Vision Therapy

Three years ago, I went to my first Vision Therapy appointment with “Dr. Magic” AKA Tod Davis of Virginia Vision Therapy. 

Well, actually, he is the Optometrist, and several of the people working for him are the vision therapists. I worked with A. She is fantastic. I miss her.

She was so kind and patient with me. I was going through some of the worst, hardest things in my life at that point. I often showed up, crying and crying and feeling unsafe. 

She would sit me down in a chair and help me ground myself under a weighted blanket. And be so gentle, listening to me cry and maybe talk, maybe be unable to talk. And I would gradually realize I was safe with her. I am so grateful for professionals who make a safe place for the people they are working with. 

The weighted blanket draped over my shoulders would help weigh me down so that I couldn’t dissociate. She would also strap 1 lb weights on my ankles, also to weigh me down. 

My memory says she was working on my propreoception - helping me know where I am in space. I wasn’t floating up by the ceiling, I wasn’t existing somewhere in the past. She was helping me realize I was right there - seated in a chair at the Vision Therapy office. 

I am so grateful to Dr. Tod Davis for diagnosing my eyes correctly. I had gone to eye doctors for about 40 years by the time I found him. I had told numerous eye doctors, “my eyes don’t work together.” They just dismissed it. And gave me eye glasses the same way every other eye doctor does. 

Dr. Davis tested me to see if I could see in 3D, and determined that I couldn’t. He also diagnosed me with lack of convergence, double-vision and many other things. He pointed out that reading is difficult for me. I didn’t know that - because I had, for 40 years, done tricks to make reading a bit easier for me - covering up words, closing 1 eye, squinting with my other eye… 

Now I know - I have trouble reading. 

Anyway, 3 years ago is when I started this vision therapy journey and I am so grateful to have come quite a ways with my own vision. 

I spent money sending my son to vision therapy. He wasn’t really ever able to articulate what he did in vision therapy to me. He has trouble articulating day-to-day things. I had hoped to blog more about his journey, but I wasn’t able to learn from him what they worked on very much. 

His journey is now over with them. Being younger, they were able to find a lot more success with molding his brain to learn new ways to use his eyes than they were able to with me. 

I had been hoping, once he was done going, that I would be able to resume going for me. I can’t afford it. 

I have stopped practicing the at-home things like the bead on a string that helps me look at something close to my eyes (like a bead) and work on the muscle that crosses our eyes. It’s a great eye muscle exercise. 

I feel like my ADHD gets in the way of me doing *anything* every single day. Story of my life - I am not consistent. Thank you, ADHD. 

I am also grateful to my ADHD, by the way, because it enables me to have moments when I can hyper-focus and do things like write a whole book in a relatively short period of time. 

Speaking of which, I am writing a whole new book. It’s on a topic that a lot of people may not feel comfortable reading, but if they actually sit down and read my book, they will walk away realizing it’s not actually the uncomfortable topic they have been taught it was, their whole life. 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

By the way, I have never asked my blog readers to buy stuff from me. I did start this blog hoping I could monetize it at some point. I have done everything I can to monetize this blog, and it won’t. I write and write and get discouraged, and write more later. 

The way you can help me is by Leaving a Comment. 

Seriously. Leaving a Comment on my blog posts would seriously help me towards my goal of monetizing my blog. 

I approached an eyeglasses maker about them paying me if I would write about their eyeglasses and they basically told me “no.” If, however, I had comments on this blog, showing I actually have readers who engage with my blog, that would help me in the future when I approach other companies about paying me to blog. 

Thank you for considering this & leaving a comment. 

My son’s vision

It’s official - after about a year with vision therapy for my son, he no longer needs vision therapy!

He went to vision therapy for about 18 months or so. 

According to the vision therapist, Dr. Tod Davis, my son no longer needs vision therapy!!

He can see in 3D and he is doing great! Oh my gosh!

Dr. Davis said that my son should be evaluated again in a year. 

I am hopeful that his vision will stay fantastic. 

Wow - the miracles of modern day vision therapy. 

I am so grateful to Dr. Tod Davis of Virginia Vision Therapy. 

Guard and Visual Memory

So it turns out that I have no visual memory. Imagine getting to the end of a paragraph of text, and you have no idea what the beginning of the paragraph said. 

School was full of that kind of thing for me. I would read and re-read and re-read, sometimes for 20 minutes - the same paragraph and still have no clue what I had read. It was so frustrating. 

I had been a ballerina from about 2nd or 3rd grade through my junior year in high school. I loved it! 

My sophomore year in high school, I went to try outs for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I wanted to be one of the dancing fairies. I figured I had enough dance experience and I could do it. 

They showed us some choreography out in the hall. And I just KNEW I wouldn’t be able to learn it so quickly. They gave us about 20 minutes or so to work it out with each other. I didn’t know where to turn or how to get help. 

When we got on stage, I missed a turn or did the wrong thing. Then I blanked out. Then I ran backstage and just started crying. I was hysterical, frankly. I was so discouraged. 

Some really great gals came and told me to try again. They were so re-assuring. I knew I had messed up. And I knew I couldn’t do better. I knew other gals on that stage deserved to be able to be those fairies and I would flub it up. 

I didn’t go back out. I ended up doing makeup for the production. When the next production came out - “Little Shop of Horrors,” I played keyboard for it. (I’m a musician too.)

So, now I am a mom of two teen boys. My older boy has been a competitive dancer in his past. He is amazing. He learns choreography the first time he sees it. He always has. He amazes me. It must be so wonderful to see and understand something the first time you see it. 

He hasn’t done competitive dance for a while now. But he is a senior in high school and has discovered guard. 

Tonight, I went to a rehearsal for their upcoming competitions. I got to take photos of the kids. 

My son has told me that when the coach shows them new choreography, the coach tells the students to practice, and the coach walks away. The students turn to my son and he teaches it to them. 

He has visual memory. That’s amazing. I am so glad my son doesn’t have to deal with my disabilities that frustrate and drain my energy all day, every day. I am so tired of fighting to do things, and others do them so easily. And it’s because my eyes just don’t take in what others can see so easily. 

Please don’t ever take your own eyesight for granted. It’s a valuable tool. Worthy of being appreciated. 

I hope you get to see many beautiful things today, and maybe these photos of my son will be one of those things.

 

My son

My younger son has now started vision therapy. It is interesting to hear what he does. 

I have a lot of things going on in my head and can’t seem to come up with a longer blog post. Thank you for understanding that my ability to write blog posts ebbs and flows. 

Also, he and I just ate half a pineapple. I showed him how to cut it. He tried some slices. And then we both enjoyed it together! Yummmmm. 

Now I am looking forward to Easter and upside-down pineapple cake. 🌲🍎