I had my first session of vision therapy yesterday.
I'm not sure how I feel about it.
it's weird. it's hard. it's fun. it's frustrating.
the doctor asks me if I see things in 3D. I'm not sure if I do or not.
my crossed eye has fascinated eye doctors for years. why? it's just a weird-looking eye. yet, every time doctors see it, they want to play with it. they want to see if I can see this or that. if I have single binocular vision (I do not). how my depth perception is (horrible). if both eyes can see (yes).
who knew that something so annoying and inconvenient and ugly as a crossed eye could be so interesting?
(I've had people tell me it's attractive, if you could believe that! I don't get it, either...)
I look at lights and letters and numbers and beads.
one eye covered. both eyes together. with prisms. with 3D glasses.
he brought up surgery again. I listened with 1/8th of an ear. not really interested. he said it wouldn't be to straighten my eye all the way, anyway, but just some of the way. so, um, no.
I got exercises to do at home. and a nifty clip-on patch for my glasses.
recovering is hard work. I feel like it's going to take forever. for something that may happen.
guess it's better than not doing anything, though.
Showing posts with label depth perception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label depth perception. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
my eyes and the problems they cause me
my vision therapy evaluation, such as it was, has came and gone.
I guess you can gather from that statement that it was quite short. far shorter than I thought it would be. initially, they told me that they set aside 3 days for the exam; two days for the testing and a third day for the doctor to go over the results.
they didn't count on me. always the exception. great.
sometimes it's a good thing to be done with tests quickly. this was not one of these times.
the evaluator was simply unable to perform more than two or three tests with me. why? the tests require one to have the ability to see in 3-D. because I have the crossed eye, I simply lack this ability. completely. I've never been able to "enjoy" a 3-D book or movie. no biggie. it's not like a handicap or anything. it does impact my vision in other ways, like depth perception (learning parallel parking was a nightmare!), but, still, this is not a big deal in my life. since I was born this way, my brain has learned to compensate and I move about in my flat little world.
however, it did bring the testing to a screeching halt. so, day one of testing was compacted into about 30 minutes. day two of testing turned into me talking to the doctor about day one and playing around a little bit with some prisms. there was no need for day three.
so, the doctor basically told me that I have three options as far as vision therapy goes. option one is to get surgery to fix my eye. he doesn't do that, but he could recommend someone who does. then, I would get therapy to go along with the surgery. I wasn't too keen on option one. I like my eye. I don't want to take chances with my eyesight. I don't know anyone who had success with this. In fact, I know people who had this surgery and had their eyes be worse off afterwards. I just read this article about the surgery and my stomach has not stopped lurching since (and this is just the facts, not any horror stories whatsoever):
Eye muscle repair So, I think option one is out. I've lived with a crossed eye for 44 years. I think I can live with it for another 44-whatever.
option two is to do nothing at all. I kind of feel that this is not an option, either. very often, I find myself hitting walls in balance therapy (not literally!) because the therapists are telling me that certain things I need to work on fall under the auspices of vision therapy. ok, vision therapist, therapize me!
option three, then, is to come to him for vision therapy. and that means many things. working with prisms to try to straighten the eye (if we decide to go that route). I did tell the doctor that, while it would be nice to learn to park without hitting other cars and objects and to go through fast food drive-ins without taking my side mirrors off (ok, so I haven't completely learned to compensate with my lack of depth perception!), correcting my crossed eye isn't as important to me as addressing the real reason I came to him in the first place; to desensitize me from the things that make me dizzy. flashing lights. sudden objects in my visual field. busy stimulating environments. can he help fix those? it was a little difficult to get him on track there, but he seemed to be saying yes, he could. I mean, he was the guy my neurologist referred me to in the first place. I have to believe he can help. he's the "eye guy..."
he sent me home with some insurance paperwork to sign and return and had me talk to the therapist to set up my first appointment after I confirmed that my insurance covered his services. I have to admit a feeling of leeriness. it's a money thing, and I hope he knows what he is doing. something just feels...odd...maybe it's just change. I do have a hard time trusting people. I guess I'll give it a go and see what happens. first appointment in a few weeks.
I guess you can gather from that statement that it was quite short. far shorter than I thought it would be. initially, they told me that they set aside 3 days for the exam; two days for the testing and a third day for the doctor to go over the results.
they didn't count on me. always the exception. great.
sometimes it's a good thing to be done with tests quickly. this was not one of these times.
the evaluator was simply unable to perform more than two or three tests with me. why? the tests require one to have the ability to see in 3-D. because I have the crossed eye, I simply lack this ability. completely. I've never been able to "enjoy" a 3-D book or movie. no biggie. it's not like a handicap or anything. it does impact my vision in other ways, like depth perception (learning parallel parking was a nightmare!), but, still, this is not a big deal in my life. since I was born this way, my brain has learned to compensate and I move about in my flat little world.
however, it did bring the testing to a screeching halt. so, day one of testing was compacted into about 30 minutes. day two of testing turned into me talking to the doctor about day one and playing around a little bit with some prisms. there was no need for day three.
so, the doctor basically told me that I have three options as far as vision therapy goes. option one is to get surgery to fix my eye. he doesn't do that, but he could recommend someone who does. then, I would get therapy to go along with the surgery. I wasn't too keen on option one. I like my eye. I don't want to take chances with my eyesight. I don't know anyone who had success with this. In fact, I know people who had this surgery and had their eyes be worse off afterwards. I just read this article about the surgery and my stomach has not stopped lurching since (and this is just the facts, not any horror stories whatsoever):
Eye muscle repair So, I think option one is out. I've lived with a crossed eye for 44 years. I think I can live with it for another 44-whatever.
option two is to do nothing at all. I kind of feel that this is not an option, either. very often, I find myself hitting walls in balance therapy (not literally!) because the therapists are telling me that certain things I need to work on fall under the auspices of vision therapy. ok, vision therapist, therapize me!
option three, then, is to come to him for vision therapy. and that means many things. working with prisms to try to straighten the eye (if we decide to go that route). I did tell the doctor that, while it would be nice to learn to park without hitting other cars and objects and to go through fast food drive-ins without taking my side mirrors off (ok, so I haven't completely learned to compensate with my lack of depth perception!), correcting my crossed eye isn't as important to me as addressing the real reason I came to him in the first place; to desensitize me from the things that make me dizzy. flashing lights. sudden objects in my visual field. busy stimulating environments. can he help fix those? it was a little difficult to get him on track there, but he seemed to be saying yes, he could. I mean, he was the guy my neurologist referred me to in the first place. I have to believe he can help. he's the "eye guy..."
he sent me home with some insurance paperwork to sign and return and had me talk to the therapist to set up my first appointment after I confirmed that my insurance covered his services. I have to admit a feeling of leeriness. it's a money thing, and I hope he knows what he is doing. something just feels...odd...maybe it's just change. I do have a hard time trusting people. I guess I'll give it a go and see what happens. first appointment in a few weeks.
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