Magical Powers

Kathryn begged to go for a bike ride, relentlessly, just her and me. So once I got the other two squared away with Steve and plans for dinner underway we went for a ride. Kathryn's New Year's Resolution is to ride her bike. Not learn to ride her bike, she's known for about a year. But to actually ride it. So this was a big deal!

I do like my alone time with Kathryn because I learn so much more about her. As a classic middle child there is always someone interfering. An older sibling righting her wrongs, a younger sibling unaware of the social graces of speaking in turn. It's a mixed up jumble trying to talk to her when others are around. So it's times like this that provide me the most insight.

Kathryn: I had a dream the other night, Mommy. Do you want to know what I dreamed?
Mommy: Yes, please tell me.
Kathryn: I dreamed that a wizard came to me at night and gave me magical powers. Everything I touched turned to 3-D. Trees, fences, animals, toys. Everything turned to 3-D but I could only use the power until morning and then it went away.
Mommy: I think your dream has come true, my love. Except your 3-D will NOT go away.

Thanks to binary lenses (OK...my mistake - in the past posts I referred to them as prism lenses). In case you missed it, Dr. Collier is our Developmental Optometrist who has diagnosed Kathryn with strabismus (misaligned eyes causing quadruple vision). The first course of treatment was glasses. As Dr. Collier so kindly corrected me, prism lenses only work the actual eye. Binary lenses effect the brain and that is where we are working.

This led so easily to my chicken or the egg question that I had prepared for him: Which came first, Kathryn's strabismus or something amiss in her brain development. Unequivocally, he responded her brain development (or lack of natural progression) caused the eyes to not work together. This is evidenced by the absence of double vision at close range. I believe him because he has experience helping people rework their brains. He has corrected this many times before.


So now on to the actual exam. First he asked her to notice the buttons on his shirt specifically how they were one on top of the other in a column. He asked her to remove her glasses and look into the phoropter and to tell him when the two letters were in that formation. At our initial exam her gaze from her right eye was 3 degrees above the gaze of the left eye which prevented the brain from being able to fuse the image into one. Instead of reporting to me what he read on the machine he asked me to see for myself. Zero. She indicated that the two letters were aligned at 0 degrees. Now that is how a pair of eyes are supposed to work together!


As you can imagine the same test was completed for her exotropia which at our initial exam proved her right eye to display an 8 degree deviation outward from the gaze of the left eye. Again causing her mind to recognize two of the same images. Put that together with her hypertropia and she saw 4 of everything beyond 3 feet. I got to read the phoropter again. ZERO - nada - nothing. No deviation. Single vision.


A result of double vision is amblyopia, or the brain's ability to suppress the input of one eye. By only using the vision from only her left eye her world was not in stereo. It was flat. She was not able to recognize distance or depth. Now along with her clear single vision her brain no longer has to make the accommodation of suppressing the image of her right eye. Binocular vision.


Three weeks  have passed since she started wearing her lenses. Those of you who have ever tried to take on a new habit know, it takes 21 days of continually repeating a task to make it habitual. Using the glasses created a new habit for her brain processing and as long as that pathway continues to be used the old inefficient paths will diminish.


Clear, singular, binocular vision. Goal obtained! So Mr. Wizard from Kathryn's dream, your granted super powers are not going to disappear at daylight. They are here to stay. Kathryn's 3-D vision will NOT go away!

Thank you Dr. Collier.