Technology I could use with heterophoria before and after visual therapy

In this article I would like to list all the technology that was problem free for me before my treatment of heterophoria began and also how that changed during and after the treatment.

Before I was aware of this issue and after I have noticed first problems, I could use and to this day can still use problem free these electronic devices:

-Acer 5820TG laptop with Win 7 (OS not updated much after 2014)

-Firefox as main browser until unspecified version update around 2017, then I could only use Waterfox 56.2.0 completely problem free

-iphone 4s with the latest iOS that was possible to use with the phone

-Nikon D700 camera (display of the camera triggered no issues)

-Asus pb238q external monitor (connected only via VGA, HDMI triggered issues)

Start of issues

I first noticed I have issues back at the end of 2013 when I tried to connect my Acer laptop to the new Asus monitor via HDMI. The issue was not immediate pain, but inability to really focus on the screen followed by brain fog and nausea. When I connected it via VGA, the problems went away (and as has been stated by some engineers I got to know later, its entirely possible that HDMI introduces forms of flicker and dithering that VGA simply "washes out" in the process).

The issues continued around 2015 when I tried to update my dying laptop with a new Macbook 13in. The issue now was outright pain in the head, eyes and neck when looking at the display for longer than 10 minutes. The pain also lingered and sometimes didn't subside for hours after a longer exposure. Later the same started happening with newer phones (iphone 5 and on, various Samsung and other phones) and even Windows laptops and machines.

Visual therapy progress

When the issue was found out and visual therapy started, I was told I would not really see immediate results and it might take quite some time to adjust. I had kept a borrowed iPhone 7 Plus from my cousin to test whether my condition is improving, and must say that within the first day of receiving prismatic glasses I saw an improvement. I did not have immediate pain, could use the phone for longer and even though I had a lot of pain at night and the following morning due to both my eyes getting used to the glasses and trying out the phone at the same time, my condition seemed to improve for the first time.

Best immediate progress happened with a new camera, which had to replace the obsolete Nikon D700. I bought D800 before the start of the therapy and the display was triggering very bad issues - pinching pain in the eyes and headaches. Two weeks into the eye therapy, this was the first thing to go away. Now it takes so long to notice any discomfort from the screen that I barely consider it a problem anymore.

Couple months into the eye therapy I dared to buy my own new phone (risking yet again to have to sell it under price and loose money if it shows to be unusable over time) and the same issue repeated. First there was pain and I lost a bit of hope, but the following days (and having set up nightshift and reducing white point on the phone) the situation was slowly improving. It is possible the therapy kickstarted an ability to actually adjust to whatever the technology was doing.

About year and a half into the eye therapy I dared to buy a Macbook pro again, this time the one I needed for work (2018, 15in). The decision was because I liked it for what I do (photography and video) and also because its one of the few laptops I can sell without much loss if things wouldn't turn out the way I hoped. The first days were bad and I even had a return of the migraine for a day. I had to adjust font smoothing and install the same version of browser I use on my other laptops (waterfox 56.2.0). Then over following days I was able to adjust more and more to the laptop, which progresses to this day.

During all this time I was still using my old Acer laptop, which I bought another 2 units of second-hand for backup (the old laptops tend to fail and need expensive servicing, unfortunately) and equipped them with the same OS, graphic driver and browser settings as well as with any app I have to use and know which old version of it was ok (Office 2007 for example).

On this laptop I did and still do all my longer sessions of reading and writing as well as watching movies or series, or any kind of activity I'd like to be relaxing, and which would be too stressful for longer time on new tech. I try to keep it from updating in any way, as sometimes I can get a headache from working on newer tech that lingers on for a bit even when I switch to the old (the eyes are just generally exhausted). This could be really stressful If I didn't know that this old tech is usable and fine and no changes happened to it in the meantime, meaning the headache originates elsewhere.

Current progress after visual therapy

So what can I use now? I must say that even after the visual therapy which took 2 years (and I still do training once a week now) and using multiple glasses adjusted over time to fit my needs in the therapy, I can still tell the difference between new and older tech. However, some better days I would say I almost cannot, or that it takes some hours of work on new technology to tell the difference, which is great progress compared to 10 minutes in the past.

I still use the old tech listed at the beginning for working when I am exhausted or just for relaxation apart from iphone 4s, which is unusable now. My only phone now is iphone 7 with iOS 11 which I use with nightshift and reduce white point by 80% as much as the condition allows. I don't dare update the iOS but when it comes to it, I hope I can adjust somehow again or even better, not be able to tell the difference.

The laptop I use for work is the mentioned Macbook 15 2018 with OSX Mojave. I stay clear from updates as long as I can even on new tech, because when I somehow adjust to it I don't want to ruin it by introducing new form of graphic driver and therefore some new painful dithering, font aliasing etc.

Some days I can use this mac without any hint of issue for hours, other days I can see trouble within first hour of using it. I can usually adjust, or take breaks and the issue does not get bad (migraine) like in the past and if the headache starts to be very noticeable, it dissipates when I take a break and does not linger on too long like in the past. What is most challenging still is trying to do prolonged reading or writing on this machine. That usually introduces noticeable pain sooner or later and I have to stop or take a break and switch to my old machine. So photography and video is ok, but working witch excel sheets not so much.

Sometimes one of my old Acer laptops crashes or fails, which happened recently. I then have to use one of the backups while getting the failed one fixed and pray that all is really the same there. When using one of the backups now, I have noticed that I cannot really use google Chrome browser on it (Netflix) wihthout issues, even though I could on the broken one. Maybe the version is different. I will see when its back from servicing.

However as I stated in another article, seeing that a browser can cause issues on in another ways perfectly usable laptop proves that this issue could be resolved by a simple switch, had someone knowledgeable or the tech companies invested some time in it.

In conclusion

The tech I could use before I noticed issues with heterophopria is still the only tech I can use now with no issues whatsoever. Visual therapy and prismatic glasses however improved my ability to tolerate new technology in ways I didn't think imaginable, and on really good days I can't tell the difference between new and old technology. On bad days, I can do that within minutes, but can still tolerate it better than in the past.

One of similarly affected people I have helped to find proper care (and many others I have not met, but talk to on ledstrain.org) now also uses obscure tech combinations, but one that we both have hope for in the future is the E-Ink technology. Specifically Dasung computer monitor, which si based on E-Ink, has no backlight and seems to work for people with eye issues like these. Hopefully it will be with color and faster in the future.

We still have plans to exchange some of the tech I can use no problem in order to gauge whether the source of our pain is objective and same over many devices. This could prove that even though many people's eye issues differ, the trigger is the same, therefore discoverable and eventually removable. When we manage do such tests, I will write about it here.

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If you would like to discuss this matter in person, feel free to book a consulting session with me. I will also be grateful for any donation to help me run this blog and my future research in this field.