Yep. Things are still going well. The hypertropia almost completely gone and it's extremely easy to correct when looking into the light tube. The only way I know that I have it is by looking at myself in the mirror. When I pitch my head downward and pitch my eyes upward to make eye contact with myself I can see a little bit of hypertropia left. I did a Google Hangout with Michael yesterday and he said that he noticed a cosmetic difference.
Since I changed filters, the light tube exercises have been very easy. They seem to have a sedating effect on me, unlike the magenta, which jacks me up. I've been sleeping significantly better and more since I made the filter swap. I probably shouldn't have done the full two weeks of magenta filters. It's probably best to just stick to the prescription.
It's funny. I'd been hearing about different studies about strabismus lately, and I've been trying to get involved. One of the screeners for one of the studies asked me for more background information about my strabismus. I told her about how I was born with crossed eyes and how I had three surgeries before the age of six. She said that because I have infantile strabismus that I wouldn't be a candidate for vision therapy.
Wait--what? If infantile strabismus invalidates you as a candidate why did my vision therapist from two and a half years ago agree to 'help' me? The more I learn, the more it seems that there's a lot of disagreement among optometrists and vision therapists about nearly everything around the topic of treating strabismus. It goes to show, you can't take anyone's word for this crap. Whom can you trust? Man, it's frustrating.
I believe a big factor that is responsible for the dishonesty that is seen in the field is that there are high stakes involved. These people spend a lot of time and money on their education, building up their reputations, and networking with their cohorts. Put yourself in their position for a moment. You've finally finished your education, built a good coterie of professional relationships, and started a business. Now, all of a sudden there are reports of people all over the world who have fixed their strabismus and trained themselves to see in stereo, often with the help of specialists. Well, you're a specialist too, right? You've taken a few classes on strabismus, right? Now imagine that someone who has strabismus approaches you and asks whether you can help him. Are you going to say no? If you do, how would that reflect on you? So the result is that a lot of people who are not qualified to treat these people agree to be their vision therapist.
This type of behavior pervades a lot of organizations. I've seen it a lot in my corporate jobs. People who are not up to the task agree to take the job, and when it's clear that they're not able to do it, they do a lot of dancing, and they exhibit a lot of shady behavior, and they do their best sweep the fuckups under the carpet. This is especially dangerous when it applies to someone in power, because the behavior has a trickle down effect and quickly becomes culture. The organization then rots from the inside. I've seen it over and over again in various degrees. This is why corruption and incompetence go together hand in hand.
It's just something to look out for. Be careful about whom you trust. A lot of these people may not know as much as they let on.
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