“If it wasn’t for vision therapy, I would be bedridden.”

My name is Heather. I am twenty seven years old and I am several months into my vision therapy program.

My health problems started when I was fifteen. I suddenly started to have severe attacks of vertigo almost daily. Before I knew it, I felt extremely dizzy and off balance every second of every day. My head felt like it was going to explode all the time. After several months I could no longer keep up with high school. I had gone from being an honor roll student to having report cards full of Ds and Fs. No matter how hard I tried, I could no longer track the lines I was reading. If I managed to read something, I could no longer remember it.

During my teenage years, my parents took me to many specialists. I went through extensive testing, including MRIs and inner ear testing. I was diagnosed with an inner ear virus and then with migraine associated vertigo. I tried medications and dietary changes. Nothing worked.

In the meantime, the constant dizziness was taking a toll on the rest of my body. I developed chronic fatigue syndrome at the age of seventeen. When I was eighteen I started having sharp headaches behind my eyes. Treatments for these secondary illnesses did not help either. After several years I lost my confidence in the medical profession, so I gave up.

It wasn’t a surprise that when my optometrist suggested I try vision therapy, I was incredibly skeptical. Wouldn’t anyone be after putting in thousands of hours and dollars without getting anywhere? Regardless, I can’t express how glad I am that Dr. Davis was persistent in helping me. At the age of twenty I embarked on a ten month journey of vision therapy and my entire life changed! I went from being housebound and sometimes bedridden to being able to work full time and get my driver’s license. I even started taking college classes – and doing well.

Out of all the health professionals I saw, Dr. Davis was the only one who could explain to me why I had so much dizziness and fatigue. Out of all the treatments I’ve tried, vision therapy has been the only one to give me relief. For about four years, I felt great and had my life back. Unfortunately, at the age of twenty four, the dizziness and fatigue unexplainably came back. I saw more specialists, had more testing, and tried more treatments. Just like during my teenage years, nothing worked. I had to quit school and my job. I also had to give up driving.

For several months now I have been staying three hours away from my husband and my home so I can receive vision therapy treatment through Dr. Davis’ office. Already I feel better than I have in three years. My goal is to be able to go back to school, to work, and to drive again. When I go back to school I will be studying Developmental Optometry. I am seeking answers to why my vision did not develop properly and what caused my visual system to go downhill again. My dream is that vision therapy will become as mainstream, as medication, so that no one will have to wait as long as I did for the correct diagnosis – and relief.

Heather S.