I just created a new blog to outline my progress, I would be really happy to hear how other are doing so I can take on board any suggestons
Maybe I can try out any ideas that other have.
Bates, in his 1913 study felt that it was very important that a person
have Snellens (inside and outside) for viewing and reading. I totally
support that concept. If you are truly going to "control" this process,
then reading and reporting your out-door Snellen would be of
great help to all of us.
Just report the standard test, "Both eyes open, read 1/2 the letters correctly at 20 feet".
I have every confidence that we can trust your accuracy and competence.
Ok,
it's been a month now and at last I have a Snellen chart, although it's printed out just very slightly on the small side, but just a touch.
The large first letter E is something like 84mm instead of 87, but the way I see it, as long as I stick to the same chart I can see how Iâm doing.
So how am I doing, well I realised how much difference the light makes when you're short sighted.
I did a reading inside and didn't do very well at all, so I took the chart outside where I plan to do all my reading from now on and stood 10 feet away and got down to the 15 line.
I have to say at this point though, I think it's also important to mention with what clarity you actually see the line, at the moment I think my improvement is only slight at best as nearly all the lines I read are not clear even though I can read quite a long way down.
I also have a theory as to why it is people see so much better in bright light or sunshine, I think that when it's bright your eyes let far less light in naturally, and in doing so I think they must function rather like pinhole glasses, narrowing the angle of the light.
But back to my progress, I do feel that my clarity has improved, I still have this very slight double image issue, without that my vision would be really improved.
Other things I have noticed in the last month without glasses are, that my eyes used to be bloodshot all the time, no matter how much sleep I had, and seemed to be sore, I always joked with people when they said to me, why don't you try out some contacts but replying, "what with my super sensitive eyes" also I have had dry skin around my eyes which just appeared one day and never went away, I've been stuck with that for the last year, this has just vanished!
it's been positive so far, I intend to keep going until I get my vision back, my goal is to be able to get my vision back to at least 20/30, I think that I am in with a shot
For the last month I have not worn my glasses at all, and have managed to use public transport so I didn't have to drive.
Today however I have had to wear the glasses for the first time in weeks as I had to drive in the dark.
when I wore my glasses I really wanted it feel like a stained experience, and feel like I was unnatural, but it came as a massive blow when I put them on as not only did everything seems so clear, really hitting home how out of focus my eyes really are, but it also didn't make my eyes feel strained as all. I sat in the car just trying to pick out the slightest headache or strained feeling so that I could say to myself glasses are all wrong, but it just wasn't there.
I feel a little disappointed at the moment, even though it's been a short period of time, I really really hate wearing glasses and will do anything to get rid of them, so if anyone knows of Bates teachers in the UK, I would be really happy to hear from you.
I'm not going to give up just like that, don't worry, I guess it's just one of those things you have to go through.
I have just done another Snellen reading, and this time I am only going to count the letters that I can see and not guess.
so I can see to the 20/40 line without having to guess at all. still even the top letter is not super clear though, so I am going to use that as a benchmark.
the large letter at the top of the Snellen chart is an E, when I can see the letter E or parts of is distictly then I know I am going in the right direction, I feel that when I get to that stage though I will probably be able to see a lot better as a whole, I'll keep you all posted.
It is great to check your progress and is a big motivator for me as well.
"I absolutely love sunning, and notice that when you start sunning the colour you observe coming through your eyelids starts out as orangey yellow, but as time goes on it becomes white, I really enjoy letting this transformation take place." -Rolfey on his blog
I believe it is this kind of experience that is going to be most beneficial for you. This is when the real relaxation is attained. If you can get this joy in any of the methods(ie: palming, swinging, remembering, imagining, sunning) it will do wonders for your visual system.
BTW, this morning while still lying in bed, I imagined the blackest letters I ever have. I was not 100% awake but I was conscious and it felt amazing. You bet My vision was better for awhile.
yeah, I also am finding that I am able to imagine a black period, and blacker letters, when I first started I was unable to imagine anything really black. we must be doing something right then I guess
I've been thinking about your posts Rolfey. I think that it is perfectly natural for you to be able to see quite well down the chart, but still see with blur. Until you obtain at least 20/20 vision, I don't think that you'll ever fully get that crystal clear vision. The 20/200 letter is very big, you can read it even if you have a significant amount of blur. I believe that it is just the same with all the other letters. You can read them even if your vision is blurry, just that it can't be very blurry when you get further down the chart.
I think that you are expecting too much of you vision. Although, I'm saying this without really knowing the situation. Do you have very blurry vision? or just a little bit blurry?
I don't have really bad vision, only about -1.75, and the thing is, I have noticed that the problem is that it's not really that it's blurred at such, it's more like a ghost image, rather like you would see on a television that has a crappy arial.
the ghost image is almost as prominent though as the original image thus creating an image the looks like a blur, if that make sense?
of course at night time it really does look like a blur, but I feel that I am not that far away from better vision.
Since praticing the Bates method I feel that I have actually managed to sharpen my vision to the stage where I can now see that I have this ghost image, where as before I don't think that I was aware of it.
Something else I have noticed as well is, when I do the long swing images and letters sort of ripple slightly like I am looking throug a slightly uneven bit of perspex, it's hard to explain, I hope you get the idea!
To me this is telling me that the surface of my eyeball is perhaps eneven, probably caused by strain, and I can see better or worse at different angles.
I aim to press on anyway, and I am trying really hard to execept that what I see is what I see, but it sort of feels good I think to try to put down my experiece as I see it so that maybe other my identify with what I'm saying.
