Ataxia eye exercises?

[EireAtaxic]

Are there any recommended eye exercise for ataxia sufferers?

[wobblybee]

I’ve had a lot of treatment at my local Hospital Eye Clinic, and at one time I was asked to do these exercises to exercise my eyes and try and help reduce double vision. The Barrel Card looks like a stiff card ruler, the idea is to hold it horizontally under your nose, initially focusing on the furthest away circle...Another exercise..hold a pencil at arms length, eye level, focus on the tip or eraser, slowly bring it increasingly nearer your nose..

If your sight is greatly affected by double vision, an Optician can put Prisms in your glasses to help restore normal vision. Sometimes it’s necessary to be referred to an Eye Clinic to be seen by a Neuro Opthamologist.

Barrel Card

The barrel card trains the eyes to turn in together, or converge, to view a near object.

To begin, hold the barrel card parallel to your nose so the circles are aligned horizontally, and the largest circles are furthest away from the nose. Close each eye. One eye will see red circles, while the other will see green ones. Adjust as necessary to ensure that each eye sees the same amount of the card and there is no tilt. Now, focus your eyes on the circles furthest away from you. The two images should overlap, producing a single red-green circle. After 5 seconds, shift your gaze to the middle circle. Finally, move your gaze to the smallest closest circle. It is important to note that the circles which you are not focused on will appear double; this is normal. Once you have completed one cycle, relax your eyes. You should work up to completing 10 cycles, holding for 10 seconds on each of the three circles.

[EireAtaxic in reply to wobblybee]

I'll start tomorrow thanks. I have the prisms in my glasses.

If I am moving and I move my eye's either way it can make me unbalanced.

[wobblybee in reply to EireAtaxic]

Prisms can give great results, just as long as you look straight ahead..I found that if I glanced from side to side, I was unbalanced..My eyes seemed to bounce off the Prism ..and it was worse if I was walking.Turn your head in the direction you’re looking, focus on looking straight ahead, don’t swivel your eyes..

[BlanketTime1 in reply to wobblybee]

i did eye exercises for over a year and had no improvement. in fact, my double vision worsened. did the exercises work for you wobblybee ?

[wobblybee in reply to BlanketTime1]

It was a process I went through when receiving treatment, and it can be helpfu depending on the severity..I’d had Iritis, which looks similar to Conjunctivitis but is much more serious. I went on to try a Botox injection to help tighten the muscle, this can be very effective for some people, unfortunately it didn't produce good results for me and I eventually had Strabismus Surgery.

[BlanketTime1 in reply to wobblybee]

interesting. i also have dystonia and have heard about botox uses on that board. i might have to visit my optometrist once we get through winter and higher covid risk season.

[EireAtaxic in reply to wobblybee]

Where can I get a barrel card?

[wobblybee in reply to EireAtaxic]

🙂 I was given one at the hospital Eye Clinic..It was graded in similar fashion to a ruler.

You could ask your Optician..

It’s possible to make your own..

Draw three red barrels of increasing sizes on one side of a card.

Repeat in green on the other side of the card.

Hold the card against the nose so that the largest barrel is farthest away.

Stare at the far barrel until it becomes one image with both colors and the other two images have doubled.

Maintain the gaze for about 5 seconds.

Repeat the exercise with the middle and smallest images.

Or, you can print one..

Search ‘barrel cards printable’

[jomo50]

Thanks to comments from wobblybee I went into hospital just before the pandemic and had one of my eyes adjsted surgically. It proved a tremendous success.

[nigelrheath]

What wobbly bee describes is based on the Bates method and the following link may prove helpful. I do something similar every day during my yoga .rebuildyourvision.com/wp-co...

Nigel