How did the Last Week Go?
This week seemed fairly uneventful.
Actually, it was VERY eventful, just not on the visual scene as much. My four kids have been a handful and I have wondered on more than one occasion if I am actually failing as a mother. Sometimes kids are SO hard! I love them, but they also make me want to tear my hair out.
After a especially tough mom day I got to go out on a date to watch my hubby play soccer and go out to eat. It was snowing huge fluffy snowflakes and fluffy snow looks amazing under a flood light with stereopsis.
While I sat there in the snow just staring I definitely second guessed myself. Was I seeing in 3D or was I seeing the snow in 2D? I didn’t know. So I took a picture and looked at it in detail, then I looked back to reality, and back at the picture.
My conclusion: The picture was boring, flat and most definitely 2D, but what I was seeing in reality had space, depth and was beautiful and captivating.
I don’t know that I’m seeing with full stereopsis, but I believe that I am getting there and that I’m getting a lot of stereo glimpses on the way. Different cups, bowls, people or other things will suddenly gain that stereoscopic, spacey feel when I take the time to really look at them and focus.
I should be thrilled, but there are other aspects of my therapy that seem to be so stagnant and unchangeable that there is some discouragement too. In Vivid Vision there are a ton of anti-suppression games and I just can’t get the images from both eyes to line up. There is a huge horizontal and vertical disparity that continuously changes.
As I explained this to Dr. Dan at my appointment, he said that we are focusing on peripheral right now and that once peripheral is solid, the central will just fall into place. I sure hope so!
How did the Appointment Go?
Focusing on Distance 
Focusing on Near
My appointment seemed so short! We only were able to do 3 activities and lots of chatting. Did we start late? End early? I honestly have no idea, but I still felt really good about it. It was pretty similar to last week.
Overhead Quoit
We started with the quoit on the overhead and spent the majority of the time here. I moved around, used a stick to reach out and touch the quoit, tapped the screen shook my head, Dr. Dan shook the projector and I was getting some great progress. Every week is better. I still have a hard time getting the illusion of the quoit leave the screen, but it’s getting so close.
Body Lifts
This was a home activity this week and I can not believe how hard it is for me to do something so simple.
I laid on the mat on my stomach and Dr. Dan pushed my head, arms, or legs two at a time and then I would have to lift up the part he touched. Then he would do combinations with 4-5 different touches.
My brain forgets so quickly! He would ask me if I was right and I felt like I was guessing most of the time, but I was getting it right. I am going to be working on this one again this week.
Mirror
Last Dr. Dan brought in a mirror and I looked in it for depth. When I used to look in a mirror I would see myself and the entire room on the mirror, like I was looking at a photograph. It still can look like that on some level, but I’m working on seeing the inside of the mirror as another replica of the room I’m in.
Today was just looking for space. The space between my real face and the mirror, space between my mirror face and the mirror. Then we added in pens and objects behind me to the mix. I definitely saw some depth.
Mirrors can make a whole extra world, so amazing.
Next week is Thanksgiving so I’m taking the week off of therapy because I’m hosting company. I am going to keep up with my home exercises and hopefully make some big improvements!
Homework
- Body Lifts- Repeat what we did in the office.
- Divided Columns- Repeat what we did in the office.
- Mirror Space- Use a handheld mirror to try to visualize space between face and mirror and reflection. Hold a pen between mirror and face and visualize that space too. If it gets easy, try to visualize the space behind me in the mirror as well.
- Vivid Vision- Keep making progress and being awesome.