To read about my last vision therapy appointment click here.
How Have the Last Few Weeks Been?
Well, since my last appointment I’ve had strabismus surgery on both eyes, and then a suture adjustment on my right eye a week later. Now I am one week out from suture adjustment and two weeks out from surgery.
To read about all of the details about my surgery click here. And for details about the suture adjustment, click here.
I’ll give the reader’s digest version below.
I traveled several hours away to have surgery in Salt Lake City, UT with a specialist in strabismus surgery.
I mostly kept my eyes closed with ice on them for the first few days and started realizing that my eyes were pretty severely overcorrected. My vision was double, mixed up and I was nauseous and dizzy pretty constantly if my eyes were opened.
I went back to Salt Lake for the surgeon to adjust my sutures about a week later and when he measured we realized that I had gone from 35 diopters of exotropia to 25 diopters of esotropia.
He numbed my eyeball and dug in and adjusted the sutures to bring my to about 6 diopters of esotropia that should supposedly straighten out over the next 6-8 weeks.
The whole thing has turned me into an emotional rollercoaster. I am having a hard time feeling like I made the right choice and it is hard to see the esotropia when I’ve been so used to exotropia my whole life.
After the suture adjustment the dizziness and most of the double has gone away, but I am almost fully suppressing my right eye so my depth perception has gone downhill.
This whole experience is a huge trial of my faith and patience!
I was so anxious to get into the vision therapy office again in hopes of encouraging my eyes to straighten out and heal straight. Since there is basically no research on combining vision therapy with strabismus surgery, we are basically left to make educated guesses and see what happens.
How Did my First Post Strabismus Surgery Vision Therapy Session Go?
I tried a few exercises over the last few weeks without much success but I hoped that walking through the doors of my Vision Therapy office was going to magically change that, weirdly enough, it didn’t.
Measurements
The first thing Dr. Dan did was take me to the exam room for some baseline measurements to use for the second round of therapy. At near, I was measuring around 5 diopters of esotropia which is pretty good. At far my eyes were jumping quite a bit, but it was right around 17 diopters of esotropia.
I wasn’t able to see any 3D, but I was able to read all the letters off the chart. My right eye definitely felt weaker than at previous appointments though, it was so much more of a struggle!
VTS4
Next we went straight for VTS4 and held our breath to see how things were. Unfortunately, things were not good. I was seeing so much more double than I’ve ever seen before. I could see a little depth, but then the rings would quickly split and I couldn’t get them back together.
I could do Base Out a little, but for Base in it was pretty hopeless. I held back lots of frustrated tears that were threatening to spill over. “What have I done,” was the recurring thought as I tried and failed over and over.
GEM
I experienced similar failures with the GEM. I was only able to get the depth when it was about one inch in front of my face. Dr. Dan had to go back to wiggling his fingers all around in my peripheral and give constant reminders to breath, relax and open my peripheral. We haven’t been at that stage for months. So lame.
Even then, I could only see the ring moving towards me, not away. I am glad that I was able to at least see something though. But it is very hard to loose so much progress so quick!
Red/Green Glasses Mix
Next, Dr. Dan gave me a pair of red/green glasses and planted me in front of the huge whiteboard. “What do you see? What color is it?” I was actually able to see a mix, which surprised me. It was as good or better than before so that was nice to have a little win!
So I left the office feeling hugely deflated and had a good cry on the way home. Sometimes life does not happen the way you hope that it will. I’ve heard of so many people having their vision great right after surgery. Their eyes just went into place and everything worked well. It is hard for me to understand why it isn’t like that for me. But I have a feeling that I will be writing a few more of these posts over the next year.
Homework
- Eye Stretches- Keep everything super basic. Start with each eye separate, then do both together, tracking a pencil or fingers right, left, up, down, in and out while keeping my peripheral open.
- GEM Vectograph- Start super close where I am able to see the 3D and then try to move further away. Try to relax and just let it happen instead of trying to force it. Stand on one foot, march, tap the card with my finger, do anything to make it more effective.
- Red/Green Mix- While wearing the red/green glasses, look at a large white area and try to see the colors mixing. Use Dr. Cook’s methods for opening peripheral vision. Also try marching and moving closer and further away.
- OKN Stripes- One eye at a time, focus on the right eye to improve reaction time.