How Did the Last Week Go?
Things have been going really well for the last few weeks. I’ve been so dedicated with my home exercises and my numbers just keep getting better with Vivid Vision.
I don’t feel like much is changing outside of VR though. I’m still feeling a little off balance like my depth perception is really messed up. Things like backing into the garage or pulling into tight parking spots feel absolutely impossible and they didn’t before.
I 100% believe that my vision will continue to improve as I keep on working, but I am definitely not there yet.
It’s hard to really understand that things had to get worse before they can get better. I’m trying to have faith in the process!
How Did the Appointment Go?
My eyes are looking more aligned and less red. I can’t believe it has been 9 weeks since surgery! I still am not able to control them very well, but they seem to automatically line up when I’m doing eye exercises so that is good. I don’t want to have to force my eyes to work, I want it to just happen naturally, so I think the result is going to take longer to reach.
Yoked Prism
Today I wore yoked prisms for the first time since surgery. I used to be a pro at adjusting to them, but wow, things have changed. I was extremely wobbly and could barely do the basic exercise of walking heel to toe across the room.
Dr. Dan had me working on it for a solid 10 minutes and I didn’t feel like I really improved too much. My balance was just crazy. It was super interesting because I thought that my balance was totally back to normal.
Marsden Ball
Next we worked with the Marsden ball. Dr. Dan was swinging it in circles and I had to walk in and out from each direction while trying to open my peripheral vision and see the z-axis.
I feel like my eyes are so distracted and busy and they move around everywhere so I have the hardest time visualizing or holding them still. This exercise is perfect because it is slow moving and gives me and chance to just relax and explore the space.
Overhead Projector Quoit
Next we tried the quoit on the overhead projector. Dr. Dan put a prism (6 base out) over the right side of my glasses to see if it made a difference.
I stood right in the middle and tried to see the rope ring converging towards me and diverging away from me.
For the first time ever I was able to see the diverging better than the converging. I could really feel the quoit floating behind me, the illusion was stronger than usual. It was hard to see it in front of me mostly because my shadow was “blocking” the ring so I could picture it in front as well.
I was really happy to see the progress and to feel it working. I do think that the extra prism on my glasses really made a big difference.
VTS4
While Dr. Dan worked on getting my glasses all fixed up I worked with a rather new vision therapist. I tried to not be too pushy, but she was doing it wrong so I had to be a little pushy. lol.
I was extremely tempted to just take the remote out of her hands and make the adjustments myself, but I resisted. Although I did feel free to add the shake feature by hitting f11, I don’t even know how I knew that that was the right button, but it sure makes a big difference.
We got my glasses all squared up and I didn’t really notice a big difference in the office with the way things looked.
I left the office thinking that prism glasses are the worst and that binasal occlusion glasses are also the worst and that the combination is the worst….
And then a tree up ahead that looked like a normal, flat tree changed. Instead of seeing the whole thing as just a big, ugly, dead tree, the branches came alive and reached in every direction and there was all the space that I’ve been missing. I just stood there and soaked it in.
I took two pictures, the best way I can help explain it is that the tree looked like a normal picture, but with Stereopsis it’s like portrait mode, but instead of only one branch being clear, every branch is clear and the background isn’t blurry, it goes forever.
The whole drive home felt like a high definition movie and it was so overwhelming for my brain. Vibrant colors and lines and trees popping out from my peripheral vision. HOLY SMOKES!
Now I’m feeling the effects and my brain is sooo tired.
But maybe binasal occlusion glasses with a prism aren’t the worst after all.
Homework
- Head Turns- Focus on a distant object and turn head form left to right while keeping focus ahead, make sure to be using the right eye on the right side and the left eye on the left side.
- Ball Swing– Hang a ball from the ceiling and swing it in a circular pattern. Try to see the space that it is occupying and step in and out of the imaginary cylinder that it is outlining. Don’t look at the ball and keep peripheral wide open. Set balls outside of the circle and leave the circle and pick them up using only peripheral vision.
- Gem-Work on the Gem with prism glasses. Focus on Base-In.
- Vivid Vision- Spend at least 30 minutes everyday on Vivid Vision. Focus on seeing the x,y and z-axis.
Click here to read about last week’s appointment and here to read about next week’s appointment.