Virginia Carlson's orthoptic career began at the age of 2 when she climbed over into the front seat of her parents' 1956 Chevy Bel Air and gave her mother a corneal abrasion with her fingernail. Unfortunately, this abrasion was to her mother's NON-amblyopic eye and required 3 days of pressure patching to heal. From that point onward, however, her mother always claimed that her amblyopic eye could see just a little bit better after all that albeit unintentional, occlusive therapy that had been overlooked in her childhood. Virginia Karlsson, now spelling her last name the way her paternal grandfather had before immigrating to the United States, celebrated her 30th year as a certified orthoptist in 2008. Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire, provided her introduction to orthoptics as a career, providing an excellent undergraduate experience. The University of Florida orthoptic training program in Gainesville provided something unique 32 years ago-simultaneous training as a tech and as an orthoptist. After graduating, Carlson now Hansen returned to New England where she took two part-time jobs: one as a tech to support her second part-time job as an orthoptist in western Massachusetts. Two years later, she became the director of the orthoptic training program at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. After the birth of her first child, she filled in (twice each) for other orthoptists out on maternity leave themselves at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester; the Lions Orthoptic Clinic in Springfield, Massachusetts; and the Newington Children's Hospital in Newington, Connecticut. She returned to work full-time in 1990 when her family moved to Minneapolis; she worked for a large health system and then a private practice. In 2005, Karlsson took the orthoptic position at the Mayo Clinic and has thoroughly enjoyed the extraordinarily challenging patients, the completely ordinary patients, the academic environment, and the peaceful commute from Minneapolis to Rochester, Minnesota. Five children with varied interests don't leave much time for Mom, but most recently she has remembered how to ski, speak Swedish, play kubb (poorly), and definitely laugh more. "Don't blink!" is the advice she tells new parents about their baby's first year of life. Maybe she shouldn't have blinked so much over the past 30 years of being an orthoptist!
