How Did the Last Week Go?
The week was good. I was busily wrapping presents, preparing for Christmas, spending time with family, baking goodies and enjoying the holidays while trying to fit vision therapy exercise into the mix.
I ended up doing a lot of my therapy at night before bed and, to be honest, I am just hoping to maintain at this point. I can feel my eyes growing weaker! I need 10 more hours in every day!
How Did the Appointment Go?
The progress pictures today are just fine, no real changes, my eyes are looking similar. I think it’s about time to be done with these progress pictures.
Near Focus 
Distant Focus
I’m not getting to this until a week after the appointment so I don’t remember everything that we did so I will just mention the highlights.
GEM Vectograph
I do know that we started with the GEM vectograph. I was on a balance board and wasn’t seeing great depth, but then Dr. Dan added +2 lenses and it made a big difference! I was able to see more depth and my eyes felt different. We worked on the gem with and without the Marsden Ball which didn’t seem to help because it was tricking my brain every time it blocked the view of the gem.
Dr. Dan handed me a pen and I was able to interact more with it and see more of change.
Randolph Shuffle
I showed him what I had been practicing and I must have done a good job because I leveled up! He had me follow the same pattern as last week, but then he would call out a limb that I wasn’t allowed to use.
So I would keep following the same pattern but without my right arm or left leg or whatever. It was super hard so I have been practicing it all week and I’m getting better every day.
VTS4
I have no memories, but I know we worked on it.
Mirror Overlap
This was similar to the mirror activity I did with my good buddy, Colin, at WOW Vision Therapy. Dr. Dan had foam Christmas tree cut outs taped onto the walls. He had me put the mirror up to my nose and turn it to a 45 degree angle so that my left eye could see a tree on a wall directly to the left and my right eye was seeing what was straight in front of me.
First, I tried to see both trees simultaneously, which was pretty easy for me.
Next step was trying to get them to be side by side. Harder, but doable.
Next: get the trees to overlap. This is where I couldn’t get it. I would slowly move the mirror so that the trees appeared to be moving closer together and at the point when they should have overlapped, the trees would just bounce away from each other. (I guess I should say that I was seeing them separate from each other).
Last was to get them to mix together and fuse into one tree. This proved impossible for me at the time, but I will keep working towards accomplishing it!
I worked really hard and definitely was exhausted and nauseous that afternoon and evening. I sure love having a good eye workout!
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.
Gem- Use a pen and focus on getting the gem to come off of the plastic. Work on getting the pen behind the illusion of the floating gem by using peripheral. Incorporate balance by standing heal to toe or standing on one foot.
Mirror Overlap- Put a mirror up to nose at a 45 degree angle. Try to make the images that the eyes are seeing overlap or mix.
Randolph Shuffle- Move through the levels of the pattern of movement: forward, side, forward, down. Start with one arm, then both arms, then arm/leg combos, ending with both arms and one leg. Then start leaving one arm/leg out but continue the same pattern
Vivid Vision– Do at least 20 minutes everyday and do more like 45 minutes at least every other day.