Lincoln’s Story

What brought you to EagleEye and what made you decide this was the right path to take?

We knew our son, Lincoln was having some trouble with his vision about 3 years ago. We had his eyes checked and eventually we ended up at RX Optical where the optometrist there recognized Lincoln’s issue (amblyopia) and suggested eye patching to help Lincoln with his eye. The patching only got him so far, though, and the optometrist suggested we look into eye therapy and gave me a brochure for EagleEye. My husband and I decided to check it out as we felt like Lincoln was doing better with his eye, but there was still an issue and we just couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. We wanted help and we wanted to know what was going on with our son, ultimately, we really wanted to understand what and how he was seeing and why. We were hoping that Dr. Neil at EagleEye could help us out. When we first met with Dr. Neil right away I could tell that he knew what Lincoln was experiencing and that he could help us and Lincoln. He was able to explain to my husband and me what was going on with Lincoln in a way that I had never heard before and I was so thankful that I could finally start to understand what my child was experiencing. We really felt like this was the right path for Lincoln because Dr. Neil said that he felt confident that he could help Lincoln see better and gain better control over his eye(s) with therapy. We liked that idea because it was something that was manageable and doable at home and it made sense the way that Dr. Neil explained everything.

What was the testing and therapy process like for your son? 

The testing for Lincoln was long, but very thorough. After testing his eyes and brain were tired but the thing that I gained from the testing was hope and I shared that with Lincoln and it made him hopeful too. Hope in that finally we were at a place that someone understood what was going on and how to help. Hope that he would be able to see clearly and not look through his glasses and still have everything be blurry. Hope that his eyes would be able to focus and not get headaches. The biggest hope…that he would no longer get car sick and maybe not have to wear his glasses all the time. Once we started with the therapy process it was a challenge, but a good challenge. Lincoln liked that he was able to start seeing a difference right away. I liked that he enjoyed going to therapy once a week. The team at EagleEye made it so enjoyable for him. Doing the therapy at home wasn’t always easy, but because we could see results, we kept going. Some parts of therapy he enjoyed more than others, but even at home we tried to make the not so fun parts enjoyable.

What changes have you and your son seen? 

I am so happy to say that all the things that we hoped for with therapy through EagleEye have been received. At times Dr. Neil would take the time to explain to me what was happening with Lincoln as he progressed through therapy and he was always willing to answer any questions that I had. Lincoln can see better now than ever before. He can see clearly out of both eyes at the same time! He can focus longer and that has increased his reading speed and helped him with schoolwork. He no longer gets headaches and he has not gotten car sick! He even is able to go most of the time without his glasses!!

Is there anything you would tell other parents considering vision therapy?

It’s hard to educate yourself on something when you don’t fully understand all the pieces and parts. I still don’t understand everything that Lincoln experiences (or doesn’t experience) with his eyes. I think as parents we do everything we can to fix something for our children when we know what needs to be fixed. Well, what about when we don’t know and we don’t understand. I can remember thinking that when Lincoln got his glasses I thought everything was “fixed” because when I put on my glasses I can see better, I can see how I am supposed to see. I didn’t understand that even when Lincoln had his glasses on, he was still seeing blurry. Once I realized that, I set out to figure out how to change that for him. I also knew I wanted to try options outside of surgery. Through conversations with Dr. Neil I now understand better than I ever have what Lincoln is seeing and how his brain and eyes need to work together. If you are uncertain about vision therapy please look into all your options, but come back and talk with Dr. Neil.