Click here to read about my last appointment.
Another appointment is in the books. I have been working hard and was able to do my full exercises every single day since my last appointment. I reworked my schedule to make it more of a priority.
If I can do that in May with four kids (hello every concert, recital, performance, practice and soccer game that exists in the universe) I can do it ANYTIME!
How did the Last Two Weeks Go?
I decided to go off sugar after my last appointment and I feel like a completely new person. I also started doing hot water therapy again every other night as well and that helps too, not as much as the no sugar though.
I feel so much more clarity and I am able to focus on my exercises and not get so distracted constantly. I am also feeling so much more stable emotionally, what a difference! Why does sugar have to be so yummy??? It wreaks havoc on my brain, unfortunately, so it’s got to go. I was amazed the other night at dinner when the carrots tasted so sweet. Maybe my taste buds are changing.
The peripheral exercises are slowly becoming easier and Dr. Dan mentioned several times that I am gaining a lot of control over my eyes and their movements. Things are smoothing out.
I did notice throughout the week that when I was looking at the star in the middle of the page, some of the numbers were flipping and mixing around. I think there was some double going on too. That probably explains why my peripheral vision isn’t great.
Vectographs
I think I will be looking at vectographs for the rest of my life. Today we tried looking at the
Even with the +12 lenses and me trying so hard to relax my eyes, I still am not noticing anything new with the vectograph. I should be able to see it moving forward or back or getting bigger or smaller. I did figure out how to make it get blurry which is supposed to help.
I will keep working on it this week. For every exercise that I’m doing, I need to learn how to relax my eyes and “open my periphery.” I have a hard time relaxing. I can’t help but just try so hard because I want to be successful. This is going to be the key to my success…I say that a lot, but this is for real going to be the key.
Virtual Reality
Next, I tried on some virtual reality goggles and went for a ride on a virtual roller coaster. It made me instantly want to throw up with nauseousness. My brain was definitely in overdrive. I could only handle for about two minutes before I had to take them off.
Nothing seemed to be “popping out” or 3D more than a normal movie, but I’m going to play around with it this week and see what happens. I have a cheap pair of VR goggles that I can use with my phone.
OKN
I’ve been staring at the OKN stripes on my computer moving left and right for months now, every single day. When I first started I couldn’t even keep my focus on the screen for 10 seconds, let alone relax enough to allow my eyes to do the OKN response.
I am finally almost there! The response we’re going for is that my eyes quickly move with the stripes and my left eye is doing great and my right eye is close behind. I might be done after this next few weeks. Hooray!
Peripheral Fun
This week we did a new fun peripheral activity. I definitely struggled with it, but good news, I’ll be practicing it every day for the next few weeks. He called it something like peripheral saccades. The goal is for me to watch the flower in the middle and open up my peripheral vision to notice the other letters.
I hold a stick and point it at the flower, then point at a letter, then back to the flower. I can just do the alphabet or ask someone to call out letters for me. I am going to do this one with my 4 year old and she’ll be able to practice her ABC’s.
Eye Stretches for Life
Every week we keep working on new ways to strengthen improve the efficiency of my eye movements. This week I’m going to keep doing the “hide and seek” activity where I look at a pen, close my eye, and then open back up, hopefully with my vision focused on the pen still. It is teaching me how to point my eye.
I will also be doing pen jumps now. I simply take two different colors of pen or marker and hold them close together in front of my body. Then I slowly move them away from each other while have someone call out a color and I switch my eyes from pen to pen, but only when they say the color. It’s actually kind of a fun one!
And that is week #3, maybe I’ll make some huge progress this week! Click here to go to the next appointment.