Vision Therapy Week 4

Wow what a difference a week can make!!!! Liam had a great week! I think mainly because Dr. G made his therapy more fun and age appropriate. He was also thrilled to not be using the red/green glasses. Dr. G decided that we would focus on strengthening each eye separately so when we make his eyes work together it will be easier for him.

Our 1st exercise was flashlight tag. This was fun for the whole family to do together. Liam enjoyed this one and as the week progressed he was able to follow my flashlight faster and more accurately. It has become a fun game for the two kids to do when stuck inside.

The 2nd exercise was Monocular Accommodative Rock. Liam is patched and has a lens for this exercise. He has to read the pairs of letters within 2 1/2 minutes. Through the week he showed good improvement. 

Here are the results:

Right Eye: 16 pairs

                29 pairs

Left Eye:   29 pairs

                25 pairs

By the end of the week his results were:

Right Eye: 35 pairs

                27 pairs

Left Eye:   33 pairs

                31 pairs

The 3rd exercise we did was Vision Training Star with a Metronome. Liam had to be patched for this exercise with a bean bag on his head to keep it stable. Here are his results:

Right Eye: 45 bpm 

Right Eye: 46 bpm 

Left Eye: 45 bpm 

Left Eye: 46 bpm

End of the week:

Right Eye: 64 bpm

Right Eye: 65 bpm

Right Eye: 65 bpm

Left Eye: 62 bpm

Left Eye: 63 bpm

Left Eye: 64 bpm

As you can see his speed increased a lot and was able to track the Star fairly quickly by the end of the week. 

The 4th exercise we did was called 4 corners. Liam had to stand shoulder distance away from the wall and say the letters out loud. The letters were on four pieces of paper displayed in a box. We timed him for each eye which was patched. His results are as follows:

Right Eye: 3:00

Left Eye: 3:05

End of the week:

Right Eye: 2:27 

Left Eye: 3:11 

Left Eye again: 2:20

The reason I did the left eye a second time was because he had gotten under three minutes the day before so I wanted to see if it was a fluke. Turns out it wasn't.

The 5th exercise we did was Number hitting on wall. I made cards and taped them to the wall and Liam had to slap them in order. He got times for this exercise as well as patched. He loved this one. 

Results:

Right Eye: 19 secs

Right Eye: 13 secs

Left Eye: 26 secs

Left Eye: 18 secs

End of the week:

Right Eye: 11.4 secs

Right Eye: 9.4 secs

Left Eye: 10 secs

Left Eye: 9.3 secs

Overall he had some great improvement which is always nice for a parent to see. It keeps me motivated and knowing that we are doing the right thing for him. The best part of this week was the few tantrums we had. Liam got to play trains at Barnes and Noble twice and I got a few minutes to myself to read some books while he played. It was a win win for us this week.

Vision Therapy Week 3

Week three was a HARD week for Liam and I. We both had several ups and downs. Therapy at home was taking up to 2 hours a day. That is a lot considering Liam is in Kindergarten from 8:00-12:10. I try to feed him lunch and then straight to work hoping to finish by the time we get his sister at 2:10. Week three was hard on so many levels. His therapy was harder this week then the two previous weeks. Because is was much harder it took us a lot longer. Lots of tears and lots of breaks had to be taken. We got the new exercises assigned to us on Thursday. While in the office the power went out due to huge winds we were having. The office was dark except in the area next to the waiting room, where people pick out frames. We pulled up some blinds and Dr. G said "do you want to try the therapy here?" I said "sure why not give it a try." Liam did extremely well considering the circumstances. He had an audience of at least three staff members, as well as patients showing up for their appointments not aware of the loss of power. Liam completed all his therapy and I walked out feeling confident in our week ahead. 

We started the exercises as usual on Friday. It went alright. It was long, but he was still willing to do them. Saturday it took us two hours, because he was struggling. We had plans to go to a friends house for dinner so he kept going, because he did not want to miss out on the fun. Sunday is when everything went downhill. He threw a two hour tantrum refusing to do therapy. It was so hard on me and him. I felt like the worse mom in the world, because I had to be the "bad" guy. I told him he could not get out of the chair until he agreed to do his exercises. He screamed and cried in the chair telling me he was never going to open his eyes again. He also said he was going to rip everything off the walls when I went to bed and never do them again. After a while I could not sit there with him, so I got up and started to make dinner. I told him "when you show me you are ready by standing up and putting your red/green glasses on I will stop what I am doing." It was so hard standing my ground, but I kept thinking if I give in at this moment he will have my number and do this every day to me. Finally he gave in and we did the three hardest exercises. We had lots of tears for those three exercises, but when he was done he gave me a BIG hug and ran off to play. We ate dinner and after dinner he said "mama I would like to finish my exercises". I was so relieved and when dinner was done he sat down and finished. I was so proud of him. 

Monday morning after I took the kids to school I drove to see if Dr. G was available to chat. Fortunately she had 15 minutes between patients. She is amazing with so many encouraging words and great ideas. One that we came up with was that Liam could pick a day to have off. Instead of doing therapy 7 days a week he could do it 6 days a week. Then next thing she said was to tell him that if he completed the rest of his exercises for the week she would give him a break on the red/green glasses and Brock String. I knew this would be a key one, because he hates the red/green glasses and brock string.  I felt pretty good leaving her office and went home and got on Facebook.  There is a closed group that gives support to parents who are doing VT with their kids. All of them had amazing advice for me. The most frequent was BRIBE!!! It was so nice to hear from other parents that is was okay to bribe. I am not a fan of bribing, but in this case it is needed. You are asking your kids to do exercises that are hard and can make them dizzy, nauseous and give them headaches. They need some kind of reward when its done. Its hard for them to understand that when this is all said and done they will see better. In most cases these kids don't understand that they can't see. Liam tells me all the time "I am all better mama, I can see now." My response to him is always "Liam if you were all better these exercises would be easy." Its not that these kids can't see, its that they can't focus, track with both eyes, or see 3-D etc.. Most have compensated in one way or another and don't know any different. So making them understand they will be better when they don't think anything is wrong is hard. 

After all the advice from strangers, friends and family we came up with a plan. Liam was super excited to take a day off. He chose Sundays because its hard to do exercises when daddy is home from work. I don't blame him, it is hard to not being able to play with daddy the whole day. He did improve and get his exercises done on Tuesday and Wednesday because he wanted a break from the red/green glasses and brock string. In fact when we saw Dr. G on Thursday last week he said "I did all my exercises so no more glasses or string right?" Dr. G said "yes Liam that is right you get a week off." 

The next bribe or incentive that we are doing which was Liam's idea, was to go to Barnes and Noble Book store and play with the train set. So the deal is if he doesn't throw a huge fit all week, then we go play on Fridays after school. He also has come up with the idea that when he finishes his exercises for the day he gets a piece of gum. I can do this one with no problem. The last thing I did was had my husband have a chat with him. My husband works very hard and long days. He isn't present when we do the therapy. In Liam's mind I am the mean mommy that makes him do these awful exercises. My husband told Liam that he needed to do the exercises with no fits. He also said that he expected to get good reports from me when he got home. He asked Liam to make him proud and to do the exercises and make him proud. I wish I had the magic like my husband, but I don't. Liam took him seriously and I feel that this is another reason why its going smoother. I am so grateful to have a partner in this. Even though he isn't present for the therapy, Liam at least knows daddy has mommies back. 


All in all I am so grateful week 3 is over. It was a rough one, but I learned some new tricks. The last two days of the exercises he improved quite a bit. It is hard to really pinpoint how he improved last week because we changed some stuff up mid week. But overall we saw some positive changes. As I type this we are in week 4 and let me tell you it is a 100 times easier this week!