I go back and forth in terms of the kinds of cues I use for gauging progress. Sometimes I judge progress by checking on the spread of my diplopia by looking down at my left foot. Sometimes I judge by actually looking at the straightness of my eyes (although this doesn't seem to be the best indicator. My eyes can get crazy looking when I'm tired or hopped up on caffeine--even if I'm doing well with vision therapy). Lately, it's come to my attention that the Finger Monster exercises are working for me. My performance on the exercises have improved markedly.
When I began doing finger monster exercises for the first time I noticed that as I slowly moved the monster from one side of my visual field to another, there was a point at which I suddenly shifted eyes. I must change eyes at one point, because at the extreme of either side, only one of my eyes can see the monster because my nose blocks the other eye's view of the monster. But for people who have normal binocular vision, this isn't so much changing eyes as it is losing an eye as the nose blocks the other eye's view of the monster. As the monster comes back, the other eye seamlessly comes back in tandem. Before for me, the 'switchover' would happen much sooner than necessary. As it moved to the left, the power of the stimulus would hit a critical level for the left eye, and the left eye would take over, even when the right eye could still see.
Well, after months of doing this, this has changed a bit. There's no real switchover now if I do it slowly. As I move from the left I see relatively well with the left eye as well as with the right eye. Then I move to the right and the switch appears to be seamless (there still is a switch), but it's quite unnoticeable. It's getting closer to how it would work for a person with normal vision--no switchover, but there is simply a loss of stereo when one of the eyes loses sight of the monster.
I also noticed something when the monster creeps from the extreme right to just the point where it comes into sight for the left eye. A few months ago, the left eye's view of the monster would be very significantly unaccommodated and out of focus. I still have that, but it's wayyy down from where it was before. Before, actually, when the left eye's view of the monster would come in, the rivalry would suddenly make the right eye's view of the monster (which was sharp before) blurry and unaccommodated. Now I can keep both pretty accommodated and sharp as the left eye's view of the monster comes in. Basically what this all means is that my eyes are becoming more like a normal person's eyes.
What else... I'm going to try a one day on, one day off schedule. Because of the high power of my exercises I'm getting the impression that two consecutive days may be too much.
What else... OCULUS GOD DAMN RIFT BABY. I've been waiting for this for years, and it's finally coming--not the commercial version, mind you, but the second developer kit, which is supposed to be hugely improved on the first developer kit. I got an email from the Oculus guys saying that the DK2s (2nd generation developer kit) are going to be shipping next week.
I am super pumped about VR and the Oculus Rift, and what it's going to do for us. I see huge potential for its uses with therapy, and vision therapy in particular. I've done a fair amount of reading and research on the game Diplopia, and from what I can tell, it appears to be the real deal. It's going to help restore vision for a lot of people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S51l_TxZA4Y
I should get my DK2 (as well as a steering wheel peripheral G27 for racing simulators) sometime next week. I will also be getting Diplopia when it finally becomes available. The website says SOON, but I haven't seen anything definitive yet. You can believe that I'm going to have some exciting new posts coming in the near future. I AM EXCITE
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