Click here to read about last week’s appointment.
How did the Last Week Go?
This week was pretty crazy. I went to my appointment last week and coronavirus was a distant problem that hadn’t come to my state yet. It felt like everyone was over-reacting. By my appointment this week, all the stores were out of toilet paper, milk, eggs and all canned foods. My kids’ school was canceled for 3 weeks (but I am guessing it will be longer) and I suddenly went from having a ton of time to being a full-time Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 6th grade teacher with a wild toddler running through the scene.
I am going to need to rework my schedule and figure out when to do vision therapy homework. There is a good chance that my Optometrist’s office will close down so I may be on my own. Right now I have to focus on being a mom and being there for my kiddos, but I know that I can make both work. I just need to organize my time and spend less time reading articles about coronavirus taking over the world.
Last week was fine for vision therapy. I was a bit of an emotional mess between the coronavirus and an earthquake in Utah where two of my sisters live. I still did my exercises, but definitely had no breakthroughs. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain my progress.
I’ve noticed that my eye has been wandering more. Stress is so annoying, haha. The progress pictures were good though. I don’t understand why sometimes my eyes are straight and sometimes not. I don’t get it.
How did the Appointment Go?
It was a little eerie at my appointment this week. Just Dr. Dan, Matt (the vision therapist) and I in the office. A lot of people are canceling their appointments. They were super diligent about wiping everything down and we were all very healthy so I felt good about it.
VTS4
We worked on the stereopsis ring again and I was able to get a lot of depth with the shake turned off. It takes a constant effort and lots of reminders from Dr. Dan and Matt to keep the ring floating. My brain goes to auto-pilot so quickly.
I left “The Shape of the Sky” with them last week so I know they read it and definitely gave me a lot of tips from the book which was SO incredibly helpful. I felt like we were all on the same page and speaking the same language. I have awesome people helping me through this.
My scores on the multiple choice mergence were worse this week, 26 and 11. My eyes just weren’t working. I was pretty jittery from hearing about the 5.7 earthquake in Utah from my sister on my way to the appointment so I know that affected me. I was distracted for sure.
SOLO Practice with -2 Lens
SOLO stands for “small in large out” which is a concept that feels so impossible to me! One of the main ways that my brain can judge distance is by looking at the size of an object. If it is big, it is close to me, if it is small, it is far away.
But in vision therapy with the gem and so many different computer and other activities it’s the opposite. As things get closer, they get smaller. So mind blowing for me. I have struggle to sense that change is size from the very beginning.
This new activity is so awesome though, it is helping me see that something closer can be smaller. It is probably way more scientific than that, but that is what it looks like to me.
I took a large -2 lens and held it out in front of me as I looked towards a ball hanging from a string. He told me to hold the lens at just the right height so that I could see two balls, one big and one smaller.
Dr. Dan’s first question was “which ball is closer?” And naturally, I thought the smaller one was further back by quite a bit. Then he started coaching me on opening my peripheral and visualizing the z-axis and using divided attention and all the great things and then all of the sudden the little ball was way closer to me. I could see it in that open space and it was really cool.
There was a riveting conversation about parabolas and foci and it’s still keeping me up at night just loving the amazing application of math. Math in the real world is just so awesome. *nerd alert*
This was a cool new exercise that I am really excited about!
Ball Push-Ups
Then we worked on ball push-ups. Just like a pencil push-up, but with a ball. I was really struggling to get both eyes aligned on the ball. After lots and lots of coaching I was able to get it. Can you tell that today was a struggle??
Red/Green Computer Fun
We tried some red/green activities on the Vision Builder Program on Dr. Dan’s computer. They felt pretty similar to AmblyoPlay, but there was a larger variety-most of the activities are too hard for me though. haha
I am going to be working on a few of them this week at home and the big focus is on making sure that my eyes are aligned so that when the red and green parts of the picture meet they are aligned.
I think my appointment went for about 75 minutes today. I was there early and the patient after me canceled so we were able to get right to business. It was awesome to have all the extra time and sort of make a plan for the next few weeks in case I am not able to come in.
Homework
This week there are a lot of items of homework because we don’t know how Coronavirus is going to affect future appointments. Dr. Dan gave me extras to switch things up if I’m not able to come in for the next few weeks. I’m ready to fly by the seat of my pants.
- Chalkboard Circles- Work on opening and sharpening peripheral skills, especially for my left eye.
- Pencil Pushups- Focus on all the new techniques that I’ve learned from “The Shape of the Sky;” focus on the space between my two eyes, the space between my eyes and the pencil and the space around the pencil.
- Gem with Brock String- Combine the gem with the brockstring or with the Marsden Ball. Work on Base In and Base Out and seeing the Z-axis!
- Virtual Reality- Spend time on the Optics Trainer app using peripheral.
- -2 Lens- Set up the Marsden Ball and patch one eye. Look through the -2 lens at the ball and adjust the lens so that I can see two balls. Notice that the one through the lens is smaller, but closer. Play around with movement and notice the changes. HUGE focus on peripheral.
- Brock String– Do all the things.
- HTS Computer- Play the tennis game and work on keeping both eyes aligned so that the ball and line make contact.
- 3 Circles- Spend time trying to visualize the third circle with base out and base in.