Looks like I’m settling in for a few days at the hospital.  All is well except for the lack of Wifi or even decent cell signal.  Not quite yet comfortable being gone for long, girl is still just recovering from c-section and getting used to new baby things.

But still, I said *daily* posts.  So here it is.

Paul posts an interesting progress update in the forum:

Hi Jake,

I’ve been quiet for too long now :(, a one week vacation threw me a bit off, although I managed to keep most of the habits intact. There wasn’t much close up during that week which was good.

I’m currently at the Normalized Prescription sessions, although somehow I don’t feel ready for it, but I don’t know why.

I’m doing the breaks (every 30-45 minutes, I’ve reduced close up time, I’m going outside for at least 1 hour often more, (eating healthily, exercising and sleep well before already), and I’m doing active focus, although I could improve at that, and I will).

I started with a centimeter for around 50 and now I’m around 55-60 (starting the day with around 60-63 and ending it with 55-57). With active focus I can push it sometimes to 65-67cm. (Those values are for both eyes. Left eye is 1-2cm worse).

60cm would give me a diopter value of 1.66.

My current prescription is -1.75 on both eyes. With that I can see everything up to 20/20. 20/20 could be sharper, but I can read it (slight challenge).

So I’m guessing I should aim for a -1.5 prescription as a reduced one?

I’ve also have contact lenses (daily ones). Should I get them in -1.5 as well, are lower? You once said that contacts are different, but I haven’t found out in which way!

Looking forward to reading your answer Jake,

Thanks so much!

Paul

That’s a nice bit of improvement, at right around 20%.

Here’s the best part.  You guys in the forum are my favorite darling friends.  Steve in particular today, for jumping in to help out:

Hi Paul,

Since Jake is a bit “tied-up” today, I figured i’d throw my .02 in.

Since your CM values put you at about -1.66D, you should really aim a bit lower than -1.50D. I would go to 1.25D or even -1D for your normalized.

You want to give yourself some stimulus. Ideally, it’s 20/30 to 20/40 in good light. Being able to see the 20/20 line even though a bit fuzzy, just isn’t enough stimulus.

You may find the first few days are quite tough to adjust, but stick with it. Your eyes/brain need to adjust to the slight blurriness and they will tire out quickly trying to refocus constantly.

Think of it as stepping into a gym for the first time. You try lifting a weight, you may only get 2-3 reps. So long as you stick with it, you will start being able to do more reps as your body adjusts and the stimulus decreases (becomes easier). Then you increase weight, and repeat etc for weeks/months/years until you reach your goal.

Of course there’s MUCH more going on behind the scenes, but that’s the basic body mechanics of response to (positive) stimulus.

And Steve is indeed correct on all counts.  A -1.25 is going to make things much more interesting for Paul, and add some nice distance stimulus.

Low myopia reversal is usually a bit challenging, for reasons we discuss frequently here in the blog.  Getting a strong start on it is always helpful, confirming that you’ve vanquished strain and getting all the right kind of stimulus.  Paul is obviously on the right track.

I did add a few comments to Paul’s thread as well.

Back to the proceedings.  Thanks for all the well wishes.  Do we want a baby themed Q&A video blog post?  Pictures?  Or perhaps just keep things on topic and away from personal life?  Feel free to let me know via comments, FB, forum, or e-mail. 

Cheers!

-Jake