Beyond 20 / 20 Vision

Joan age 48, came in with complaints of pain in her eyes, very much more farsighted in her left eye than right, 20 % vision in her left eye and left squinting out. At age 9 she  had surgery on the left eye. With these findings and her age, the normal prognosis is not good. However, with a motivated and understanding patient, I risked stepping into the unknown of how she would react when she began looking through both eyes.

Today, I completed the 5th session. Joan is free of pain, her eyesight in the left eye is up to 85%, and for the first time she could look through both eyes at the same time. Is Joan happy?  One would expect her to be ecstatic!  Well there is excitement. Joan is very encouraged, however, at the same time, a new awareness has manifested itself.

“As I look through both eyes, my brain is expecting me to be able to handle all this new higher level of integration.” Do eye exercises and vision therapy alone handle this deeper way of Joan perceiving her former constructed life? Not necessarily. For years I have noted that integrating other forms of therapies into my vision therapy helps my patients handle the new view. Hence the name integrated vision therapy.

Joan’s journey continues. In the meanwhile the two of us have learned some very important things:

i)  It is never too late to train binocular vision. The scientists were correct. The brain is quite plastic and malleable to new software programming healthy perceptions.

ii) Even in the case of Joan having had eye muscle surgery, with the right support, she is being able to transcend this hinderance

iii)  In spite of the complexity of her seeing and vision, Joan has mastered educating her brain to receive new stimulation from her mind.

Posted by Roberto Kaplan.

All comments, suggestions, and statement is this blog are an educational reflection and is not intended to be a medical diagnosis or treatment of any kind. If you need professional diagnoses, please see a medical practitioner.