Post-Op Appointment #13 -Progressing During a 1 Month Break

How Did the Last Month Go?

That’s right, it’s been almost an entire month since my last vision therapy appointment. I went right before Christmas and then the office was closed for the holidays.

Then the next few appointments had to be canceled because I had a very sick little girl with a ruptured appendix. She is on the mend, and things are slowly moving into a routine, but for a while there I was just getting a little VT in here and there between doctor’s visits (the same was true for showers…unfortunately).

There were a few highlight in the last month that I’ll share.

I went several days without doing any vision therapy during the week of Christmas and the result was that my eye went back to turning in when I tried to focus. I was not a fan of that! It only took one selfie for me to get back to my regular home exercises.

I set some big new year resolutions. One of the main goals is to finish vision therapy this year! That means I am going all in on my home exercises!

To help make my goal possible, I am continuing with my nutritarian diet (basically a ton of plant based food) to help keep my brain plasticity at an all time max.

I also started a yoga routine. I am doing it mostly for the benefits of learning to breath and relax to open my peripheral vision, but increased strength and flexibility aren’t going to hurt for sure. haha

Another highlight was giving myself my own therapy appointment when my kids were sick. I had to cancel my appointment so I tried to recreate what we do at my appointments the best that I could in my own house. That meant progress pictures, balance boards, plus lenses and, of course, Vivid Vision.

I only got through Vivid Vision and my GEM before my sick kids needed me, but just being 100% engaged and focused for those 45 minutes made a HUGE difference and I felt like it was really effective.

I LOVE that Vivid Vision is so awesome and I can do it at home! When I have sick kids. I can hear them and talk to them, all while doing my vision therapy. Such an incredible program.

After this point, things started declining quickly for my daughter, what was diagnosed as strep throat, turned out to be appendicitis. I was able to keep balancing my nurse/mom and my self care hats for about a week, and then I threw in the towel.

All the worry and anxiety and guilt about my daughter felt overwhelming, not to mention all the less-than-pleasant conversations about how much it was all going to cost. I pretty much gave up on everything for a few days and had a bit of a breakdown, but I pulled out of it pretty quickly and I am back to my optimistic self.

Yesterday, I had a super effective home therapy session and had some good success with anti-suppression. I was looking at the following image with red/green glasses. Usually when this happens, the images are really shifted because of my eye turn, but for the first time they stayed lined up and both eyes were engaged at the same time. It was so exciting!

How Did the Appointment Go?

It was SO exciting to be able to go back to my vision therapy office for an appointment today. Even though I have so many of the tools at home and I have quite a store of exercises and activities that I can choose from after 54 in-office appointments, I still ALWAYS make so much more progress when I am in the office with Dr. Dan.

I was so worried that after one month off I was going to have moved really far backwards, but I was pleasantly surprised that I had actually progressed. Hats off to my home Vivid Vision program, I know that it helped me keep moving forward, even when I couldn’t be in the office.

I am feeling so optimistic about how things are moving right now. Here are a few progress pictures, I honestly can’t tell much of a difference, but the first one is me focusing on my phone and in the second I’m focusing on some trees about 100 yards away.

Head Turns

To get warmed up, Dr. Dan had me stand on a balance board and quickly move my head left and right 20 times and then up and down 20 times. This is more about getting my brainstem warmed up than about anything visual.

Chain and GEM Vectographs

Next, I stayed on the balance board and he brought over different vectographs. I can usually only get good depth when it is about 6-12 inches from my face, but he held it 2-3 ft back and I was able to still see the Base In depth which was really cool. I was wearing my prism glasses and I think they really make quite a big difference.

I still can’t get the GEM to appear to be 3D itself, it just looks like a flat circle moving forward and back. The rope did look 3D though which was really cool!

Dry Land Swim

We did a few quick minutes on the dry land swim and I seem to be improving on that one, thank goodness, I did not want to get reassigned that one.

Yoked Prism Bean Bag Toss

Next I put on the yoked prism glasses and we just tossed a bean bag back and forth to each other. It was quite a struggle for me, I kept throwing it way too hard or way too soft. I definitely improved as time went on though, the yoked prism is an amazing tool. Click here to read all about them.

VTS4

Last, we spent about 15 minutes on VTS4, focusing on base in, which means we are stretching and encouraging my eyes to move out, instead of in. It was awesome, I was able to scoot the chair a few feet back and was still able to maintain the stereopsis.

I got up to 12 BI from a few feet back on the multiple choice vergence which was awesome. I wanted to throw up and the images were really trying to go double, but I held it as one and relaxed and saw it.

I was doing the smiley face multiple choice vergence and it wasn’t until the time was about half up that I suddenly noticed that the whole smiley face and the numbers were moving away from me, deep into the TV.

The highlight of the whole appointment was when Dr. Dan told me that I have improved. He seemed a little surprised and excited and I was shocked and so happy. It felt like reaching my goals is going to be possible.

Homework

1. Head Turns- Left/right and up/down 20X each to warm up brain stem
2. Red/Green Mix- Look at a large white wall or door with red/green glasses and work to see a mix of the two colors (luster)
3. Optics Trainer- Until we are set up again on Vivid Vision, use Optics Trainer for virtual reality.
4. Slap Tap
5. Anti-Suppression with Sarah Lane- Work on seeing big and moving backwards while maintaining focus with both eyes.
6. Wear Prism Glasses 100% of the Time- we are going to start working towards decreasing my prism strength until I don’t need it anymore to see single.