I have received blog comments, emails and even first-hand accounts of how folks have attempted various therapies and exercises that I have described along the way. I think my favorite was hearing about a close friend that was reading an update on his Blackberry and shaking his head while looking in the rear view mirror to see if his eyes moved!
While I would never wish my condition on anybody, I do sense the curiosity in others to know “what it’s like”. I would want to know, if the roles were reversed!
To satisfy your curiosity, I have put together a list of things you can try at home, at work or in the car. Let’s have a little fun with this – y’all can report back on how well you did and we will see who is able to master these mock therapy exercises!
1. DOUBLE VISION: I can’t change your vision to help you experience what double vision is like. What I can do is provide you with a couple of examples, so you can see how things look in my world. It turns out that Mitsubishi Motors has done an advertising campaign that comes pretty close to the mark.
When watching these two commercials, pay particular attention to all of the ‘mirrored effects’. When you see multiple cars, roads or any of the same images that are essentially reflections of each other – that is what I see when not wearing my prism glasses. It’s also noteworthy now that I am beginning to ‘fuse’ images that when the three cars mold into one (at the end of the first commercial), that is also very accurate for how things look when I acheive fusion.
For the record though, neither of those are my favorite commericial. That honor goes to the one below. Gets me every time!
2. INTELLIGIBILITY: Take a sip of water and then try to say your name aloud before swallowing. I still don’t have full functionality of my tongue and this is the best way for you to try and replicate my speech. By holding water in your mouth, your tongue should reflexively raise in the back of your mouth to keep you from choking. By holding your tongue in place, you will feel the difficulties in forming proper sounds to articulate your own name.
3. DOMINANT HAND: Try a whole range of activities, including signing your name, shaving, brushing your teeth and driving – all with your non-dominant hand. Warning – this will slow you down tremendously, so only attempt these activities when you have extra time.
4. SWALLOWING: Try to make a meal last an hour. It will be tough, trust me. Take tiny bites of your food and chew each one at least 20 times. Oh yeah…don’t talk while you eat either!
There really is not any good way to try and replicate my balance or gait issues (except for extreme intoxication!), so we’ll leave those off the list for now.
Remember, let me know how it goes! Good Luck!
I thought the fact you could see two of me was a good thing? Good post and for the record I’m not sure i could shew my food twice before swallowing.