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PART 5: DRIVING. The Strabismus World Transformed Through Vision Therapy and Straight Eyes
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Dec 14, 2022
This is the fifth video in a series helping to explain the challenges of living with strabismus and how those challenges can be overcome through vision therapy and learning to use both eyes and straighten them. Mastering Peripheral Course: https://learn.strabismussolutions.com Website: https://strabismussolutions.com
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Hi, my name is Melissa
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And 36 years ago, I was born with Strobismis, which means that my eyes weren't pointing in the same direction
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So for the first 32 years of my life, I was only using one eye and I didn't have any depth perception
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Through years of vision therapy and a Strobismus surgery, my eyes are pretty much straight now and am able to use them together to have some pretty amazing depth perception
0:28
This whole video series is all about helping you see the transformation that I've experienced going from a 2D to a 3D world
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It is so amazing and I'm excited to share it with you. Let's jump in
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Today I'm going to talk to you about how driving has changed
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So before I did vision therapy and head surgery, when I would drive, there were a show
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several things that would become quite an issue. One of them was lane control. So I could
1:06
never tell if I was in the middle of my lane. And so I was constantly watching the yellow line or the
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white line trying to figure out if I was even in my lane. I know that doesn't seem like a big
1:18
deal, but it was something that I was constantly trying to think about. And I'm like, how do you
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tell if you're in your lane or not? That was a big question that I had. Another issue I had was
1:28
especially at night. I just didn't feel like I could see anything. There were oncoming lights
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I like would stare at the lights or stare away from the lights and try to look at the side of the road
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And I just, I felt so unsafe. And there were many times I pulled over and waited for like
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oncoming traffic to pass because I live kind of out in the country. And so there's not a lot of
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street lights. If there's a lot of street lights, it's not as much of a problem. But out on the
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country roads, it was, it's really challenging for me. to just especially know where I am at, where I was at in relation to like oncoming traffic
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And I, there were times where I actually would like veer off the road because I was trying to avoid the oncoming car
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I always felt like they were coming right towards me. It was kind of scary. I actually stopped driving at night
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When I was about 30 31 years old I just stopped driving at night because I had had close calls and it was too scary So it was always terrifying driving at night
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Another thing was just that I didn't necessarily notice then but I noticed now that I don't see this way is I kind of had tunnel vision
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Kind of like when I would drive ATVs. I talked about this in the last video. I was more like, and it's called sequential scene
2:49
So when I was trying to kind of put together what I was seeing on the roadway, I would look over here and see a sign and look over here and see a car and look up and see the stop sign
3:00
And so I was moving all around. I was looking at the lane or the lines to see if I was in my lane
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So it was sequential, right? I'm looking from place to place to place to place and then trying to put it all together into one
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Well, that is not a very efficient way of seeing. and it definitely leaves a lot more room for air
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because you're not seeing things at the same time. You're not judging their distances
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and how close they are together. And so there are definitely close calls
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Let's see. Another thing, oh, if it ever was like raining or snowing
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just pull over, call someone to come rescue me because there was no way I was going to be able to see
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I just, I felt like I couldn't see anything. I felt like I was stuck inside this car
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and there was like the whole windshield was covered. if it wasn't raining bad, I just felt like I couldn't see. If someone slammed on their brakes
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in front of me, well, okay, like half a mile ahead of me or a hundred, like far, far away
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not safe. And they even just like turned on their brakes and started slowing down, but I could
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see their brake lights. I would slam on my brakes and like even sometimes gasp or scream
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because I thought they were like right in front of me and that I was going to crash into them
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And so my depth perception was just really off. Luckily, I usually erred on the side of thinking that things that were far away were really close to me
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And so I didn't cause too many issues because I was always like slamming on my brakes for no reason, not like crashing into the back of cars
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So luckily, this wasn't like cause. I was, it just made me an overly cautious, overly stressed driver
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I was like 10 and 2 and like, oh, screaming at my kids if they're
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talking like be quiet I trying to listen I have to turn off the radio so it was very stressful for me to drive I almost would never drive My husband luckily loves to drive
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So he pretty much drove all the time. If I was going on with friends, for sure, I never drove
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especially if we knew we were going to be coming back when it was dark. So I just didn't feel that comfortable driving
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So then I go through vision therapy. Still in vision therapy, kind of tapering off
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of the vision therapy now and I've had Sturisna surgery my eyes are pretty straight
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I've learned how to use them I've learned how to open my peripheral wide and be able to take
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in so much more and driving is probably one of the biggest I mean it's like life-changing
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this is like the whole reason I even started vision therapy because it was because I had to be
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able to drive at night and I just that was like my whole goal was to be able to drive and I am
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happy to report that I can completely drive comfortably in pretty much any conditions besides maybe an Idaho blizzard because I like
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slippery and boo no but pretty much any conditions I feel very comfortable driving and it's so
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amazing so I'm going to just go through real quickly some of the specific changes that I've seen
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in the driving just to kind of compare and contrast so the tunnel vision and the sequential scene
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where I'm looking from place to place I don't really do that anymore I just kind of just see
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all at once and sometimes I'll go back to the old way of sequential scene or tunnel vision
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looking just like at the line and I'm like oh yeah I don't do that anymore and I open my peripheral
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I start using some of my peripheral techniques that help me see bigger and I just kind of take it
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all in at once and so instead of this like ten and two like being scared all the time I just feel
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much more comfortable like I know where I'm at in space I know where other items are or cars or
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street signs or whatever know where everything is in space and so feel much more comfortable in the driver's seat
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The lane control. I don't have to watch the lines anymore. And actually, maybe I do out of my peripheral
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I'm watching both lines on both sides of my lane at the same time
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And I can just kind of center myself. And I'm not like perfectly in the middle all the time
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I'm still human. But I just, I can see both lines at the same time and center myself inside the car
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Like I just have a much better feel of where I am at in space And that definitely affects the lane control At night for some reason the oncoming headlights
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it's not paralyzing anymore. I just know where they are. And instead of staring at those oncoming lights or staring away from them
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I just kind of like relax my vision and just kind of take it all in at the same time
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And it's not really a problem anymore. I can just stay in my lane
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They're in their lane. Sometimes their lights are really bright, and I'm like, oh, their lights are too bright
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But it's not, I'm not like driving off the road trying to get away from oncoming traffic
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I just am like, oh, that was kind of bright, and then move on. Let's see
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Another one is just like little things like changing lanes or when you have to turn left
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and there's like traffic coming and you're looking for a break. I just feel like before I would have to wait for this like huge gap because I wasn't quite sure
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I was always overly cautious. And now I don't have cars honking at me constantly like, why don't you go
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That was a great opportunity. That used to happen all the time
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I would drive my husband crazy because I was so overly cautious that I never would get to turn left
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Like I would avoid left turns like the plague because I didn't know if I was ever going to actually be able to make that left turn
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So anyways, I can make those turns. It's not a big deal
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I can see those distances. Judge how far away cars are. When cars break in front of me, I am able, again, judge those distances and not be slamming on my brakes for no reason, right
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I just am so much more aware of what's happening. So needless to say, driving has completely transformed
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It has changed my life. I can drive at night. I can drive and let my husband sleep
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and I drive and take turns or if my husband's gone, I can, you know, it doesn't even matter
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I can drive whenever I want. It's the best. So vision therapy is amazing
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If you want to learn more, you can go to strabismusolutions.com. If you want to learn more about how to improve your peripheral to take in more and see bigger
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you can get my mastering peripheral course, which is amazing. And it is at learn
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Dottribusmosolutions.com. So hope to see you there. and I'll keep coming out with these videos so keep an eye out for the next one next Friday
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