Click here to read my last appointment.
How did the Last Month Go?
Things are finally slowing down with the Covid-19 scare. Although it is still here and still a problem, all the emotional angst is settling down and I am getting used to our new normal. I am actually really enjoying homeschooling my kids and have loved the extra family time without all the distractions of sports and gymnastics and playdates.
The only problem is that I am left with about 37 minutes of time for myself that I have to try to allot to hygiene (showering, getting dressed, brushing teeth), exercise, doing vision therapy or taking a minute to chat with a friend on the phone or read a book.
I struggled so much the first few weeks. It was pretty rough and I only did vision therapy 2-3 times each week. Learning how to balance what I normally do in a day with having my kids home and teaching them took some adjusting.
Chores had to move to Saturday and I’ve been experimenting with doing exercise and vision therapy at different times of the day. I think that exercise needs to be first thing and then vision therapy after lunch during quiet time.
I think we are figuring things out now, I’m even blogging again. It is still hard, but I don’t feel like I’m drowning anymore and I’ve been able to be consistent with my home exercises. I definitely have not made any big strides.
I haven’t really been experiencing stereopsis in real life, but I think it’s mostly because I haven’t been trying or even thinking about it. I’m just running around like a crazy person and forgetting to stop and smell the roses and see the world and all that amazing stuff.
After realizing that I hadn’t seen or noticed anything with stereopsis I stopped under a tree during a bike ride and decided it was time for some stereopsis. I just looked up and stared and waited. As I watched for it, the stereopsis came. The branches came towards me and space filled between the branches. I relaxed and just took it in.
I have been so so stressed out that I am going to regress and loose all my progress so that moment was so comforting for me. I just felt all this tension float out of my body and I stopped stressing and just recognized that it’s all going to work out. All things work together for good, right?
How Have the Appointments Been?
They’ve been weird and lonely and way too spread out. I officially vote that we all wake up from this bad dream. It is so tough because while many parts of the country are in the midst of a full blown emergency, Idaho just isn’t catching up at all. My county has had 2 cases so far. We live out in the country and our natural lifestyle is social distancing so it isn’t spreading too quickly here.
My brother did the math and if we keep getting cases at this same rate it will take 10 years to get to a point where we can justify stopping the “stay home stay safe” measures.
My vision therapy office is doing remote session for all of their patients except the few that they consider essential for in-office visits, thankfully this includes me. They only allow one patient in the office per day and we all wear masks and everything is sanitized before and after I use it. Virtual reality isn’t part of the visit at all because it’s just so impossible to sanitize it.
Here are my progress pictures for appointment 29-you can tell I’m stressed because I look miserable. haha
My appointment 2 weeks ago was really tough. We did the Binovi touch board as a warm up and I was slow and distracted. Then we moved to the VTS4 and my scores completely plummeted. Instead of being in the 30s I was in the teens. It was a huge let down and I was super bummed.
We worked a little more with the plus lenses on gaging where objects are in space and I am getting better and better at seeing the difference in distance between what I see with and without the lens.
Here are my progress pictures for appointment 30.
My appointment that I just had went a little bit better. We did the same sort of activities and I was able to improve some. With the VTS4 I was able to get back into the 20s for my score which was a step in the right direction. We worked a lot with the Brockstring and visualizing which was interesting.
Dr. Dan had me look at the brockstring and find the “X,” then I memorized what my eyes felt like and closed my eyes for 5-10 seconds and then reopened them hopefully looking in the exact same spot. I am terrible at it, but I will practice and it will get easier, just like everything else.
I want to quit sometimes. The progress is so slow and so much work and I have so much on my plate right now.
Deep breaths and baby steps to the finish line.
Homework Appointment 29
- -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.
- Gem- walk, balance and move head to try to make it better.
- Flashlight Push-ups
- VR
Homework Appointment 30
- -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.
- Gem- walk, balance and move head to try to make it better.
- Pola-Mirror
- VR