Today was another good day. I've been enjoying looking around lately. I think I've been seeing more. Nearly all indicators are moving in the right direction. Columns is doing great. I'm moving really fast with it, and it's getting quite solid. I noticed particular improvement today when I was jumping from side to side with the star-shaped sheet, and there was very little movement, on the opposite side of the fixing eye, which means there was less need for correction. The corresponding eye knows where to go immediately.
Right now, I'm sort of cruising. I am excited to see what the week brings in terms of all of the extra things I expect to see.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
#110 session
Today was another good eye day. It was really pretty amazing how good my eyes felt. I could feel the lazy eye doing more work and behaving more like a regular eye. And also, I could see quite a bit more. It's not stereopsis, but it was quite a spectacle. It was really nice looking around. I'm wondering if it has to with the fact that I got pretty intoxicated yesterday. I mentioned back maybe a month ago that heavy drinking maybe once a month might be beneficial as it possibly makes it easier for the to ignore brain to ignore old pathways. In my experience, after a heavy night of drinking, I'll notice positive changes in my vision the very next day. Of course, other than rare episodes of sporadic drinking, I hardly drink at all. Alcohol is basically a pretty destructive drug, unless used in moderation. In fact, the damage it does to dendrites is perhaps why it can be useful.
Columns went very well. I think speeding up the metronome was a very good idea. I have it going to to 120 beats per minute when I do the normal columns sheet. When I go to the star-shaped sheet, I move it back to 92 beats per minute. It's working better and I'm getting better at making it seem like a whole picture even though they're two images separated by a barrier between my eyes. It's hard to say whether it's the Columns which is improving the Columns, or if it's the light tube that's improving the Columns. Honestly, I think it's the light tube, but probably both.
Bouncy went very well. It's good to have that pair of exercises to cover both saccadic and smooth pursuit movements. It was initially a bit tough, but I tilted my head to load the activity, and while I couldn't get rid of the hypertropia and esotropia, after a few minutes it was nearly gone. I think this is a good exercise. Saccades went well. There is still the lag on the right side, but it's awesome pretty much nearly everywhere else.
The light tube was great. It took nearly only a minute to get both of the images accommodated for, so it is a process that is continually getting better and more refined. Eventually, there will be no waiting at all, I imagine. I did have to pay attention pretty much the entire time to make sure that the double images stayed accommodated. The light did get extremely bright. When it does this, I get excited. Anyway. Good stuff.
Columns went very well. I think speeding up the metronome was a very good idea. I have it going to to 120 beats per minute when I do the normal columns sheet. When I go to the star-shaped sheet, I move it back to 92 beats per minute. It's working better and I'm getting better at making it seem like a whole picture even though they're two images separated by a barrier between my eyes. It's hard to say whether it's the Columns which is improving the Columns, or if it's the light tube that's improving the Columns. Honestly, I think it's the light tube, but probably both.
Bouncy went very well. It's good to have that pair of exercises to cover both saccadic and smooth pursuit movements. It was initially a bit tough, but I tilted my head to load the activity, and while I couldn't get rid of the hypertropia and esotropia, after a few minutes it was nearly gone. I think this is a good exercise. Saccades went well. There is still the lag on the right side, but it's awesome pretty much nearly everywhere else.
The light tube was great. It took nearly only a minute to get both of the images accommodated for, so it is a process that is continually getting better and more refined. Eventually, there will be no waiting at all, I imagine. I did have to pay attention pretty much the entire time to make sure that the double images stayed accommodated. The light did get extremely bright. When it does this, I get excited. Anyway. Good stuff.
Friday, September 27, 2013
#109 session
Columns went alright. I decided to increase the tempo to around 97 bmp on the metronome. It seemed to increase the load of the workout.
Bouncy and saccades went alright.
Light tube, again, was pretty good. I spent a pretty good chunk of the time fully accommodated. Hopefully I'll soon be able to make that 100% of the time.
As far as Bouncy and saccades go, I might try to do some tranaglyph exercises to increase my divergence ability, especially on the extreme right.
Now that I have insurance as well, I might see about getting contact lenses. I suspect that I may have some slight accommodation insufficiency. If I can get both of my eyes on the same page as much as possible, it should make fusion simpler. This is one of the things that Heather said that her doctor had her do.
Bouncy and saccades went alright.
Light tube, again, was pretty good. I spent a pretty good chunk of the time fully accommodated. Hopefully I'll soon be able to make that 100% of the time.
As far as Bouncy and saccades go, I might try to do some tranaglyph exercises to increase my divergence ability, especially on the extreme right.
Now that I have insurance as well, I might see about getting contact lenses. I suspect that I may have some slight accommodation insufficiency. If I can get both of my eyes on the same page as much as possible, it should make fusion simpler. This is one of the things that Heather said that her doctor had her do.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
#108 session
It was another good day, although probably not as good as yesterday. I have a feeling that, based on how exercises went today, that I will notice some changes tomorrow.
Columns was good. Today it was particularly stable as I jumped around the middle of the star. The was significantly less correction required.
Bouncy was quite good actually. I'd started experimenting by tilting my head to the left and right to see what impact that had on the double vision. It really didn't have a big impact, which is a positive indicator. After all, when a binocularly normal person tilts his head to the left or right he doesn't suddenly get diplopia. But people with strabismus often do have an unconscious head tilt they implement in order to avoid diplopia. So the fact that tilting my head one way or another doesn't have a big impact on diplopia is a positive indicator.
Saccades as eh... that feels like it's regressing a little. I'm starting to experience lag again when I saccade to the right. That's something which had nearly disappeared when I was doing Special Tetris. So maybe the fact that I temporarily stopped doing Special Tetris is why saccades aren't as good. I don't know. But I do know that I saw quite a bit of overall improvement when I stopped. Maybe it's because Special Tetris was decreasing the efficacy of the other exercises; maybe it's because Special Tetris is so intense that it requires taking breaks from it... and then when your body recuperates it's better than before. Who knows.
Light tube went really well--again. It took a minute or so to get the double images accommodated. I feel like that process is speeding up. I did resist some hypertropia today. It can be quite a struggle trying to maintain accommodation on both eyes, while keeping track of vergence while correcting for hypertropia. But when I let one of those facets relax for a moment, I sometimes get a big blast of magenta light come through. I can feel the channels widening, letting more light through into the visual cortex. It's a great feeling.
Columns was good. Today it was particularly stable as I jumped around the middle of the star. The was significantly less correction required.
Bouncy was quite good actually. I'd started experimenting by tilting my head to the left and right to see what impact that had on the double vision. It really didn't have a big impact, which is a positive indicator. After all, when a binocularly normal person tilts his head to the left or right he doesn't suddenly get diplopia. But people with strabismus often do have an unconscious head tilt they implement in order to avoid diplopia. So the fact that tilting my head one way or another doesn't have a big impact on diplopia is a positive indicator.
Saccades as eh... that feels like it's regressing a little. I'm starting to experience lag again when I saccade to the right. That's something which had nearly disappeared when I was doing Special Tetris. So maybe the fact that I temporarily stopped doing Special Tetris is why saccades aren't as good. I don't know. But I do know that I saw quite a bit of overall improvement when I stopped. Maybe it's because Special Tetris was decreasing the efficacy of the other exercises; maybe it's because Special Tetris is so intense that it requires taking breaks from it... and then when your body recuperates it's better than before. Who knows.
Light tube went really well--again. It took a minute or so to get the double images accommodated. I feel like that process is speeding up. I did resist some hypertropia today. It can be quite a struggle trying to maintain accommodation on both eyes, while keeping track of vergence while correcting for hypertropia. But when I let one of those facets relax for a moment, I sometimes get a big blast of magenta light come through. I can feel the channels widening, letting more light through into the visual cortex. It's a great feeling.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
#107 session
Today was yet another good eye day. I wonder how an Australian would say that.
I'm still noticing the stereo effects getting stronger, just like the prior day. Every once in a while I will glance at something, and I will get some pop--it happened when I did a quick glance near my steering wheel. I couldn't help but think about Sue. But still, even with the quick pops, especially when I'm walking down a corridor or driving down the street, the input from the other eye is noticeable and a permanent feature of my vision now. I guess that means less suppression.
Columns was very good today, especially near the 15 minute mark. When I fix with the lazy eye, the other eye's vision is getting more solid. That's all I can really say about it I suppose. One of the weird things I'd always noticed about my vision is that when I fix with my good eye, I can see stuff relatively well with the lazy eye if I pay close attention. However, when I would fix with the lazy eye, I could practically see nothing with the other eye. It was weird, because it was definitely there, but as much as I would try, I couldn't perceive anything for input from the good eye when I was fixing with the lazy eye. It was as if it was in another universe.
That's one of the things that was like a splinter in my mind, because one of the questions I'd always ask myself is 'how does this or that aspect of my vision compare to how I would imagine that it would function for a binocularly normal person?' I would always ask questions like that as a means of guiding myself toward my goals. And obviously, that's very, very bad if you can't see any of the good eye's input when you fix with your lazy eye. But now, that problem which was always a bastard to think about is actually being expressly addressed by this beautiful exercise that Heather taught me. The pieces are finally beginning to line up.
Bouncy was alright, but not great. There's still esotropia, and I make sure not to tilt my head. I'm not too worried about it though. Saccades were alright, but not great other.
The light tube went really, really well. I just switched to the magenta Alpha Delta filters, which, as I remembered them, tend to show accommodation mismatch pretty vividly and unapologetically (your shit's busted, sir). For the first minute or so I dealt with fighting the accommodation mismatch until it was pretty under control. It's something that I have to be conscious about pretty much the entire time. Sometimes I take a break, and when I do take a break and relax, the light becomes uber bright. It's the brightest I remember it being. It's almost blinding. When I have both double images in near perfect focus, I do notice that I have to resist against some hypertropia again, probably because I'm allowed to use the eye more, and so whatever hypertropia is there is unacceptable to the brain. ok... Let's see how things are tomorrow.
I'm still noticing the stereo effects getting stronger, just like the prior day. Every once in a while I will glance at something, and I will get some pop--it happened when I did a quick glance near my steering wheel. I couldn't help but think about Sue. But still, even with the quick pops, especially when I'm walking down a corridor or driving down the street, the input from the other eye is noticeable and a permanent feature of my vision now. I guess that means less suppression.
Columns was very good today, especially near the 15 minute mark. When I fix with the lazy eye, the other eye's vision is getting more solid. That's all I can really say about it I suppose. One of the weird things I'd always noticed about my vision is that when I fix with my good eye, I can see stuff relatively well with the lazy eye if I pay close attention. However, when I would fix with the lazy eye, I could practically see nothing with the other eye. It was weird, because it was definitely there, but as much as I would try, I couldn't perceive anything for input from the good eye when I was fixing with the lazy eye. It was as if it was in another universe.
That's one of the things that was like a splinter in my mind, because one of the questions I'd always ask myself is 'how does this or that aspect of my vision compare to how I would imagine that it would function for a binocularly normal person?' I would always ask questions like that as a means of guiding myself toward my goals. And obviously, that's very, very bad if you can't see any of the good eye's input when you fix with your lazy eye. But now, that problem which was always a bastard to think about is actually being expressly addressed by this beautiful exercise that Heather taught me. The pieces are finally beginning to line up.
Bouncy was alright, but not great. There's still esotropia, and I make sure not to tilt my head. I'm not too worried about it though. Saccades were alright, but not great other.
The light tube went really, really well. I just switched to the magenta Alpha Delta filters, which, as I remembered them, tend to show accommodation mismatch pretty vividly and unapologetically (your shit's busted, sir). For the first minute or so I dealt with fighting the accommodation mismatch until it was pretty under control. It's something that I have to be conscious about pretty much the entire time. Sometimes I take a break, and when I do take a break and relax, the light becomes uber bright. It's the brightest I remember it being. It's almost blinding. When I have both double images in near perfect focus, I do notice that I have to resist against some hypertropia again, probably because I'm allowed to use the eye more, and so whatever hypertropia is there is unacceptable to the brain. ok... Let's see how things are tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
#106 session
Today was a really 'good eye' day. I noticed it yesterday as well, but today was even better. I'm seeing more detail and more depth to a new extent. I wonder if it's the new stress of the new job, or if the job has forced me to change my schedule. But there are a number of things that I've been doing differently in the past few days.
- I've been doing an hour or more of yoga every day after work at the gym. Yoga is freaking brutal if you're a somewhat big guy like me (I'm about 200 lbs). I also feel incredibly good when I'm done.
- I'm doing light tube exercises once a day for 40 minutes instead of twice a day for 20 minutes at a time.
- I stopped playing Special Tetris (at least for now).
- I do Columns for about five minutes in the morning and for about 20 minutes when I do my evening exercises.
Columns keeps getting better and better. The whole scene is much more solid and doing the exercise feels more natural than before. When I hop around from letter to letter on the star-shaped sheet while trying to pay attention to the whole star, I'm noticing that when I fix on a letter with my left eye, the letters and whole scene that I'm seeing simultaneously with the right eye is much more solid, and 'there'.
Bouncy can still improve quite a bit. When I look to the right, I do get some esotropia still. Saccades went alright as well.
The light tube is going great lately. There was some initial resistance against the hypetropia, but it went away as the session continued. The light is still getting quite a bit brighter, and the difference in accommodation between each eye is definitely very significantly going down as a result of me focusing on relaxing, and only putting in the bare minimum amount of effort in order to get the fixing eye to accommodate as it should.
Tomorrow--Alpha Delta filters. It's definitely a rollercoaster. Just the other day I was demoralized as all hell. Now I seem to be doing alright again.
Monday, September 23, 2013
#105 session
I just started my new job so I won't have as much time to do VT. I'm still planning on doing something around an hour or so per day. I'm going to take a break from Special Tetris right now and focus on Columns and light tube.
Columns went well. I'm noticing that it's beginning to appear differently, and more whole. I've still been doing a lot of work on the peripheral vision in the center of the start sheet. It's looking pretty good.
I've been making progress with the light tube lately. I have more control over the accommodation difference problem now. I just can't wait to get to the Alpha Delta filters on Wednesday. Then I can focus on Columns while doing light tube filters on the Alpha Delta filters. That's what Heather Essex Thomas was doing when she gained stereopsis.
As far as subjective experience is concerned, I've been making strides. I still see quite a bit of hypertropia in my lazy eye at times. But at other times, it's almost invisible. So I shouldn't be too concerned when I see it at times. After all, some people who have real stereopsis report that sometimes their eyes will do weird things if they're tired or stressed out.
Columns went well. I'm noticing that it's beginning to appear differently, and more whole. I've still been doing a lot of work on the peripheral vision in the center of the start sheet. It's looking pretty good.
I've been making progress with the light tube lately. I have more control over the accommodation difference problem now. I just can't wait to get to the Alpha Delta filters on Wednesday. Then I can focus on Columns while doing light tube filters on the Alpha Delta filters. That's what Heather Essex Thomas was doing when she gained stereopsis.
As far as subjective experience is concerned, I've been making strides. I still see quite a bit of hypertropia in my lazy eye at times. But at other times, it's almost invisible. So I shouldn't be too concerned when I see it at times. After all, some people who have real stereopsis report that sometimes their eyes will do weird things if they're tired or stressed out.
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