One thing I've always suffered from is headaches - ever since I was a child. They have been my constant companion these many years. It was a nuisance, but normal. I figured everyone suffered from them and were constantly feeling poorly, like I was. Oh ho, my dear readers, how wrong I was. My mom deduced that I have a condition called Scotopic Sensitivity - it manifests in different ways for each person, and for me it ended up making my brain work extra hard to have things (like letters on a page) appear normal and block out colors and shapes from appearing. My mom teaches dyslexic people how to read and does screening for Scotopic Sensitivity (also known as Irlen Syndrome), as it can play a huge factor. So, last Christmas, she screened me. I thought it was all rather silly and a waste of time. I'm not dyslexic and have always been an avid reader - often reading all day and well into the night, enthralled in a particularly thrilling novel. But, I decided to humor her. I was boggled at the things I was seeing! Part of the test was looking at pieces of white paper with letters and shapes on them for several minutes, and looking at them for that long, I started seeing shadow pictures, dots and other shapes, and surprisingly, a rainbow spectrum of colors! I started getting a headache. Mom turned on some blue-colored light bulbs and I felt immediate relief.
Long story short (again...), she said I needed to see a specialist to get specific colored glasses and contacts. Hah. Right. Like I was going to do that. It wasn't THAT bad - I'd been dealing with it for however long and could continue to do so, thank you very much. It only affected me when I looked at white paper for a long time, and why ever would I be doing that? I did buy some blue colored bulbs for my apartment, and that put an end to it.
Fast forward to late September. I'm visiting home and my mom says we could go to the Irlen specialist in Minneapolis and get special lenses. As I have nothing better to do, I agree. I can also make a direct flight back to NYC from there. Score! It's an absolutely beautiful drive - all the trees are in full Fall color, and I enjoy long drives with my mom :) Double score!
The testing itself took 3 looooooong hours, which I did not anticipate. And it just fascinated and confused me how different colors could change things - make my focus sharper, make me feel sick in an instant, make the floor look like it was slanting, make the walls curve in, be soothing to look at - just a myriad of different reactions - and all to color! I didn't understand, and I still don't. You know whenever you go to an eye store, they have those rounds discs of color? Well, the testing was having me look through a whole range of different color discs like those to find which ones helped me. And once we found one pair, we did the whole thing again to find another color that could go over the first pair, and then we did it again for a third layer. We could've added a 4th layer, but I/my eyes/brain preferred the three layers. I ended up with 1 rose, 1 blue, and 1 green (various shades of each in their particular spectrum). Those colors would be melded together to make actual lenses that would go into the new frames I'd gotten back in Appleton. We had tried to find tint-able contacts, but nowhere in Appleton sold the particular type they needed to be for the Irlen tinting.
The lady said I would need (and actually want) to wear the glasses consistently for them to work best. I was dubious about that - I only like wearing my regular glasses every so often when necessary (like at the theatre) because I don't want to become dependent on them and have my eyesight get even worse. Two weeks after being tested, my glasses arrived in the mail. Well, there they were, expensive little beasts, might as well try them out.
FLASH! BAM!! ALAKAZAM!!!!! Zing went the strings of my heart! Or rather, my brain. The Heavens opened and poured their glory. But seriously, there was an immediate difference that was simply astonishing. I always figured fluorescent lights were obnoxious and bothered everyone. Not only do they NOT bother everyone, but now they don't bother me! Whenever I start getting a headache or feel nauseous at work, reading, sitting in front of my computer, anything really - I just put my glasses on and immediately feel better! I can't believe it! And, AND! I wore them in a tap class today, and what a difference! One thing that happened (a symptom, if you were) when we were trying the difference colors, I ended up picking up my feet when I walked. I'm a shuffler. I've always shuffled when I walk - I distinctly remember one of my sisters commenting on it. It was just how I walked. I didn't think it had anything to do with the way my brain perceived and processed light waves. But apparently, it is! And I'd noticed the past few months in tap class, I would get easily frustrated and feel crappy - I knew I could tap better than what I was doing in class, but my feet just weren't cooperating and I got angry and frustrated, everything sounded so loud and looked so bright that I got a headache, and I just wanted to leave. I kept my glasses on today, and the very first things we were doing I could do so cleanly and crisply, it all just fell into place like I knew it should have been doing all along! The noise didn't give me a headache, neither did the lights, and I didn't start to feel sick halfway through!
I'm so excited that we found a way to help me, when I didn't even know I had a problem! I've become heartily sick of doctors, because I know I have issues, and I'm paying them loads of money to help fix me, and they can't - they just test, and drug, and hurt me, and then they can't figure out what's wrong or how to improve my conditions. Well, aha! My mom found out a problem AND how to help fix me. Aren't moms the best? :D