Success Stories

Jack was diagnosed with lazy eye and I was told by a different eye doctor that full correction wasn’t possible and that vision therapy would not work. I found Dr. Lorenzana, who believed in the brain’s plasticity. After a course of vision therapy, his vision went from seeing 20-50 to 20-20 with minimal correction....

My name is Adam. I’m 17 years old and I go to South Elgin Highschool. I’ll be a Senior this year. I enjoy being with friends. I like to play sports; I play football specifically. I like to cook and watch movies. I like Disney movies. Through my dad, his dad, and my brother, we’ve all had the same problem with comprehension and reading.  Then through football I’ve also had 3 concussions, so that kind of amplified the genetics a lot more. So, I was having a lot of problems just reading things. I could read a menu but I couldn’t tell you a single thing I read. I didn’t comprehend anything and I didn’t understand. I really had to focus on words for them to not go all over the place. It was frustrating. Especially when in school you’re trying to type a paper or do something so simple. Some kids read a paragraph in less than 30 seconds, and I was spending more than 10 minutes on it. So, I came here for that reason, to basically relearn how to read and comprehend things. I didn’t believe in Vision Therapy at first. When my dad was talking about it, he said, “They’ll fix this problem in like 3 months, you’ll go back to normal.” I didn’t believe it. I’ve had this problem for so long, that I didn’t really know what reading normal was. I am seeing now that when I read something online or I’ll read a part in a magazine that it is so much easier now. I never really understood it. The top two things that have been impacted were focusing and reading. By focusing I mean that if a ball was coming to me, I could catch it, no problem. It would be just fine. And focusing in class. Being able to sit through a physics class and be excited to learn and know what I am learning instead of being all over the place. With reading, as I said earlier how some kids would take 30 seconds on a passage and I would take over 10 minutes.  I would be up there with the 30 seconds and I would be along with everybody else. I wasn’t straggling behind. Along came with my grades. I did have to work hard for my grades, no doubt, but I didn’t have to work 2 times as hard as everybody else. All of Vision Therapy surprised me. I didn’t believe it at first. Slowly drill by drill and process by process it all came together. I enjoyed my time. I had a great time. I made some great relationships. All of it surprised me. It was really good. Everything is different. This means I don’t have to be nervous if I’m at a job and my boss says, “Hey I need you to read this 10-page paper. Tell me what you thing about it. Then you write a paper on it.” Or, “Let me know what you think about it.” I don’t have to be nervous and I don’t have to have a bunch of anxiety about just a double-sided paper anymore. I am at ease a lot more and I know what I am doing. I’ll be more confident in the future with reading and writing and just in myself. Working with Dr. Lorenzana and her staff was awesome. I made some great relationships. I always looked forward to coming in with Angie especially, just to banter with her about food all of the time. In the end she got me tacos. She is super sweet and amazing and I had an amazing time. After Alex started vision therapy, his reading levels jumped seven levels and his symptoms disappeared. Dr. Lorenzana is not only extremely knowledgeable, but very compassionate and truly rooting for your child’s success....

My name is Holly and I am a second year at the University of Chicago. I am 19 years old. I was born with Bilateral Retinoblastoma, so I was born with tumors in both of my eyes. I was treated with a number of treatments for 2 years, and because of that I am legally blind in my left eye and have damaged vision in my right eye.  I wear contacts, but my vision is only correctable to a certain acuity. With my right eye, I came in here with about 20/80 vision. I had done vision therapy in the past, but it only trained the muscles in my eye. I had done that so that I could drive legally unrestricted. I had gotten down to 20/40, but because it was only muscles training therapy, I regressed back to 20/80. I definitely noticed that in my inability to read a lot of things at a distance. With my left eye, I never actually had a measureable prescription. I was just told that I was legally blind. I could kind of see fingers, shapes, and colors but in general it was a very voluntary movement with my left eye. I had to “turn on” my left eye, almost like a light switch. Once I came in I was measured at 20/640. My right eye is the only eye that I use to function, so I don’t really have depth perception. I have monocular cues that I have used to create depth in the world, but I have no understanding of what everyone else sees.  I guess growing up, I felt that the most in that I couldn’t really catch things that well, so gym class was really hard. Or seeing a 3D movie. Judging distances, I’ve just had to figure out how to do it on my own, but I feel like I can’t do it the way everyone else does it. As a kid I was really stubborn, so I refused to wear glasses. My vision was over 20/100, so everything was blurry. But because you’re a little kid, you don’t really know. So I had one eye that was really fuzzy, but that was kind of working. When I was able to get contacts, I only wore a single contact in my right eye and I corrected to about 20/80. I could read. My close up vision was good, so I could read things fine. In school I sat at the front of every classroom. Textbooks I would hold really close to my face. As a kid I sat right in front of the TV, I could never sit on the couch. In general everything had to be close to my face. Making eye contact was the hardest thing for me, being self-conscious about that. I had a lazy eye originally in my left eye where it would drift off and I would be cross eyed looking at people. As a little kid I wouldn’t know I was doing that and people would think I was trying to be funny or disrespectful.  I had a corrective surgery when I was 7, so that my lazy eye would follow the right eye.  It was always a little bit off still and would drift. Because of that, when I was making eye contact with people, they would always look over their shoulder or behind them. They would get a confused look on their face. I recognized that they didn’t know where I was looking and that it made them uncomfortable. When someone else is uncomfortable, you get uncomfortable, and everyone feels awkward. So, making eye contact definitely is something that I’ve had to learn to try to do the best for myself. At the same time, I can’t do it the same way everyone else does. Trying to have a conversation, especially going into being an adult professionally, has always been something that inhibited me. Also, with judging faces, I can only recognize somebody at about a 7-10 foot distance. I can see clothing and hair type or gender. I could say, “I see this women with curly hair, and I know it’s my mom.” Or, “I see this tall guy, and I know it’s my brother. “ But for me to recognize students at school or friends of mine, I can’t see someone on the quad and say, “Oh hey, how are you?” Like I said, if they’re more than 10 feet away, they’re just not there. I feel like I miss out a lot socially because of that. Or even if someone on their phone has something, and they say, “Hey, look at this!” I can’t. It’s too much work for me to look at it and see it. So I just try to fake it and let the moment pass. Also, I don’t really read anything these days because it is too much work. At the University of Chicago we have hundreds of pages of reading; it’s a really rigorous course load. I take a full load but I do all my reading auditorily because I can’t keep up. I read slower; I only read with one eye. I don’t know how other people read with two eyes.  I have no conception of it myself. I am currently a MS2 ROTC cadet, but I am not contracted, which means that I do everything that all the other kids at my university do that are in the ROTC Army program. I was looking at getting a scholarship and I wanted to sign the paperwork so that I could serve in the army once I graduate. I was told that I had to do a medical, and because I have run into issues like I said with driving, I knew there would be a vison test and I wanted to understand what that was all about. I was told that I had to go see a doctor that they would assign to me and that I would have to pass...

My daughter is Kate. She is in kindergarten and she is 6 years old. She goes to Lincoln Elementary in Hoffman Estates. She was diagnosed with a lazy eye and astigmatism; in one eye more than the other. I am under the impression that that is what was causing the lazy eye. Prior to Vision Therapy, she had spectacles, and it was recommended that she wear the spectacles until she got use to them to see if it would remedy that, but it didn’t. We went to a different Ophthalmologist with a recommendation and she recommended patching. So, we did patch for a little bit. Since therapy, her confidence has gotten a lot better. She was able to graduate speech. So she is speaking at her age level. Reading has always been a struggle. She just started kindergarten and it was really hard for her because she couldn’t see. As we went into therapy, I noticed that her math and math comprehension skills have gotten very strong. It was really good. Reading is coming along, it is just not as fast as it is math; she is really fast in math. I didn’t know very much about Vision Therapy. I knew it existed, but I didn’t know who was a perfect candidate for vision therapy. I really wasn’t aware. I would most definitely recommend Vision Therapy. I loved working with Dr. Lorenzana and her staff....

My name is Suzanna and my son is Scott. He will be turning  13, so during therapy he was 12. Scott has been coming to Dr. Lorenzana since he was 4 years old. When he was in preschool, they told me that he couldn’t see and that he needed glasses. I found Dr. Lorenzana and since then he has been coming so it has been quite a few years. She has been his eye doctor since day one. She, along with me, noticed that his vision was not improving with glasses. She had offered Vision Therapy when he was 11, and I declined because I really didn’t see that he needed it. After being in 7th grade I noticed that his grades were falling, especially in reading and math. And the way he walked and in sports. When I brought him for his eye test that’s when I noticed that he wasn’t passing his test and he wasn’t able to see. That’s when I made the decision myself to go with Vision Therapy. I did talk to someone before making my decision that brought her daughter here and I asked her, “Is it worth it? Is it okay?” She totally recommended it and said, “Yes, go for it because the improvement is radical.” So that’s when we decided to bring him to therapy. After about a month that is when I totally noticed the way he was walking, the way he was sitting, his reading, and his math. That’s when everything started improving greatly. After therapy was almost over he told me that his reading teacher was telling him, “Scott, whatever your parents are paying for this is so worth it! You’re at the level you should be”, which I was so thankful for. When I had put him to read you could tell that he was struggling and stuttering. And now when I put him to read he goes on and on and reads like he should be. In math his teacher was said, “Whatever help you need, I’ll give it to you.” She was enlarging the numbers for him on his worksheets. Then she came back and said, “His vision has improved greatly. He understands what I am saying because now he is able to see everything.” He goes to a chiropractor and he even noticed. When he saw him after coming to therapy he said, “What it is that you’re doing?” I told him that he was going to vision therapy and he stopped everything and sat down and asked me about it. Scott is tilted to the left, because of the way he was born. He thought it was his muscle, and he is very tense in his muscle, so he was getting therapy. He would get better, but then he would go back, because of his vision. He couldn’t pinpoint that. He said, “Thankfully you told me this, because now I know that if a patient isn’t improving with what I am doing, it is because of something having to do with their vision, especially the upper neck. He saw his posture and he said that he could actually adjust him with him struggling and his body fighting because of his posture, muscle and vision. I just brought him back and he said it again, “This Vision Therapy has done wonders for him. Look at the way he is walking. I don’t have to adjust him as much anymore. He is straight” He even bought a belt for him to keep him straight and he told me that he doesn’t need it anymore, because of him and especially the Vision Therapy. Scott says he is able to shoot better in basketball. In school he doesn’t have trouble as much. So he is also very appreciative of the outcome of all of this. At first I was I was unsure, but after seeing it, I was knew it was so worth it. It was the best decision I have ever made. At first I was unsure about the money because insurance doesn’t cover it. It would all come out of my pocket. This is my son. This is his future. Either I do something for him now, or let him struggle for the rest of his life. So I decided to do him a favor and help him now, and for the future as well. Once he becomes an adult this is going to help him in college, or whatever it is he decides to do in life. That is why I decided. It’s for his good. Working with Dr. Lorenzana and her staff was great. They’re awesome. Ashely was his therapist and they became great friends. If I wasn’t able to make it to an appointment they were really helpful and scheduled another appointment. For other parents, I would say go for it. Do it. It is for your kid. You want your kid to succeed in school and succeed in life, and in everything in general. Like Dr. Lorenzana says, everything starts with the eyes. If you’re going to read, walk, do anything- it starts with your eyes. If your eyesight is not there, you are not going to be great at it. I would say go for it. Don’t doubt it at all. I did, and I doubted not doing it earlier, but he did it at the age of 12 so he understood exactly and was easy to work with....

My name is Scott and I am 12, going to turn 13. I came into the doctor and they told me that my vision hasn’t been getting better. So they decided to take me into vision therapy. I was having trouble with school and playing sports. After vision therapy I could read better and I did better on tests. I could read and know what I read and I can shoot baskets now. Working with a therapist was great. They taught me everything I know about vision therapy. I liked working with Dr. Lorenzana. Vision Therapy isn’t scary, it is actually pretty fun once you get used to it....