what is it?

I am in my second week of vision therapy. After reading Fixing My Gaze, but before actually making the calls to see if there was a vision therapy practice near me, I did what any engaged consumer would do and Googled around trying to find out, really, what do you do at vision therapy? I didn't come up with much and that's part of the reason I wanted to blog about my experience.

This is the recommendation I received and it seems to be similar for both children and adults:

one hour per week - meet with vision therapist, do in-office exercises and learn tasks that will be home assignments
five days per week (besides the in-office visit) - complete home assignments (it was mentioned it should take me a half hour, but so far it usually takes closer to forty minutes per day)

repeat for 12 weeks

see developmental/behavioral optometrist, review progress.

At that point, in the thirteenth week, I will probably be told that I will begin a new 12-week session of therapy.

Another thing I was wondering about before I began vision therapy, that I would imagine readers would be interested in, is cost. I did get bad news regarding insurance coverage of the therapy (due to my deductible), but the following is kind of a guide (but will probably vary due to geography).

first meeting/consultation with developmental optometrist - $196 (she spent over two hours with me)
one-hour in office vision therapy session with board certified therapist (not the optometrist) $76 each
progress check/consultation with developmental optometrist in 13th week - approx $100

I borrow the supplies/materials needed for the in-home exercises at no extra charge. I don't know if this is typical or not.

In conclusion, it's going to be a costly venture. However, I have never been in a medical office where I really felt like everyone (from the receptionist to the doctor) was really there to serve. They knew me by name from day one. The office manager submits everything to insurance for me, even though the doctor is out of network for my plan. They actually return your calls. The doctor took the time to entertain all my concerns and really listened, as I said, for over two hours. When was the last time you spent hours one-on-one with a doctor?

My next post will show you what I've been doing for my at-home exercises. Included will be some super nerdy photos that I had my sister take. Stay tuned!