Click here to read about last week’s appointment.
How did the Last Two Weeks Go?
Summer is summer and I have not been able to be as dedicated to my vision therapy home exercises as I had hoped. Instead of getting 6-7 days a week, I’m sitting more in the 4-5 days a week range. And during those 4-5 days, I’m not always able to get to each exercise.
My perfectionist self loves to get discouraged and be mad at myself for “failing,” but my more mindful self recognizes that life requires balance. I don’t want to miss this awesome summertime with my family, but I also know that if I make a schedule, there is always time for both.
There are many days that I end up doing my exercises outside while the kids play or while I’m working on my garden canning projects.
I have been experiencing consistent success with the vectograph for the last few weeks. At first, I could see the ring getting bigger and smaller and now I am seeing the stickying note moving forward and back. It is not constant, but I am usually able to get some stereopsis, at least for a
I am so excited because I got a new toy this week! I finally got an Occulus Go to help with therapy. I keep reading about and talking to other people doing vision therapy who have strabismus and all of them seem to be using virtual reality.
I had a “cardboard viewer” type headset that just holds my phone, but I now am the proud owner of a standalone set. There are different programs specialized for vision therapy, but for now, I’m just using free apps. There are so many cool ones! I need to do a post and share my favorites.
I spent over an hour and a half figuring it out the first day and finding different apps and experimenting with all of the settings. I was so sick and dizzy for the next few days because my brain was overwhelmed at all the stimulation that virtual reality provides. Hopefully, I get used to it soon!
Thanks to my Instagram, I was contacted by a Vision Therapist from Michigan that works at WOW Vision Therapy and he offered some helpful advice.
I took his ideas and gave them to Dr. Dan and we had some amazing success! There are good people in this world, that is all I have to say. He didn’t have to reach out, I didn’t even ask him, but he knew that I would benefit and just contacted me to be nice!
How did the Appointment Go?
Today’s appointment was really exciting! We did a few new things and lots of similar activities.
We started on virtual reality, as per usual and since I understand how to use it now, we didn’t waste near as much time with me hitting all the wrong buttons. I did the Jurassic World
Then for the exciting part! We went to his VTS4 program on the giant TV. It is a great computer orthoptics program with a ton of different programs to help different vision problems. My son uses it at most of his appointments, but I never had until today.
Following the
How to help a Strabismic Experience Stereopsis:
- Turn on the VTS4
- Select the “Gold Ring” found in the stereopsis 2 folder in the vergence section
- Make it 100 Size
- Add shake by pressing F11
- Have the patient tap the center of the circle
- Have the patient estimate the distance to the screen by thinking about the feeling of tapping and the sound that they hear.
- Then add some Base in and Base out and compare the sounds and feeling with what you are seeing.
Note: I am not an optometrist and definitely recommend consulting with a professional specializing in vision therapy before trying any of this. Not that anyone could just buy the VTS4 without the degree, but still, don’t try this at home!
So I sat with my Optometrist and we followed all these steps and I was able to see the depth! We had done similar things at past appointments but had never tried engaging my sense of sound. Well, it worked. It felt like a donut was around my arm, coming towards me. It was harder to see it going back, but I still could tell a difference.
I was working so hard to concentrate on the sounds, tapping, engaging both eyes, and relaxing all while a humongous ring in front of me was shaking aggressively. I only lasted a few minutes before my brain shut down from exhaustion. I’m hoping that at each visit I get better and better.
My brain was done so we moved on to a few more simple activities.
We finally had time to reevaluate my progress with OKN Stripes. My left eye is doing fantastic and responds quickly, but my right still struggles. So sad! I have been doing OKN stripes for the last six months and it feels never-ending! Apparently it is really important though, so I’m going to keep working on it.
Next, I had some fun with the Binovi Touch Board. It is an electronic board with little buttons that light up as either green or red. The goal is to push the buttons quickly with alternating hands while balancing on a balance board. I wear red/green glasses as well which adds a fun dynamic. I’m only able to see each color with one eye so I am forced to engage both eyes. It was nice to mix things up and try something new and I could feel my eyes working hard!
This is my son Teagan using the Binovi Touch board, he graduated from vision therapy today. I’m so proud of him!
Last, we did some work with some crazy glasses called yoked prisms. They are glasses with really strong prisms on each side. You can rotate the prisms different directions and they all distort what is seen. They are similar to my prism glasses, except there is a prism on each eye. They bend the light so objects either appear taller, shorter, further left or further right than normal.
I wore them and walked around, tossed a beanbag and just explored my surroundings. I don’t have any idea what they do yet, I’m just supposed to keep my peripheral vision open. They give me a headache, and that’s about it so far. I’m sure something magical is happening to my brain, I just don’t know how or what it is.
That’s a wrap for this week. I’m excited about my big success and motivated to keep working hard on my home exercises this week!
Homework
- OKN Stripes – Continue 1-2 minutes per eye while the other eye is patched each day
- Rivalry – Wear the red and green glasses and work on blending the colors with both eyes.
- VR Occulus GO- Spend 5-10 minutes watching slow videos or pictures and open peripheral vision.
- Gem Vectograph – Hold at A and tap the center, trying to see the 3D, then hold at 1 and try to see the 3D. Do this with and without my prism glasses on.
- Yoked Prism- While wearing the yoked prism toss a bean bag from hand to hand and try to walk along a straight line and keep peripheral open. Rotate the prisms one quarter turn after two minutes. Do four minutes each day.
Click here to read about my next appointment.