I woke up in the morning, stumbled out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. My husband came into the room and called my name to get my attention. I glanced in his direction and our eyes met each others'.
"Whoa, Michelle...what's up with your eye?" he stated, somewhat bewildered.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" I said, desperately seeking clarification.
"Uhhhh..your eye is really screwed up right now."
My heart sank into the floor. No! What did he mean by this? I hustled to the mirror and one glance confirmed his observation. My right eye had completely turned toward my nose -- not just a little, but a lot -- a whole lot. It was pointed right at my nose. I was horrified!
Dr. T's words rang through my mind. "Any change is a good sign." How could this be good? My eye was turning in the wrong direction! I couldn't help but wonder if what my decision to engage in vision therapy was a good one. What if I was making things worse and not better?
Quickly I put on my prism eye glasses and allowed my eyes to adjust to the lenses. I had been wearing the glasses for about two weeks; small changes were now detectable in my eyesight. After a few minutes, my right eye straightened out, re-aligning as I gazed through the optics. Ahhh...that's better, I thought. It was still turned in, but not nearly as much. I tried not to let this set back get to me and proceeded to get on with my day.
It has been six weeks now since I first started my vision therapy. I have been wearing my prism glasses for several weeks. I recall the first day that Dr. T placed them on my eyes. I felt a little dizzy and had to be careful not to move my head too quickly. I was cautioned by my doctor and one of my therapists to break them in gradually, wearing them in small doses to start. Of course, that would not be in my nature to do such a thing! I decided to wear them out of the doctor's office and across the street to the mall to try my hand at shopping!
I was doing quite well until I left the store. Unable to correctly judge the distance from the sidewalk to the road, my ankle gave way as I fell off the curb. I twisted my ankle and bruised my pride. I felt rather humiliated by the experience. I can be quite stubborn at times -- I guess I really should have listened to my doctor!
My eyes have adjusted well to the prism lenses. With six weeks of therapy and eye training, I can feel my eye muscles strengthening, as if they have gone through some muscular workouts. I am now quite aware of my right eye moving in it's socket. I feel the muscles tense as they move about in my head. It's a good feeling. All these years have gone by and my right eye has just sat there, lazily reclining in place. Now it is being forced to work! Like atrophied muscles after a cast has been removed, I am using physical eye therapy to regain lost strength.
Yesterday I had a six week check-up with my developmental optometrist. As I sat in the chair, I gazed at the wall, trying hard to detect the horizontal and vertical lines that formed the infamous "big E." At 20/200, I could make out the sideways E fairly well, at 20/100 it was more difficult, the letters below would crowd over the top of the large vowel, skewing and distorting the shape of the letter. Obviously my acuity had not improved too much.
Then he used the prisms on each side of the photoropter to intentionally separate the images I was seeing out of each eye so that I could tell him, as he manipulated the prisms, when one shape lined up with the other shape, both vertically and horizontally. He used this technique to measure the amount of turn in my eye.
He was fully prepared to make adjustments in the amount of prism in my eyeglasses. When I was first prescribed the prism lenses, he used the smallest amount of prism that would make a difference. Too much prism is apparently not good. He gave me about 25% of what my eye measured. Thinking he may need to bump that up, he was surprised to see that my eye had adjusted so well to the prism lenses, I would not need any changes to the amount of prism in my glasses. This was fantastic news. Even though I may not be seeing clearly out of my fovea, my pheriphial vision is responding well to the prism lenses. The prism bends the light as it comes into my eye and my eye moves to be able to focus on the images. This is how the prism works to re-align my eye. If I was not seeing at all out of the eye, my eyes would not move.
"Whoa, Michelle...what's up with your eye?" he stated, somewhat bewildered.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" I said, desperately seeking clarification.
"Uhhhh..your eye is really screwed up right now."
My heart sank into the floor. No! What did he mean by this? I hustled to the mirror and one glance confirmed his observation. My right eye had completely turned toward my nose -- not just a little, but a lot -- a whole lot. It was pointed right at my nose. I was horrified!
Dr. T's words rang through my mind. "Any change is a good sign." How could this be good? My eye was turning in the wrong direction! I couldn't help but wonder if what my decision to engage in vision therapy was a good one. What if I was making things worse and not better?
Quickly I put on my prism eye glasses and allowed my eyes to adjust to the lenses. I had been wearing the glasses for about two weeks; small changes were now detectable in my eyesight. After a few minutes, my right eye straightened out, re-aligning as I gazed through the optics. Ahhh...that's better, I thought. It was still turned in, but not nearly as much. I tried not to let this set back get to me and proceeded to get on with my day.
It has been six weeks now since I first started my vision therapy. I have been wearing my prism glasses for several weeks. I recall the first day that Dr. T placed them on my eyes. I felt a little dizzy and had to be careful not to move my head too quickly. I was cautioned by my doctor and one of my therapists to break them in gradually, wearing them in small doses to start. Of course, that would not be in my nature to do such a thing! I decided to wear them out of the doctor's office and across the street to the mall to try my hand at shopping!
I was doing quite well until I left the store. Unable to correctly judge the distance from the sidewalk to the road, my ankle gave way as I fell off the curb. I twisted my ankle and bruised my pride. I felt rather humiliated by the experience. I can be quite stubborn at times -- I guess I really should have listened to my doctor!
My eyes have adjusted well to the prism lenses. With six weeks of therapy and eye training, I can feel my eye muscles strengthening, as if they have gone through some muscular workouts. I am now quite aware of my right eye moving in it's socket. I feel the muscles tense as they move about in my head. It's a good feeling. All these years have gone by and my right eye has just sat there, lazily reclining in place. Now it is being forced to work! Like atrophied muscles after a cast has been removed, I am using physical eye therapy to regain lost strength.
Yesterday I had a six week check-up with my developmental optometrist. As I sat in the chair, I gazed at the wall, trying hard to detect the horizontal and vertical lines that formed the infamous "big E." At 20/200, I could make out the sideways E fairly well, at 20/100 it was more difficult, the letters below would crowd over the top of the large vowel, skewing and distorting the shape of the letter. Obviously my acuity had not improved too much.
Then he used the prisms on each side of the photoropter to intentionally separate the images I was seeing out of each eye so that I could tell him, as he manipulated the prisms, when one shape lined up with the other shape, both vertically and horizontally. He used this technique to measure the amount of turn in my eye.
He was fully prepared to make adjustments in the amount of prism in my eyeglasses. When I was first prescribed the prism lenses, he used the smallest amount of prism that would make a difference. Too much prism is apparently not good. He gave me about 25% of what my eye measured. Thinking he may need to bump that up, he was surprised to see that my eye had adjusted so well to the prism lenses, I would not need any changes to the amount of prism in my glasses. This was fantastic news. Even though I may not be seeing clearly out of my fovea, my pheriphial vision is responding well to the prism lenses. The prism bends the light as it comes into my eye and my eye moves to be able to focus on the images. This is how the prism works to re-align my eye. If I was not seeing at all out of the eye, my eyes would not move.
He also checked to see how much far I was able to see with my bad eye. With my first screening, I was only able to see binocularly for a distance of 3 inches from my face. Now I was able to see binocularly for a good 12-14 inches. This was significant. The therapy and prism lenses have been making a difference.
I was encouraged as I left his office -- encouraged that I really was on the right track. Even though I have to wear my glasses to help correct my lazy eye, I am thankful that when I look at my reflection in the mirror, or my face in a photograph, I do not see an eye turned in and up to the degree that it had just six weeks ago. Now that's something to celebrate!
What a wonder! The Lord knows the desires of your heart and understands your effort at working "these" things out! Your eyes look great in this pic! Have a fabulous day! Love you sis!
ReplyDelete