How vision therapy is saving Stella’s toes, and then some.

The hardest working toes in the business (of running around)

Stella is a toe-walker.

She’s been tiptoeing around for as long as I can remember. Prancing, really. Her gait has been so bouncy and adorable, so evocative of a little ballerina, that her physical effervescence has charmed even sour onlookers. I’ve been kindling a small flame of worry about her overworked and constantly clenched toes, despite an inner voice that told me to stop looking for trouble where there was none…

Fast forward a few dizzying toddler months. Sail past the great eye-crossing incident of 2010 and whiz by the diagnoses of strabismus/accommodative esotropia, hyeropia, anisometropia and amblyopia. Jump to Stella’s first appointment with her developmental optometrist, Dr. Torgerson (“Dr. T”) of Alderwood Vision Therapy Center. (‘Bout time I named her–we’re very lucky.) Upon meeting Stella, having taken her hand in the waiting room and led her to the exam room, Dr. T noticed that Stella walks on her toes. (Note: Stella’s ophthalmologist never noticed, or at the very least never mentioned, this.) During that consultation, Dr. T placed yoked prism goggles over Stella’s regular specs. Stella’s toe-walking was completely eliminated. She walked flat, instantly. No. Joke.

Click here to read the entire post.  Thanks Amber for sharing your beautiful daughter’s vision therapy story through your magnificent writing!

Thanks Dr. T, my colleague and friend for all you do and who you are!

By:  Lynn F. Hellerstein, Colorado Optometrist in Vision Therapy