January has been an incredible month to kick-off the new year. Hours after launching the new CavinBounce.com, I was contacted by Developmental and Rehabilitation Optometrist, Curtis Baxstrom, about the possibility of speaking for two hours at the Neuro-Optimetric Rehabilitation Association conference 2014. The conference is scheduled to be held in the town of Cary, North Carolina, April 3-6.

From the website: 

“The Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, International, (NORA) is a group of committed individuals from various disciplines focusing on advancing the art and science of rehabilitation for the neurologically challenged patient.”

I am so humbled and excited to be able to share my detailed story with so many incredible individuals dedicated to better understanding and improving neuro-optmometric rehabilitation. As the speech comes together, I am reminded of how difficult the journey to recovery has been at times, and how fortunate I am to have the amazing support I have had along the way. I, too, am dedicated to making sure more individuals have access to the knowledge and resources I found throughout my journey. I suspect, and sincerely hope, that my perspective along the way is continually beneficial to patients and practitioners.

Update: In Early March, it was announced that I am to be the KEYNOTE SPEAKER for this conference! I am so honored and humbled! NORA is an organization that is dedicated to neurorehabilitation, and is exactly the kind of group that I would like to work with. This is an enormous deal to me! 

Mr. November in the New Calendar for OEPFoundation!

Last Wednesday, I obtained what has to be the coolest package that I have yet received in a padded yellow envelope. Inside were ten calendars from the Optometric Extension Program Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to spread information on visual processes and vision therapy.

The text reads:

After twelve days in a coma…

I woke up! The following months were spent learning how to walk, talk, and eat all over again.

After suffering a traumatic brain injury in 2011, Cavin was unable to fuse his vision: he was seeing double. For months, he was unable to eat, wak, or talk, and was constantly closing one eye to focus. He started wearing an eye-patch, which he switched from eye to eye. He was eventually assessed by an optometrist and diagnosed with diplopia, or double vision.

While Vision Therapy improved his ability to fuse his vision, it seemed to be beneficial in improving many other aspects of his brain functions. He attributes a signficant portion of his recovery to Vision Therapy. Through his blog, Cavin is currently helping other TBI survivors while in the process of writing a book about his experience.

I’m proud to be a part of this project and to advocate vision therapy, not only because of how important vision has been when it comes to my own experience in regaining clarity after my brain injury, but also because I feel that VT has facilitated improvement of my cognition as well.

To obtain a copy of the calendar:

“Fill out the form found here online: https://bit.ly/OCLdonation (it’s a PDF) and specify how many calendars you are ordering. Then mail that in to: 

OEP Foundation
1921 East Carnegie Ave
Suite 3L
Santa Ana, California 92705

2) Or Fax it to: 949.250.8157

3) Or call: 949.250.8070 and place the order over the phone directly. 

The donation can be for any amount but we kindly request it be a minimum donation of $5.00 (for single calendars) at least $1 per calendar plus $6 for shipping up to 20 calendars. Above 20 calendars the rate goes up and we can figure that out if you want/need. That way we cover our shipping costs and some of the cost we put in to produce them.”

photo credit: “lapolab” via photopin cc