NOTE:
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I recently got a message from a friend who wanted to make
sure I knew that she'd shared something only so that she could read it later. I
messaged her back that not only was it OK to share, but I was glad that she had
shared! One reason I have this blog site
is to share info. The more I've learned
about functional vision problems, and how hard it is for people with vestibular
disorders to get diagnosed, the more important it has become to me to spread
the word.
I've written about the fact that optometrists and
ophthalmologists get little to no training re functional vision problems. I'm talking about diagnoses such as
Strabismus (commonly known as lazy or wandering eye) and Convergence
Insufficiency (eye teaming). I feel
strongly that this is a huge problem, because vision is said to be 80% of
learning! There are literally thousands
of kids whose functional vision problems are being missed because even when
their parents take their kids for eye exams, the exams are incomplete.
I know that I can't single handedly change the training
eye doctors receive. I CAN, however, do
my best to inform my readers. To that
end, I'm going to start sharing info I find online - whether it's an article a
friend posts, or a video. I may share
some of these directly through my blog site, but FB will be my main vehicle to
share. Please feel free to share what I
share! I recently had an online private chat with a friend whose daughter has a
problem that may be treatable. She's
only one person, but if everyone who sees my posts spreads the word to one more
person, it adds up.
The institution that educates eye doctors to treat
functional vision problems is the College of Vision Development - www.covd.org.
Vision Therapy is NOT just for kids... here's a direct
link to the info for adults, but please take a look at the whole site..... http://www.covd.org/?page=Adults
Adults who have suffered a trauma - whether it was an
illness or an injury - can also benefit tremendously from VT. I am a living example of that. As my readers know, I'm not done, but I've
made significant progress since doing VT.
Unfortunately, Vision Therapy is not often covered by
health insurance, and when it is, it's usually after a fight with your
carrier. However, most VTs will help you
to try to get coverage, because they truly want what's best for their patients
- whether child or adult. While it is a
significant expense, every parent I've communicated with whose child has done
it feels it was well worth the investment.
My own now 20 year old daughter had VT, and I'm very grateful she did -
and so is she! I wish I'd done it for
her when she was younger, but I didn't know about it when she was younger
because her regular optometrist never said a word, since they did not know
themselves! Hard to believe, but
true.
I've been talking here about functional vision problems,
but I don't want to leave the whole range of invisible vestibular disorders out. Vestibular disorders definitely need to be
diagnosed more quickly and accurately. I
think neurologists get appropriate training, but need to put more effort and
time into listening to patients. For
those of you who found me through VEDA - the Vestibular Disorders Association -
www.vestibular.org - I will still be sharing the story of my journey on my
blog. I will also share posts from the
VEDA FB page that are a good fit for my VPIP FB page.
So please "Like" my page so my posts show up on
your news feed - and you'll see the articles and/or videos I share. Please share to help me spread awareness
about invisible disorders. People
suffering from vestibular disorders - like Migraine Associated Vertigo and
Meniere's - need to be heard and diagnosed.
Vision and education go hand in hand, and people who suffer a trauma as
a teen or adult need to know about Vision Therapy so they too can benefit from
VT.
