I discovered something interesting and I think it will help some folks as it did me. Let me back up a bit and we'll see how it comes together.
MS affected the right side of my body the earliest and the hardest. One thing was my right eye. I didn't see clearly enough to even shoot anymore with my right eye which was always the dominant one. Eventually, the right eye wouldn't focus at all and started to drift off to the side. Looks like what I would call a lazy eye.
I've gone through the past several years only using my left eye. I was grateful that it still worked and other than poor depth of field and people not being able to make eye contact with me, it was manageable. Then I went into a new place for my yearly MRI. They put me in on oxygen during the pictures. Afterward, for a couple hours, my vision was perfect and both eyes were tracking perfectly!
On my next MRI, I asked for oxygen. Same result afterwards! I knew I had discovered something for myself but I was not about to start relying on oxygen. I needed to ponder the thing for some time and see if there was something I was missing.
Some months went by and a day came when I was test driving a new wheelchair. Being quadriplegic, I drive with a mouth joystick. The trial chair had a really poor setup so I ended up basically driving with my lips wrapped tightly around the thing. This combined with the fact that the speed was set too high did the trick to make me figure things out.
With the wheelchair rep running behind me, I took off on one of my trails into the woods. I'm sure I looked pretty daring if not insane but the truth of the matter is I didn't dare try to get my lips off the joystick... I was just hanging on for dear life as the trees flashed by. I finally broke through into our food plot and was able to stop the chair.
I looked up and much to my surprise, everything was in perfect focus with both eyes! I realized I had been breathing deeply through my nose through the wild ride. Now, and for the last couple weeks, every time my right eye wanders, I take a couple big breaths (as big as I can take and hold it in for a couple seconds) It must be getting in the oxygen I need into my system because my bad eye pops right back into place.
I can sing again. I can whistle again. What a simple thing and I never thought of it! Breathing is automatic but deep breathing when you sit in a wheelchair all the time has to be more conscious, at least for me.
Sorry about the long story. Hopefully this'll help some of you out. An exciting few minutes for me but a wonderful lesson!
Don
MS affected the right side of my body the earliest and the hardest. One thing was my right eye. I didn't see clearly enough to even shoot anymore with my right eye which was always the dominant one. Eventually, the right eye wouldn't focus at all and started to drift off to the side. Looks like what I would call a lazy eye.
I've gone through the past several years only using my left eye. I was grateful that it still worked and other than poor depth of field and people not being able to make eye contact with me, it was manageable. Then I went into a new place for my yearly MRI. They put me in on oxygen during the pictures. Afterward, for a couple hours, my vision was perfect and both eyes were tracking perfectly!
On my next MRI, I asked for oxygen. Same result afterwards! I knew I had discovered something for myself but I was not about to start relying on oxygen. I needed to ponder the thing for some time and see if there was something I was missing.
Some months went by and a day came when I was test driving a new wheelchair. Being quadriplegic, I drive with a mouth joystick. The trial chair had a really poor setup so I ended up basically driving with my lips wrapped tightly around the thing. This combined with the fact that the speed was set too high did the trick to make me figure things out.
With the wheelchair rep running behind me, I took off on one of my trails into the woods. I'm sure I looked pretty daring if not insane but the truth of the matter is I didn't dare try to get my lips off the joystick... I was just hanging on for dear life as the trees flashed by. I finally broke through into our food plot and was able to stop the chair.
I looked up and much to my surprise, everything was in perfect focus with both eyes! I realized I had been breathing deeply through my nose through the wild ride. Now, and for the last couple weeks, every time my right eye wanders, I take a couple big breaths (as big as I can take and hold it in for a couple seconds) It must be getting in the oxygen I need into my system because my bad eye pops right back into place.
I can sing again. I can whistle again. What a simple thing and I never thought of it! Breathing is automatic but deep breathing when you sit in a wheelchair all the time has to be more conscious, at least for me.
Sorry about the long story. Hopefully this'll help some of you out. An exciting few minutes for me but a wonderful lesson!
Don
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