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Top Takeaways and Highlights of the COVD 2023 Annual Meeting
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Jun 8, 2023
Denise Allen of the Healing Our Sight podcast, and I were able to join with optometrists and vision therapists from around the world at the annual meeting in Toronto, Canada. We learned, were inspired, and had a ton of fun! In this video we share our top takeaways that we learned while we were there. Links: Strabismus Solutions https://learn.strabismussolutions.com Healing Our Sight Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healing-our-sight/id1508838200
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Hello, this is Mosa Daniels with Stripismus 2 Stereopsis
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In today's video is going to be a little bit different. My friend Denise Allen and I were able to go to the COVD Convention in Toronto, Canada
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last week and rubbed shoulders with all of these amazing optometrists and vision therapists
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and she wanted to talk about it on her podcast, so I decided to throw a recording of it up here as well
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In case, some of you wanted to know a little bit more about what the experience was like
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and some of the big things that we learned while we were there. If you want more information about Stribismis, about vision therapy, head over to my website
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strabismusolutions.com, and I will see you there. And without further ado, here is our interview
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Welcome today to the Healing Our Site podcast. This is your host, Denise Allen
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Today I have a special guest, Melissa Daniels, and you're going to all think while you've had her on
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before. But this is a really special episode because Melissa and I had an awesome experience last
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week, didn't we, Melissa? Yes, it was amazing. We went to the COBD conference in Toronto, Canada
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and just basically partied with all of the brilliant vision therapy people for a week and who was
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the greatest? We did. And Melissa, as you probably know, if you paid attention to what she does
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doesn't do anything halfway. So when she says we partied with them, it's true
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She let them do all of the stuff to her, didn't you
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Oh, yes. I was definitely the model for the Strabismas class. They just experimented
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I felt like I was like under a microscope and everyone was watching, trying to figure out what my eyes were doing and they would get excited when they did weird things
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because my eyes were doing all the weird stuff they read about in textbooks
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but hadn't seen in real life. Yeah, it was perfect for them. They were probably so grateful that you showed up. Probably
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What was your favorite thing that you learned in those classes, Melissa? My, I think my biggest takeaway from, especially the first like two days where it was all about strabismus is that my optometrist was right all along, but he's been trying to get me to do. And I'm like, no, I want to wear red and green glasses. And I want to do anti-suppression
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play Tetris and all of those things that are definitely a little bit more popular things like
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the Brock string. And those are all really central activities. And you have to have like perfect
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central alignment, which I don't have. And the more I learned in those classes, I just realized
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it's the peripheral fusion. That is where you have to start. You have to get your peripheral
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to fuse together. And then it slowly works in and you can eventually get central, but you cannot
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start there and that has to come kind of as a byproduct instead of the focal point. And so all the
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ways that they're talking about treating amblyopia, strabismus, it's all changing. Instead of getting
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each eye strong on its own, it's all about getting them working together first. So that was really good
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for me to hear my optometrist has been telling me this, but I didn't always listen. So to hear from
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someone else was like, okay, wow, everyone is saying this, there's probably some validity there
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exactly that was an idea that was really central to the class that I did too was getting the
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peripheral really good and getting everything integrated really well too because it included
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all the body movement part that we do some of excuse me but maybe not as much as
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we should even you know right maybe that that body integration part is a bigger piece than
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any of us realize and that's, you know, another component that we should be looking at
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And then we kind of got snippets of information from the shorter classes, right
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on the other day since they were an hour at a time, an hour and a half class
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which was a little harder to go deep on. Yes. They still tried to go deep
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It just went way over my head. So those ones were definitely more complicated
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there were a couple that I was able to like follow but I definitely was confused and just
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basically completely impressed watching the optometrist and vision therapist taking notes asking questions I'm like I can't even believe they can follow what's going on like these
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people are really smart and this is very sciencey I didn't expect it to be like so like fact and
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data driven and you know I guess I just didn't realize like how much science there was behind something like syntonics
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Yeah, I enjoyed the syntonics classes. Right. That doesn't mean I would know how to use them, though
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Right. But you had a big syntonics experience You should tell everyone about it It was not in the class It was in the exhibit hall which is a totally different thing So there were a couple of booths that we went to all the booths
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They were they were all great. There were a couple of them now that were specific to syntonics and one of
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them. I think I caught her when everyone else was in class. She figured out which light colors I needed
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She placed them on my points that were stressed out. So it was my left eye muscle in here that was really tight
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So she did this color here and a different color here and just kind of like acupressure kind of a thing
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And the muscles released. And then I felt so much better. I slept better
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My eyes felt better for days after. And now I'm like, I need to contact her and get those
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little light so that I can see if I can do that again
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So one of the other exciting things for me was talking to doctors and I'm a little
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self-conscious about my eyes after all of this, right? And telling them who I was and what I was about and having them say, well, were you
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ESO or EXO? And I was like, you mean you can't tell
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That's so great. That's the best news ever. Yeah, I was. ask the same question, like, what are you doing? I tell them I was a patient. And then I say
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I'm Strabismos patient. I'm a strab, as they would call me. And no one ever questioned me
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They're like, yes, you are. I'm sorry. I felt like they were staring into my soul. And I'm like, yes
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my eyes go up and down and sideways. And you never know what's going to happen with my eyeballs
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So, yeah, they definitely did not have that reaction to me, which is okay
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I actually was fine with it. All sorts of people were coming and doing the cover test where they cover, you know
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your right eye and your left eye and break suppression and see what your eyes do. And they found it very exciting what my eyes would do because I do, my eyes do all the things
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They go all the directions and like, and you have this and you have this
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And it was pretty funny. I met my hero, David Cook, as you know, because I talked about him
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all the time. But he's an optometrist. He wrote the shape of the sky for those who aren't
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familiar with him. And he is just brilliant. He understands Sturbismus on such a different level
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than other optometrists that I've read or talked to. And he just gets it and knows how to explain
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how to see the world with both eyes and kind of make that adjustment. So I definitely wrote
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him an email before we went and said, I want to meet you. Will you sign my my book and he said yes. And so when I saw him, I just went running. And he's so he's such a
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funny guy, always very eccentric, wearing fun hats and shirts. And so I just said, here it's you
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And I just got so excited. And he said, oh, you must be Melissa. And so yeah, I think I got to do a little
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mini vision therapy sessions with him two or three times throughout the weekend and even, you know
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sat by him in a couple classes where he would answer my questions and it was just so cool
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Like he talked to my doctor, gave my doctor some ideas to do with me
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So, I mean, just to be able to rub shoulders with these people was really neat
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Yeah, that was the best. It was so fun to see you able to do that
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Got to dance with him. He asked me to dance. Everything. All of it
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Yeah, it was fabulous. And I'm not as outgoing as you. I know that is shocking
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Everyone's going to be so shocked. So I had to push myself to go up to the people and say
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hey, I have this book that you wrote. Can you sign it? And of course, they graciously did so
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David Cook was not nearly as impressed. The book that I brought him wasn't the shape of the sky, though
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He wasn't. No. He wrote this. I know. This is what he wrote
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I've loved our conversations and meeting you, and you are my best friend forever, BFF
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No, he didn't say that. In my dreams, he said that. I didn't think he said that because I thought you told me what he wrote before
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That's what he meant by what he wrote. No, it was so awesome to watch Melissa go up and say, I just want to be your best friend
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He just laughed. So cute. He did laugh. I think I was just like super hyper because I was so excited to be there
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I don't know how many countless doctors would be standing there talking to me
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And then my optometrist, Dr. Dan, would be there. And they'd look at him and say, is she always like this
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So many times. And he would always say yes. Yes, she is. Yeah. It true The world needs high energy people too right Mm We talk about the exhibit hall and how much fun it was What was your favorite booth
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Well, I mean, the syntonics booth was my favorite. Yes. Okay. Fair enough
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I mean, nothing could even, well, actually, the one where they put all three together
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was pretty cool too, you know? With the therapy bed that, what was that bed called that goes around in a circle
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and you've got the headphones and the lights. Yeah, and so the idea was to integrate the vestibular
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oral, and visual together. Yeah, I just, I loved all of it because in every booth
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even if it was something that obviously I'm not going to go use right now
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because I'm pretty much done with my therapy, it was really cool to see how it's improved
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because that's why you liked the, the headset thing, right? Oh, right. I mean, the HoloLens is just phenomenal. It was so cool
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It's, if you don't know what it is, the Microsoft makes a headset. It's a HoloLens and it basically
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puts, it's like, I think it's augmented reality. It's what it's called. So like you are in the
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room that you're in and you can see it. So it's different than virtual reality. And then it projects
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this like holographic image into space. And so you can like, you know, see a Brock
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string in the room, but it's like a virtual brock string. Anyways, they have a ton of different exercises
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They go with the VTS4. You've done in office vision therapy, and they have like the VTS4 computer
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The same exercises, but as a holograph in the real world. And it was like mind blowing for me
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I definitely, like at first they wasn't really getting it. And I called Dr. Dan over and I was like, hey, can you tell them what settings to do
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And like, I don't know. Can you make this work? And so he's like, okay, do this, do that, change it to this exercise
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So he got it all set up. And then I started seeing it, the magic
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And I was getting way more depth than I've ever gotten with any other activity
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I could just feel my eyes because my eyes point in. I could feel them relaxing out as I tried to look in the distance
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With that headset, it was like the feedback was so immediate. I was able to get it so much better
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And then after I took it off is when. And it really got cool
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That's when Dr. Sanit came over. He saw that I was like, whoa, like I was a little busy
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And I'm like just kind of like a little sensory overloaded. And he put his arm around me and he took me off to the side and had me like look out into the whole exhibit hall
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And he was giving me little things. You know, I want you to look. Can you look straight forward and see this sign and see this letter
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But then can you also see this person with the red hat? And can you see this booth over here in these chairs
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And so he was kind of helping me get my peripheral locked in. And then it just kind of snapped into place
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And the stereo just all came in, the space. I mean, it was like one of those amazing stereo moments
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So super cool. I kept having those experiences all weekend. So I'm like that HoloLens, I want one
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They're not cheap. $13,000. Ooh. So they told me they'd write me a prescription for one, though
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He said, you can get one if you want. We'll sell you one. I'm like, what
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It's a little steep. Like I barely got the $300 VR headset
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So $13,000 is just not really in the budget. Yeah. And you told me I needed to go try it
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And so I did. And I think they just let me do it like they would any normal person that's not going
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to buy it, right? Because I'm not a doctor. So they put it on me
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I saw the thing out in space where you could reach out and touch it
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And then you could walk all the way around it and touch it. all of that but that they didn't do all the cool stuff to me that they did to you because you're more fun
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well and they were trying to convince dr nielsen so they knew that if they could show him how well
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it worked on his patient he'd be more enticed to buy it it did not work unfortunately he really
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wanted him to get it but he did not but um yeah it was a really cool i mean it's just awesome
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technology. I found that at so many of the booths, it's like, okay, they've had these red and green
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activities forever, but now they just are coming up with new creative ways to use them. And I thought, wow
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these people are so creative. They are constantly thinking of how can we make this more engaging for
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kids? How can we make this more effective? And it's just, it's just beautiful. You know
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you could just cry. Yes. And, you know, it was fun. It was fun
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to have my doctor there and have him come up to the booth and I was like I would like a little
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extra thing to go on on my my aperture rule that people that don't know what that is they're
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not going to understand what I'm talking about but I only have one little set of cards and you flip
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them you have to fuse them together and there were other sets of cards to put on it I was like I want that one and I want that one and I want that one And well actually I had to scale it back to two
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But the one of them that I picked was the RANDOT. And Dr. Davies said, well, that one's really hard
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And I said, uh-huh. I wanted. Yeah. Actually do it. I mean, on the easier levels, I can actually do it
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And so that will give me another challenge and it will be more interesting
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So who did you, were there certain people that you met that just you're never going to forget that were just so fun
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What was, you know, with just like meeting people and getting to know people throughout the process
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Yes. Well, and you shared your favorite person, right? Yes. So I might as well share my
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Yes. Actually, it was really cool because the two-day class, part of the reason I decided to go to it was because it was Robert
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Senate and Pilar Vergara, who I mentioned in one of my previous episodes that I had read her book
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And so I took the book with me and I was determined I was going to, well, no, hers I didn't take with me
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I wanted to take it with me. I tried to buy it. And I had it as an e-book
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And I went up to her after the class and I said, I tried really hard to buy your book as a physical copy so that I could bring it so you could sign it
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And she's so sweet. And she said, oh, it's not available as a physical copy in the United States right now
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I was like, oh, dang it. And then we just talked a little bit in our separate ways
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And then later she came up to me and she said, come talk to me. I have something for you
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And so, well, she didn't say I have something. She just said, come talk to me later. And so I went and talked to her
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And she said, I brought one copy of that book with me
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and I didn't know who I was going to give it to, and it's you
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And she had already signed it to me. And then she gave it to me. And I was like, so happy
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That was so cool. She was so much fun, too. She was
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Do you have any final words, Melissa, for this episode, what you want people to know about our experience and kind of where things are going
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maybe for you and with all of this? I think I was just
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very i mean a lot of it was what i expected it to be no exhibit hall i knew i was going to be excited
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about all of that i knew i was going to be excited to learn but i was surprised at how much i loved
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getting to know the different vision therapists and optometrists that i met they're just so genuine
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i mean the more you learn like i kind of thought oh they're specialists so they make more money
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and you know they're going to be more pompous and it's not that's not true it's like they chose
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a harder career path. They probably aren't making as much because they can't bill insurance. I mean
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there's just so many things, but they chose it anyway because it's meaningful to them. You know
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you were mentioning so many of them had eye problems and needed vision therapy, and that's
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what inspired them to go into this field. So I just love, like they were just genuine, amazing people
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that were so fun to be around. And I thought, I want to be with these people all the time. So I'm
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already like figuring out like okay i am going to be a vision therapist after all i'm like i'm going to
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figure out how to get a job at my office and maybe work one day a week or something just because it's
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such a cool profession and i just find it amazing so that was something that was really exciting to me
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to be a part of yeah i think that was one of my biggest takeaways also just how much of a
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difference it makes to actually show up be in the space with all the people
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connect with them on a very personal level. I mean, I got to meet Kalin Cushin, who I did a podcast with way at the beginning
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But to meet her in person was just awesome, you know, just in connecting with people who I tried to get through the blockade that a lot of offices have up for, you know, people like me
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Right. Because, you know, they don't want to be not focused on their work, right? Right
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So I, because I was able to show up and talk to them and talk to the office manager, meet the person, you know, there's going to be a lot of people that I'm going to be able to talk to on my podcast because we got to go and meet them
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Being there in person was amazing. Just, yeah, it was so fun
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Yeah. So thanks for inviting me or allowing me to go with you, I guess, because it was so cool that you got to receive that
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awesome award for making vision therapy visible was just great it was really fun i was very
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flattered and just it was exciting to go so thank you for coming with me so that didn't have to be by
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myself it was my pleasure really it was amazing
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