These are success stories that were collected from voluntary email submissions to vision3d.com Optometrists Network web sites. They were copied and pasted from Eudora logs and have not been edited. They will be edited in a separate document before being put up on visiontherapystories.org.
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<!--Gary & Kelly" , sent Sat, 18 Nov 2000 08:35:45 –0800 by email to Rachel Cooperà
My name is Kelly. I was born with Strabismus. I have had 11 eye surgeries total. My parents have always taken me to the best. Stanford,US San Francisco and such. My eyes look straight but I'm a mess. I never new I didn't have depth perception till I was 20 years old. I was always the last kicked in school for sports (you know). I have been going to the Drs. for years now saying, I can't see far away everything goes fuzzy. But when I test I pass. After reading your article, I'm now thinking this is for me. Also, my Daughter has strabismus and had one surgery wears glasses she's 6. Now my son I notice has been squinting he's only 3. I'm taking all of us to look into this. Thanks so much for your web sites.You are a godsend.
Respectfully yours,
Kelly DeHaan
Oregon
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<!--From:
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 20:33:17 EDT
Subject: Cancel Surgery
To: à
I am so glad I started digging on the internet to look for alternatives to
the eye surgery that my doctor was recommending. I actually had scheduled the
surgery which would have been my 2nd when I discovered that there are
alternatives. I've got an appointment with a Vision Therapist about a one
hour drive from my residence and will more than likely cancel my May 4
surgery date. Thanks for the very useful information. Will give you
periodic updates on my progress.
Renee Tyson
Haughton, LA
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<!--Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 16:05:26 -0700
To:
From: Syd & John <>
Subject: Success storyà
I was diagnosed with strabismus at 18 months old and wore a patch
for the next four years. At that point, in the early 70s, my parents were
being told that not getting surgery would condemn me to blindness and that
visual therapy was akin to quackery. Thank goodness for their bravery in
the face of much opposition. I began V.T. at age 5 and although my level of
severity was such that one eye had shut down completely, I am now fully
functional with full eye coordination. I still have some problems with
stereopsis but considering the extreme nature of my case, am doing
amazingly well. (I can catch balls and everything!) Every few years, I go
back for a few sessions of V.T. to bolster my coordination. I still wear
bifocals with prisms but even without them, my eyes feel strong and
together. Cosmetically, there is no appearance of a turn and people who
hear my story don't believe that I've ever had an eye turn. (After my
parents decided to go the V.T. route, they met a man in his early 20s who
had already had 7 surgeries, none of which had been successful.)
I think my biggest frustration is with parents who are unwilling to hear
about the benefits of V.T. Yes, it does take more work and time but the
pay-off is so incredible. I have literally found myself approaching parents
of strabismus children in the grocery store, and one time a pizza joint,
just to say that there are other options and that it's important to look at
those when making a life-changing decision about surgery. Of course, it's a
difficult argument when insurance companies will pay for surgery and not V.T.
Anyway, I've never actually spoken with anyone about this, except for my
wonderful, wonderful doctor--Dr. A. M. Rapaport in Garden City, New
York--so I guess that's what prompted me to write this e-mail--my interest
in hearing someone else's story. Thank you for sharing yours.
Sincerely,
Sydne Didier
<!—sent email 0/05/98 kellees at pacbell.net
Kellee Smith, (310) 578-5355, 13 Lighthouse St, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 à
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I am a benefactor of both eye exercises and surgery. It was well worth
the worry of surgery and the pain of exercises. I see normally. Just
for the heck of it, I like to rent 3-D movies and watch them with the
3-D glasses cause now I can actually see jaws coming out of the water
toward me. I love the risk I took and I love the doctors who helped me. Here is my story. [This story was sent to us in 1998].
My name is Kellee Smith and currently, I am about to turn 32 years old. Seven years ago, I had eye surgery to correct my "lazy eye". I was told by the ophthalmologist that the only effect I could have would be cosmetic and nothing more could be expected. I, too, could see out of either eye at different times. The optometrist was amazed that when an object was on the left side of the room, I would use my left eye and vice versa. He said he had never seen an adult do anything like that before. He called me "accommodative" in my eyesight.
I never really cared about the what's when's why's until now. (I need to write a paper to receive credit in college for Health Science) I decided that since it was something I went through and still go through, it would be kind of cool to write about. So I'm researching and came across your article.
After the surgery, the next morning in fact, I went back to the doctors' office where he took off the bandages and I was able to see double for the first time. It was awful. I saw two of everything. Two moms, two doctors, two lights, two doors, everthing. The doctor looked like a kid at Christmas time. He was so excited. Walking was a trip, too. Which road do I follow?
He recommended that I immediately go to the optometrist who would give me "eye exercises" to overcome my double vision. My first lesson was to get the two big circles together. An easy task for non-problem people. It took me a week to get them to even move. I would try and try and concentrate and all I ever saw was a giant red circle and a giant green circle. I looked rediculous with my 3-D glasses on to aid in my development. I finally got them to come together and on to the next lesson. For about a year, I had to do exercises to get my eyes to work well together and today I am so glad I went through the experience.
Only I can tell where the scars on my eyeballs are. And I can now see depths I never saw before. The goldfish are actually a couple inches below the water instead of at the surface. And stepping off the curbs is so much easier. I don't have to guess where the pavement is. Also, when taking the sacrament at church, I can reach out and actually get the piece of bread and water.
People who knew me before the surgery say that they can't tell I even had a lazy eye. They can't remember what I looked like. I remember. I almost got into some fights with girls because they thought I was staring at them. I wasn't. I was looking at a picture next to them with my right eye, while my left eye was pointed toward them. I never get questioned if I'm talking to someone anymore. And I never get those "stares" that I used to or the comments from well meaning individuals.
I love my vision and my stereoscopic vision. I have often wondered, if the optometrist and the opthalmologist I saw when I was about 11, would have done eye exercises or patching or any corrective action at such an early age if I would have had an easier life. My brother (he's 18mos older), had eye patches to wear and exercises to do. I'm not sure why my parents didn't insist on the same things he had, for me. I am in no position to know.
I do not have to wear glasses today except when I'm exceptionally tired or I've been at the computer too long. My eye sight is 20/20 in my right eye and 20/30 in my left. I am so very glad that I do not have to wear glasses because I have a short nose and my glasses never seemed to stay where they needed to.
I was shocked to learn at age 25 that there were treatments to help me instead of learning to live with it. I had a great man in my life, a bishop, who told me there were some treatments available. I immediately went to an optometrist. This doctor was not part of an HMO. I only mention this because he was the first non-affiliated HMO doctor I saw about my condition. I told him what my bishop said, and wanted to know more. He then did a whole bunch of tests and said that I would be a good candidate for surgery and referred me back to my doctor. That was when he told me about eye exercises. He did say that my eyes were too far out for any exercises to be helpful at this point. I went back to my HMO, and about 7 months later, I had the surgery.
I really feel that kids should be involved in these treatment options. They should be told everything and that parents should never have complete sayso in a child's life. I was also shocked to learn that surgery was given as an option 5 times and my parents never considered it. Nothing was ever mentioned about eye exercises.
I lived with "lazy eye" for fourteen years. It may have been longer but it only became noticeable when I was 11. It seemed the glasses only got thicker and my eye went out further. I ditched the glasses at 18 and never went back until after the surgery.
Thanks so much for putting your web sites out there. I was beginning to think I was the only adult who had ever gone through this. It has made me remember how blessed I am to have what I have.
Kellee Smith
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<!--From: Kjberri at aol.com
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 12:31:54 EST
Subject: Vision Therapyà
I am a graduate of vision therapy. I now have 3 children going through vision therapy. My kids are getting better and am very excited to see progress.
My 5th grader started when she was in 1st grade. My daughter was having odd problems with letter reversals and I was looking into dyslexia when a friend told me about her son who had the same problem. In the 4th grade he was considered a learning disabled child. Then, after his vision therapy, he became an honor roll student! When she mentioned this I freaked because I had gone through vision therapy myself, but I had never considered vision as the reason my daughter was having problems.
I was very fortunate and called the doctor who had treated me as a child and he is still in practice. I took my daughter to him and she received an hour long exam that was very thorough and he showed me via a cam-corder how her eye would shoot out instead of focusing. I took her also to a doctor in our insurance program (a great eye-surgeon) and he told me she defintely had a problem and that she was not a candidate for eye surgery (what a relief). He said she was close to being near-sighted and I should wait until her eyes reached that and he would prescribe glasses!! He told me the vision therapy was a joke and not to consider it! I had been through vision therapy and knew that it worked. I told him he was a joke and left.
My daughter is now in 5th grade and is still not wearing glasses!! The eye doctor just prescribed reading glasses (very low prescription - less than those at Wal-Mart) to decrease the eye strain. She is improving in school and the last year her grades are starting to go up and up. She spent a long time trying to catch up with the rest of the kids because she saw words like WAS as SAW, so sounding out a word was very difficult for her.
Since she was the oldest, as soon as the other two started kindergarten I had them tested and they are going to the eye-doctor as well. I am very thankful my eye-doctor is around and that "The Quack" (as some people might say) is there for them. All three children just finished an updated test to see how they are doing and all three are reading further down the eye-chart and progressing along.
I wish there was a way to make people realize there is hope, but there are a lot of parents that frown at the thought of going to a doctor once a week for who knows how long. I believe my children were put here for me to help them in any way possible and if I have to drive an hour one way each week to see the doctor that is what I will do. We are excited now, because two of the children have advanced to every other week visits. There will be a day when we don't have to do that drive and my kids have never had to experience the trauma of having an eye patched or having surgery.
Take care and thanks for web sites!!
Ms. K.J. Berri
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<!--From: Badgroove at aol.com
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 21:20:51 ESTà
About 5 years ago when I first started college I started to notice that I had eye problems. Being ignorant of how eyes work I didn't know what to do about it. In fact, I thought I had Dyslexia or something similar, it turned out that my brain was fine and that the true problem was in the muscles in my eyes. I went to months of therapy to help me read longer and with less strain, which helped my studies incredibly.
The therapy included everything including prisms lenses. In fact I still use a pair of glasses on top of my corrective contact lenses to help my eyes relax when I read or use the computer sometimes. But, the one thing that helps the most is to take a break for a few minutes.
I think it's great that someone is educating about the benefits of therapy. It seems that parents and teachers alike could all use a lesson in eye care. Great job on the site and thanks.
Lenny
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<!--From: "Christine Waters" <cwaters1 at optonline.net>
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 23:01:22 –0500 à
My son was told for years that he had 20/20 vision yet he complained of headaches and avoided homework. Even so he was able to get high marks on tests, he was in honors classesand succeeded with teachers who were "active" in teaching. he took SAT's in 7th grade and qualified for the center for talented youth and was two years ahead in science.He obviously was an auditory learner. I no the classes that relied on dittos he could never keep up. He was always accused of daydreaming. He got into trouble for blinking. The teacher thought he was rolling his eyes out of disrespect. He is now 16 and with the push for higher standards he was really frustrated and suffering severe headaches when doing his school work and unable to keep up with homework, but he would always pass tests. He was unusually fatigued. He excels in music. This past summer he was diagnosed as having a severe convergience insufficiency(I had never heard of this before, and I have been teaching for 20+ years)and began eye therapy. There was a 504 meeting at school for him.I took him out of the honors classes and put him in regular classes. At the end of November he had made enough improvement to utilize near-point vision lenses. The difference is like night and day. How can I help to spread the need for earlier screening in schools so other children won't have to go through the things my son has. I have already been talking to everyoneI can about this. I have contacted the PTA at the school where I teach and where I live. I have written and received materials from the PAVE. I am looking into starting a chapterhere on Long Island. I have been using the checklist in my classroom to observe the children more closely. The teachers in the district where I live are still so skeptical about this disability. How do I further educate them without stepping on their toes? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.