I love helping patients resolve vision and eye health problems that hold them back from achieving their goals and enjoying their lives to the fullest. My own vision and medical experiences have exposed me to not only standard optometric and medical practices, but exciting alternative methods of treatment.
During my childhood years I had perfect 20/15 vision. However, I suffered from a common binocular (eye teaming) disorder called Convergence Insufficiency (CI) that was not diagnosed and cured until my mid-twenties, despite having had an eye exam at age 19. Convergence Insufficiency made reading very challenging for me. I had eye pain, poor reading comprehension and speed, and I would often fall asleep when reading. I spent many free periods in high school at the Reading Center working to improve skills. Sadly, after several months there was no significant improvement. The reading specialist did not even recommend an eye exam!
Despite excelling on intelligence tests, I succeeded in school only by reading study materials over and over again. This could only be accomplished by foregoing most social or recreational pursuits. I graduated ninth out of eight hundred students, but at great cost socially. My struggles with reading caused me to turn away from a traditional college path and accept a generous scholarship to study drawing and painting at the American Academy of Art for four years after high school.
Years later, when I decided to go college to become an optometrist, I was forced to address the reading problem again as I was falling asleep after reading five minutes of my chemistry textbook. At last, at an optometry school clinic, the vision problem that had plagued me was discovered! I then had Vision Therapy and used reading glasses. This eliminated all the CI symptoms and reading became easy. If the CI had been diagnosed years earlier my life would have been much different.
I am always on the lookout for children–and adults– who are being held back by undiagnosed eye or vision conditions that interfere with learning and other activities. I know personally how vision problems can help or hinder a child’s future.
Early in life I also battled asthma, allergies, and undiagnosed fibromyalgia. Over the years I researched and discovered treatments that relieved my symptoms and restored me to good health. For example, I practiced and taught yoga and was successfully treated with acupuncture and homeopathy. I consequently have a profound respect for various treatment modalities beyond traditional Western Medicine.
More recently, I was cured of longstanding chronic whiplash pain through Prolotherapy1 and three plus decades of pelvic pain through physical therapy with Mary Cox, P.T. CLT.2. My youngest son was cured of chronic back and neck pain through Active Release Technique (A.R.T)3 only after many medical doctors and physical therapists had failed to help him. These are examples of alternative solutions found through research or good luck. It is that experience that I bring to the table with every patient I see.
Helping people find the right practitioner or treatment modality for their particular problem is an absolute passion for me. I see my intolerance of suffering as a boon for my patients. I will always take your complaints seriously, and aggressively seek to better your vision and eye health, including their impact on your overall wellbeing and quality of life.
REFERENCES
Prolotherapy done by the late Dr. Mark Lazarra, D.O.
Mary Cox, P.T. CLT, Costa Mesa, CA (949) 226-9681
A.R.T. done by Sebastian Gonzales, D.C. CSCS, Huntington Beach, CA (717) 502-4243