The wind tried to blow us off the road going and coming from Fargo on Wednesday but we made it without mishap, thankfully. I like to fill gas in Fargo as it is cheaper than Jamestown. Since I only had 1/4 tank and the wind was blowing from the SE I decided to put a little in at Jamestown. I'm glad I did as it took extra to get to Fargo and I would have cut it pretty close.
The first session went well. Dr. Agnes was great about explaining to Daniel why he needed therapy and what it would do. He explained that the 6 muscles in each eye aren't working the way they should and we need to do exercises to strengthen them. That will help his eyes to work better. He told him some of the things better vision will help. Daniel agreed that that would be good.
The first thing we do in vision therapy is to warm up the eye muscles. We do an exercise called "clock." I stand right in front of Daniel and hold my arm out to the positions of the clock. Daniel has to turn his eye as far as he can without moving his head or body to see the tips of my fingers. Daniel laughed and said that it wasn't hard enough as my arms are too short. Dr. Agnes is really tall and has arms a lot longer than mine. So I stood closer.
Then there are 5 different exercises we do every day. The first is a letter/number chart. Daniel has to stand 10 feet away from it, put a patch on one eye, and use a lens to look through with the other eye. He reads left to right looking through the lens. Then he takes the lens off the eye and reads right to left. There are about 10 or so lines he has to do this with. I can't help him if he looses his place other than to say, "the line you are on starts with a 4". When he finishes using one eye he does it with the other. It is the most difficult and tiring thing for him to do so we do it first.
Another exercise is walking on a 2x4 with one eye patched. He has to put on foot in front of the other, hold that position for 5 seconds without wobbling, and move forward and then backward for 5 minutes with each eye.
Another exercise is to strengthen the peripheral vision. It is called "stare down." We sit close right across from each other. He has to stare into my eyes with one eye patched for 5 minutes. My job is to try to get the brain to look at what I am holding in Daniel's peripheral vision. Dr. Agnes told Daniel the brain is really going to want to look so he has to try hard to keep it from looking. If he doesn't look away from my eyes but sees what I am holding he gets it. Again we do both eyes.
We have what is called a marsden ball that we use. Daniel lays on the floor. I tied a string on the metal loop on the ball and extend it about 2 ft above Daniel's chest. Again we alternate patching one eye and looking with the other. I swing the ball in 6 different directions for 1 minute each and he has to follow it with his eye.
I think the exercise Daniel liked the least was the X's & O's. There is a sheet of paper with lines of x's and o's. He patches one eye and draws under the x's and over the o's. Then he has to go back and dot the o's. If he gets the dot in the o he goes back and colors in the o. What makes it difficult is he can't rest his hands or arms on his desk. It looks hard to do. He rarely gets the o dotted the first try. He does that 5 minutes on each eye.
That is what he does. It took us a little over an hour. We do this each day. But we will take Sabbaths off. I think Daniel will appreciate the "Sabbath rest." On his weekly appointments in Fargo Dr. Agnes will check for progress. The exercises will change as he progresses.
Daniel is a pretty obedient son. But I can see that it is going to take a lot for him not to complain about this. I think once we get to the point where it is routine it won't be as hard for him (and me) to give up the time to do this.
Also, knowing that we are paying money each week will help keep me accountable to do the exercises each day. Ultimately knowing that Daniel will have a much easier time in life doing regular things motivates me to do this. I love reading and want my children to love to read, too. If it is a difficult thing to do you aren't going to do it. And I think about things like building the play set. If you have a hard time reading it would be pretty difficult to figure out the directions. Dr. Agnes mentioned to Daniel other things like playing sports and driving. You need to be able to see well to do them as well.
This may be boring to read about but I felt I needed to share about this as there may be someone struggling with a similar problem. I know from reading the testimonies in Dr. Agnes' office that he has older patients as well. Some are in their 50's and 60's. So it is never too late.
I best get going. I have an appointment to get my hair cut this afternoon. I want to make sure we do the therapy and school before I need to leave.
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