brain to explore, relax and give my brain good conditions for success and then wait while it processes. I think sometimes I don’t have the success that I hope for because I get inpatient and move on too quickly before my brain has a chance to adjust and learn.

Homework

Head Turns/Shakes Warm Up – Move head from side to side and up and down 20 x, at a medium speed to get warmed up before starting any exercises. This will warm up my eyes, brain and all the good things.

Dry Land Swim– Keep practicing what we worked on during the appointment. Move from side to side smoothly, evenly, and accurately. Do opposite arm/leg and same side arm/leg.

Paint The Room– Keep main focus straight ahead and use thumbs to paint different parts of the room. Focus on seeing space and seeing both sides of the room simultaneously.

Ball Swing – Swing the Marsden ball in circles and slow down and take time to visualize space. Walk in and out of the center of the circle formed by the swinging ball- don’t get hit, obviously.

Vivid Vision– Do at least 20 minutes everyday and do more like 45 minutes at least every other day.

Click here to read about last week’s appointment.