A client’s progress report after six months on the myopia rehab program, posted verbatim.
Take a look at Jeff’s progress with his normalized glasses and diopter reductions. A few of his experiences may be relevant to you, and being a few months ahead, his report also helps fill in some of what you might expect to experience:
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JEFF T. PROGRESS REPORT – Nov 8, 2011
It was about five or six months ago, I’m not that great at keeping exact records … but my prescription was -4.00 left eye, and -3.50 right eye. It had sort of stabilized, only getting a bit worse every few years. I actually stopped having eye exams, just because it invariably came with some prescription increase – and I felt like I could see ok with my current prescription at the time.
M., a close friend of mine, told me about #endmyopia. She is the type who has to try everything, and her enthusiasm is usually relentless. It took her about a year of bringing up the fact that her myopia was completely gone (she started out with only -1.50 or so, but was back to 20/15 already). I finally gave in, and signed up with Alex’.
I’m a pretty active guy, but my job means a lot of computer hours. I was mostly wearing contact lenses at the time I met Alex, for the sake of convenience, and making sports a lot easier to enjoy.
Here is my progress report. I just now came back from the optometrist.
My new and latest prescription (keep in mind, quite recently it was -4.00 and -3.50) is now: left eye, -2.50. Right eye, -2.25. Not even six months into the program. First month I just went through the motions, but now I’m an addict, with all the exercises. Going to the optic shop is my reward, getting the latest high index lenses. I did switch from contacts to glasses, per Alex suggestion. He says glasses will remind me more that I am wearing a quasi prosthetic (I’m sure those weren’t exactly his words, but you get the idea), and that the object on my face will add a bit more awareness of what I am trying to get rid of.
It’s also quite a bit easier to do some of the exercise, having glasses. Easy on, easy off. And it was a good excuses to shop for some cool frames.
I didn’t go with the Web ordering, I just didn’t feel confident. And I wanted to try having a local source with an autorefractor and test lenses. A bit more money, but worth it to me. I like to be able to see the autorefractor values, and then use the test lenses to double check and make sure that my normalized glasses aren’t just right.
I learned a few things from the optic shop saga. First of all, nobody would make me glasses with a lowered prescription.
After a few shops I realized that I’d be better off taking up some time of theirs, shop frames, pick something I like, negotiate prices, and somewhere in there bring up the sad, sad story that wearing glasses gives me such a headache, after working all day. The combination of them feeling so close to the sale, and having a reason they can live with to change my prescription, that eventually worked.
The shop I have now, is already used to my antics. Having to play on the autorefractor, and switching back and forth between test lenses. I always pick the strength that lets me just barely read the bottom line of letters with each eye, which usually ends up being a step up in clarity when I look at it with both eyes. It’s always in line with the next quarter diopter drop, so far.
Also, I learned that my self Snellen tests (and Alex’ close-up refraction test) are more accurate figures for me, than the autorefractor. The thing is sometimes off by as much as -0.50 between readings! Optic shop guy said that any blinking or small movement can throw off the results.
The result from the current optic shop trip has me quite excited again. After all, I’m now down to -2.25 and -2.50 on my latest normalized prescription, which is -0.25 lower than my actual myopia (which is -2.50 and -2.75 now). Reducing myopia, succeeding beyond anything I figured possible. I’ve been having to revise my prescription a few times now, with the first big jump and the quarter decrements since. Each time, walking outside with the new prescription, I first feel like it’s way too weak. Things are blurry, I still find myself questioning things for the first moment.
But every single time, it takes about a month, month and a half or so, and my eyes are perfectly adjusted to the lower prescription. A couple of week for day time vision, a few more for night time to also be fully ‘back to normal’. Along with the close-up focus exercise, having constant practice at distance focus is really pushing me forward. Glasses as a rehab and active focus tool, instead of a crutch. It’s one of the many excellent concepts I am getting from the program.
That’s it so far, for my report. I need to focus more on the focus equalizer exercises to get that other -0.25 difference out between left and right eye. -025 done, -0.25 to go.
I’m very much on top of the myopia reduction process and it’s satisfying all my geeky urges to boot (I researched a lot about different qualities of lenses, who makes the nicest high index lenses, different coatings, and all the latest fashion trends). Next stop? I really can’t wait to see that magic -2.00 – the big two-double-zero figure as my next prescription.
Jeff T., N.M.
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Jeff is a bit quicker than many clients, but by no means the fastest in progress. It’s a good indicator of what’s attainable in a myopia treatment program with proper daily exercise focus, and following the program. Questions, comments? Feel free to drop me a line anytime.
