Mr. and Mrs. Chaoui-Gasco
- Posted on: Dec 27 2016
Dear Dr. Hillier and staff:
We are writing this letter to express the gratitude we feel for all you have done to our daughter Laetitia. Laetitia, 7 year old, has been having strabismus problems since she was a baby (accommodative esotropia with farsightedness and astigmatism). When she was 18 months old, she had surgery to fix her convergence excess. After the surgery, her eyes looked straight with still a small remaining inward angle. But several months later, she developed a dissociated vertical deviation on both eyes. When she was tired or mainly when she was looking up, the right or left eye was drifting up. She also had amblyopia in one eye, no binocular vision at all and consequently no depth perception. Her problems were not only cosmetic but also functional.
By the time she was 6 and a half years old, Laetitia was followed by an ophthalmologist. He told us that the only option we had was to do another surgery on both eyes for the vertical deviation problems. Another ophthalmologist told us she would never have binocular vision and the vertical deviation could come back a couple of years after the surgery! We were really scared to have another surgery, knowing that maybe she would need a third one, and so on… At this point, we started to loose hope at the idea of fixing her eye problems.
Trying to find an alternative to surgery, we discovered Vision Therapy through our searches on Internet. You were the first Doctor who told us that it was not a muscle problem but that she mainly needed a re-education of her brain to learn how to control her eyes. Also, you explained to us that the result could not be only cosmetic by having the eyes looking straight, but also functional by getting a binocular vision! For the first time, you gave us a real hope on fixing her strabismus problem, and this without any surgery!
Today, after several months of therapy, the results are awesome. Laetitia is fully able to control her vertical deviation. Her eyes look straight and she now has binocular vision! You made her see depth perception for the first time in her life! We know that binocular vision is an important ability that will also help her at providing long-term ocular alignment. She also improved her balance and her vision. Her amblyopia problem has been fixed. The result is really impressive. You have been able to fix both her cosmetic and functional problems!
Knowing that you re-educated both her brain and eye system, we are now relieved that she didn’t have to go through an eye muscle surgery to fix an intermittent problem. We can easily imagine that not having straight eyes can have major consequences on self-confidence and self-esteem as a teenager or as an adult. We are convinced you made a tremendous difference in Laetitia’s life. You gave her the best gift she could ever have!
Thank you so much for all your help and work. We will never forget everything you have done. You have changed our life and especially Laetitia’s for the best.
Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. Chaoui-Gasco