Check-up 8 (After three years and three months)

Apparently these check-up meetings are turning into happenings. Last time there was one intern present, this time there were two. I like an audience as much as the next guy. Progress remains consistent making these meetings very pleasant. My doc pointed out to the students I once had to convince him to take me on as a patient but that now he fully encourages me to go on as progress keeps on producing itself. Now it’s just a fun fact.

 
Both eyes are still farsighted (around 2,5) with some evolution when it comes to the astigmatism in my left eye. The angle of my astigmatism shifted from 60′ to 45′ before and now seems to have moved again to 30′. Seems like eye movement control is not the only thing that is leveling out towards optimal function. 
 
Ocular motor control keeps improving. I now can take on most binocular eye postures with the exception of some extreme angles. Now it comes down to more speed, accuracy and consistency. When making circles with my head the world is ALMOST entirely stable. Almost. I’m guessing in a month or two it will be.

My main priorities are further facilitating convergence and by extension reading. That’s always been my main motivation to begin with. Learn how to read and you will be forever free. As I acquire more visual stamina and freedom of action, I also want to work on getting up earlier in the morning without having it affect my vision. Meanwhile I’m also working on my overall posture. Sit straight, walk straight, act straight, … As all this motor stuff is leveling out towards proper function, the sensory stuff is starting to make sense.

We did some polarized stereo gram tests. One out of two answers correct. Then we did his big stereoscopic test in his fancy apparatus and asked me which balloon was farthest and which was nearest. I knew the answers but I didn’t consciously SEE stereo though. It’s weird. He said that many people can intuitively give these answers before they consciously have stereo vision. Vision in both eyes is good and motor skills are totally approximating what they should be for stereo vision to take place, so why not!? Every check-up we’re getting a little closer. Nice to have these precursors

 
Most people my optometrist takes on as patients walk through the door in my current condition. This is what he considers doable. So now I have reached a doable initial patient level hahaha. That’s great. Give me one more year or even two and I’ll nail this. I sort of have a fiscal cliff hanging over me starting September 2014 and will need to find a way to bridge that gap.  Education, health care and social security are universal in Belgium, unless you have a visual brain injury. Although I basically don’t have rights, I’ve been very lucky still. For every guy who makes it out like me, there must be a 1000 guys in prison. Anyway, stay calm and talk sense into people. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

PS: I also asked him to explain how to test for eccentric fixation and anomalous correspondence and what tools he uses. People often don’t get a conclusive answer on whether they have it or not. With his tools, the names of which he wrote down for me, he says he can test it conclusively. I’ll try to explain this in a separate blog entry.

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