For part 1, click here

For part 3, click here

Jaws will Drop

 I’m in the dentist chair, The room slowly get darker and darker. I feel my mouth open, and I wasn’t sure what would happen next.

Then Dr. Schnell places the necessary goup in my mouth to get an impression for my splint. I bite, and out comes the finish product.

Before the impression was taken, Ron came in and explained what he was hoping to accomplish. He wanted to fit me for a gelb splint to give my tongue some space to move in my crowded mouth. This splint would also help bring my mandible forward.

Dr. Schnell: “Is he neutral right now?”

Ron: [throws a towel over my eyes and sets my neck in a lordosis] “Now he is.”

And with that, the above sequence occurred and I was ready for vision.

I couldn’t leave the room without that overarching reminder Ron gave me:

Ron: “Margo, if this was your son, what would you do with those wisdom teeth?”

Dr. Schnell: “I’d have them pulled.”

Yikes!

An Eye Opening Experience

 It was so much fun watching Ron and Heidi teach together, that I could only imagine what it was like seeing them treat.

They did not disappoint.

My session was getting videotaped for their marketing department, so I again told them my story. It ought to end up on the Internet sometime, so stay tuned for that!

They began the session by showing some of my mobility limitations:

• HG IR: 20-30 degrees bilaterally, if that
• HG horizontal abduction: 15 degrees bilaterally.
• SLR: 30-40 degrees bilaterally.
• Adduction drop/obers: + bilaterally.
• Passive hip abduction: 30ish degrees bilaterally.
• Cervical axial rotation: 10 degrees left.
• Cervical sidebending: limited right.

The intervention consisted of me trying different lenses, walking, and retesting.

Each lens gave the environment and me a completely different feel. Some lenses made me shift most of my bodyweight to the left, some would make me feel shorter, and some would tighten my neck or my back.

Almost every time they gave me a different lens my tests would change. HG IR would go to 70 degrees one time, then 90, then back to 70. Straight leg raise steadily increased until it got to 90; crazy changes just with glasses.

Ron: “See that’s not fair, she [Heidi] knows more than me.”

The big tests for them, regarding when they knew they “had me,” were the standing global-orbital rotation (SGOR) and standing cranial tilt test (SCT). The former looks at transverse plane activity, and the latter frontal.

The SGOR came fairly quickly from what I remember. Many lenses had a hard time getting me to my left heel, but eventually the right pick was found.

The SCT was a little different beast. I was fairly solid from the waist down, but once neck movements were into play I had a much harder time maintaining my balance; at least without the glasses on. Once they found me the right pair, I was golden. Fully neutral and near-master of the frontal and transverse plane.

The Hardest Vision Test Yet

 Heidi and Ron were pleased with the choices made for my training glasses, but Heidi’s largest worry was having me maintain neutrality while I read. A bulk of my day consists of documenting at the computer, writing, and reading books/journal articles. She knew that I needed to be rock-solid there.

I had my first vision exam a month or so before I trekked to Lincoln, and my results were “unremarkable” to my optometrist. I am slightly hyperopic in my right eye (+0.50 for you optometry nerds) and myopic (-0.25) with a slight astigmatism in my left eye. My clarity is 20/20, so I can see fine, but Heidi felt that I had some marked left eye dominance. The above measures are a normal in the PRI pattern.

This dominance was very evident with my reading. Heidi had me sit and read a magazine while she watched me scan the print. She noted that my eyes do not work well together. I knew this very much so, as I always felt a difficult time converging on a very close object.

We would try various lenses while she asked me what it was like reading. The strangest thing happened once she put +0.50 in my right eye and +0.62 in my left eye.

I was retaining what I was reading.

That is the best way I can explain what I felt. I oftentimes had to read passages multiple times to comprehend, and thought nothing of it. I thought this was “normal,” and perhaps it was. But for the first time in my life, I had minimal eye strain while reading, and what I was taking in seemed to “stick” a little better.

That was the show for me. Sure, having better shoulder mobility is cool, but the fact that I can read more efficiently? Amazon will for sure stay in business now.

An Unreal Day 2

 So that ended my day treatment. I had upcoming 2 prescriptions for glasses, a splint, and some exercises to do.

But what exercises did Ron Hruska give? What will Zac’s splint look like? All will be answered in part 3.