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Through a Patient’s Eyes: ‘This Has Been the Answer to All of Our Prayers’
Home Icon / Articles / Through a Patient’s Eyes: ‘This Has Been the Answer to All of Our Prayers’

Through a Patient’s Eyes: ‘This Has Been the Answer to All of Our Prayers’

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As hard as it may be to believe, people can have shadowed or double vision and never even realize it. This is especially true for children, who are used to seeing one way which to them is “normal.” While to the casual observer, it may seem that these people function just fine despite their condition, they don’t see the side effects of the stress that double vision puts on the visual system. This can manifest in the form of headaches, dizziness and nausea, anxiety, clumsiness  and difficulties with reading and learning in general.

Seeing the World as It’s Meant to Be Seen

As parents, our natural tendency is to rush in and fix things any time our children are struggling. For a young boy named David, despite his parents’ best efforts to get him the care he needed – which included three eye surgeries, vision therapy and visits to a pediatric ophthalmologist and occupational therapist – he continued to struggle in school and return home each day exhausted. That is, until they found Vision Specialists of Michigan. David’s mom describes their experience here:

“This has been an amazing experience. We worked very hard to try to find [David] the help that he needed. Several ophthalmologists, several surgeries that were failed. We also did vision therapy, which helped for a while but was not a complete solution to this. And as a parent, you just want your child to have the best vision possible, to be able to see the world the way it’s supposed to be seen, and to have an easier path in school, to not struggle so much. And we really needed to find a way to help him.

“When we first came to Vision Specialists, we knew right away after the first appointment that this was something special and that we were seeing great improvement, and it was everything that as a parent we wanted to have happen for our child. As we’ve progressed through all of this, he’s had remarkable improvement. We’ve seen improvement that we never saw prior to this. This has been exactly what we needed and exactly the answer to all of our prayers.”

Get Help for Your Child

Could your child have double vision? To schedule a NeuroVisual Examination and find out about the unique micro-prism lenses the doctors at Vision Specialists of Michigan use to treat this and other binocular vision issues, give us a call at (248) 258-9000. Alternatively, you can also fill out our online BVD questionnaire.

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  • American Optometric Association
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Dr. Sandy DiPonio earned her optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in 1996. She is a highly skilled and experienced eye care professional dedicated to giving her patients of all ages excellent and compassionate care. She has a wide variety of experience in binocular vision, pediatric and adult eye care, ocular disease and contact lens fitting. She strives to provide each of her patients the best quality of life they can achieve with their vision through knowledge and education of treatment options.

Dr. DiPonio is a member of the American Optometric Society and Michigan Optometric Society.

Dr. Sally Hoey has been practicing optometry since graduating from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001. During her time in optometry school, she developed an interest in binocular vision, culminating in a senior thesis involving binocular vision.

Prior to joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, Dr. Hoey specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of vision-related learning problems as well as other binocular vision disorders. Her other areas of interest include specialty contact lens fittings and treating dry eye. Dr. Hoey strives to provide her patients with clear, comfortable vision while meeting their individual needs at the same time.

Dr. Hoey had the opportunity to provide eye care on an optometric mission trip to Guyana, South America and vision screenings at a local medical clinic. She is a member of the American Optometric Association, Michigan Optometric Association, Metropolitan Detroit Optometric Society and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Dr. Jennifer Place graduated with honors from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001.

Before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, she specialized in treating pediatric and adult patients with binocular vision disorders and vision-related learning problems, as well as fitting specialty contact lenses and managing various types of ocular disease. She enjoys working with patients with unique visual needs, and she takes great pride in providing all patients with highly customized care.

Dr. Place has volunteered for Opening Eyes, a program that provides eye exams to the athletes of the Michigan Special Olympics, and she participated in an international mission to St. Lucia to provide eye care to those in need. Dr. Place is a member of the Detroit Optometric Society, the Michigan Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the College of Vision Development, and the Optometric Extension Program Foundation.

Dr. Mary Jo Ference has been practicing optometry since 1990 upon graduating from Ferris State University- Michigan College of Optometry, and is certified in Low Vision Rehabilitation. She has worked at Sinai-Grace Hospital systems for over 20 years before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan in 2013 to work with binocular vision disorders. Her clinical areas of expertise include visual rehabilitation of pediatric and adult patients who have suffered from brain trauma, injury or disease. She has taught both optometry and ophthalmology residents at Sinai Grace Hospital. Dr. Ference has sat on numerous boards, including Sinai Grace Hospital, Berry Out-Patient Surgical Center, and Seedlings Braille Books for the Blind. She is actively involved in area school districts to provide education, training and access for students, teachers, OT’s and PT’s to eye care service rehabilitation information. Dr. Ference has lectured extensively nationally and internationally.

Dr. Debby Feinberg began practicing Optometry in Oakland County in 1983, upon graduating from Illinois College of Optometry. She joined her father, Dr. Paul C. Feinberg, at Mall Optical Center, which was located in Summit Place Mall.

Since 1995 Dr. Feinberg has been developing the field of NeuroVisual Medicine which is the optometric subspecialty that identifies and treats neurological / medical symptoms that originate directly or indirectly in the visual system.

Dr. Feinberg has been performing pioneering work with Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD), a condition where a vision misalignment (frequently subtle) creates difficulties with the two eyes working together to create a single 3-dimensional image, and difficulties with the two eyes following that image as it moves.

The symptoms caused by BVD are not usually associated with problems with the visual system, and include headache, dizziness, anxiety and panic, persistent post-concussive symptoms, gait instability and balance problems, frequent falls, neck pain, motion sickness, nausea, and reading and learning problems.

In 2004. Dr. Feinberg established Vision Specialists of Birmingham, specifically designing the practice to accommodate the needs of the NeuroVisual Medicine patient.

In 2011, the office moved to its current location in Bloomfield Hills and updated its name to Vision Specialists of Michigan.