Yes, the tormenting is the worst part. I can remember being teased all throughout middle school and high school. It definitely takes a toll on your well being, because you are waiting on that one loud mouth out of the group to point out your one flaw. Ughhh! It happened during childhood and it still happens as an adult from time to time. I’m just waiting on the next technological advance to save me, heh!

It’s just like, there are so many other advancements coming along–with cancers, AIDS, growing old… Why is there no easy fix for my minor problem…

And you are right, NO ONE else knows what it’s like to feel this way if they have not experienced it first hand. I wish more people were educated about anomolies like this. To them, you are cross-eyed and inferior… ABNORMAL.

I’m going in for my 4th surgery because my eye has began to drift again. I am 24 years old. Like, this is not what I want to be worrying about. I have school, work, a social life… So, yes… I’d trade in a portion of my life to “be normal” again.. lol. Well, I don’t even know what normal is… Seeing as I’ve had this since I was born. It would be nice to be on the other side of things for once.

Summer/Fall 2010, I started to look around online for info. on lazy eye treatment and came across an article (I believe it was from Mayo Clinic) that said that improvement could be made up to the age of 17! That was very inspiring even though I was already 17, because all this time, I thought there was absolutely NO hope. I researched more and found several articles that talked about video gaming while patching as being a possible way to improve the vision in the amblyopic eye. That was exciting news for me as I am somewhat of a gamer myself.

So, I began playing about 2 hours of video games (very annoying with a patch, but hopefully worth it) with a patch almost every week for about 3 months, but slowly spent less and less time playing due to schoolwork (so the next 6 months I played once in a while with a patch). Since starting this “therapy,” I can’t be sure if there was any improvement. However, I have experienced more double vision than before. Because of the double vision, every few days, I would be forced to patch and wear glasses so I could continue studying without seeing double (during the spring 2011 semester). I would assume that having more double vision is a good sign because that means both eyes are working. The problem is that they have not yet learned to work together!

Since mid-summer 2011 I have not done much video games with patching…Again, due to the busy schedule. Fall 2011 rolled by and I did even less of the video games with patching.

In the fall 2011, I learned more about the Nintendo 3DS even though I never was interested in the Nintendo DS or handheld gaming in general. I had heard/seen advertisements of Nintendo’s latest handheld (3DS), but it wasn’t until recently (after coming across an article online that said that the 3DS could be a tool to DETECT amblyopia) that I became rather interested from an eye therapy standpoint. The idea of the article was that if you can’t see the 3d effect on the 3DS, you may very well have amblyopia. Now, I thought…Well, has there been any research done to see if the 3DS is something that could help improve vision in a different way that the DS? So far, I have not found anything. At this point, I really didn’t have any idea how this would all work, but since then I have come up with some ideas.

First of all, there seems to be some support showing that playing a gaming system (and more notably the DS which requires you to look back and forth between the bottom and top screens) with or without a patch has been successfully used in treating amblyopia. Now, the 3DS is basically an improved DS with the capability of adding 3D effect if you wish (the depth slider). One idea I have is to play the 3DS (with 3D off) with a patch to at least start getting the lazy eye used to working. Every so often, try without the patch and with 3D on full and when you start seeing some of the depth, play some with the 3d on and no patch. But keep playing some without 3d and with patch. Gradually play less with patch and more with 3d until you can play the whole time with 3d and no patch.

The first time I played the 3DS (demo at a store), I played for about 5 minutes with 3d on full (no patch, of course). I couldn’t really see the 3d much, but I could tell something was different than 2d. But soon after finishing, I had a headache and my lazy eye was really tired and it kinda hurt! Needless to say, I was elated and very happy for that! Because, the fact that my good eye did not feel any discomfort at all and my lazy eye was so sore (it lasted about 18 hours!!!) told me that my lazy eye was being used just in that 5-minute period of playing the 3DS! So, I bore the discomfort with an excited grin.  Btw, several times a month (the days when I study/read the most), my GOOD EYE (non-lazy) gets tired! So, the fact that my bad eye got so noticably tired/sore and especially in such a short time was VERY unusual and quite a dramatic change.

Well, I now have my very own 3DS and am looking forward to making some vision improvement with it or at least keep my lazy eye from getting worse. So far, I’ve experimented a little bit with the 3D effect and found that I can see the 3D. It is difficult and takes some focusing and the 3D needs to be on full blast. Also, my cousin (20 y.o.) has amblyopia in his right eye. His amblyopia is worse than mine and he too could see the 3D effect when I showed the 3DS to him recently. Neither of us could understand why we could see the 3D on the 3DS but could not see 3D in real life! Anyways, it’s about time I wrap it up ‘cause this post is already very long. But, please read if you’re interested, let me know what you think, give me warnings/suggestions, and if you are a gamer or have a 3DS or might get one, comment please! I’d love to hear from you all! Don’t give up…EVER…and Happy New Year!

Whatever treatment showed any hope I went and applied to my eyesight- leading only to disappointment after disappointment.

Right now my double vision has been aligned after a month of treatment and a couple more months of training is yet required to “graduate” from doctor Yang’s vision therapy facility.

However, what is amazing are the results…… never in my life was I able to control double vision but within a month double vision is gone and now working on improving the vision of the amblyopic eye. 

I’m posting this comment on the website because I know how many people out there suffer from vision problems and can make living life difficult. Doctor Yang’s vision therapy clinic is very hidden and located in Seoul—– perhaps those who are in search of a treatment for their vision problems can find it