Eye Doctor, Part 2

Yesterday was our second trip to the Eye Doctor, this time to the pediatric ophthalmologist!  With an ophthalmologist being a medical doctor, the one that my pediatrician had recommended was covered by our insurance.  Hooray!

And what a difference- we could tell this place was geared for children as soon as we walked in the door!  There was a fish tank and TV with a movie playing in the waiting room, and the exam rooms were fabulous!  There were all sorts of cool lights and sound making toys that the doctor and the assistants used to get Chloe to look where they wanted her to while they ran the different tests.  The doctor was amazing.  He talked to Chloe non stop during the exam, asking her every kid question in the book- "Do you like pink or purple?"  "Rain or snow?"  "Do you have a dog?"  "Do you have a brother?"  He made her so comfortable and at ease (and he was quite entertaining for us, too).  Chloe felt so comfortable with him that when he asked her about Mitchell she quickly spoke up and said, "Yeah, he hits me sometimes too."

The results from all the tests were conclusive with what the optometrist had found last week- Chloe has amblyopia in her right eye, which is the fancy word for "lazy eye."  It simply means that there is poor vision in the eye that did not develop normal sight during early childhood.  Lucky for us, we are still in early childhood and the eye and her vision are not fully developed yet, so it can be corrected.  This condition is very common, affecting 2 or 3 out of every 100 people and is best corrected during infancy or early childhood.  We are so glad we have a wonderful pediatrician who detected a problem and sent us in to have it checked, because after the first nine years of life, the visual system is usually fully developed and usually cannot be changed.

It was very interesting to learn about amblyopia.  It is caused by any condition that affects normal use of the eyes and visual development.  It may be inherited, which is probably the case with Chloe.  My mom had amblyopia (among other things) and Ben had it as well.  Chloe really didn't stand a chance!  There are 3 different types of amblyopia.  Ben had one of them- Strabismus (misaligned eyes), another is Cloudiness in the eye tissues, and the third one, which Chloe has, is Unequal Focus/Refractive Error.  This is when one eye is out of focus because it is more nearsighted, farsighted or astigmatic than the other.  The unfocused eye "turns off" and becomes amblyopic (lazy).  The eye can look normal (which Chloe's do- they are not crossed or wandering) but her bad eye has poor vision.  This is the most difficult type of amblyopia to detect since the child appears to have normal vision when both eyes are open.  Again, we are very fortunate to have our pediatrician's office detect a problem, because we had no idea she couldn't see out of one eye.  She has never complained about it because she simply just stopped using or focusing out of her bad eye because she can't see hardly at all out of it.  She basically just uses her "good eye" and as long as she can see out of that, she had no reason to complain.  I can't imagine not being able to see out of just one eye, but many people in my family do it and I guess it is just something you get used to (or it's just always been that way and that's all you know).

Her treatment, for now, is to wear glasses.  The doctor wants her to wear glasses for a month or two, then come back and see him to see if the weak eye has strengthened at all.  Her good eye will have no prescription in the lens- it will just be plain glass.  Depending on the outcome of that, we will then try patching the good eye to force her to use the weak eye to strengthen it.

Right now, she seems excited to wear glasses.  I told her on the way home all of the people we know who wear glasses (pretty much every aunt and uncle and grandparent she has).  After getting and being forced to wear the glasses all day, we'll see how excited she is then.....

As her mom, and her being my first baby, the thought of her wearing glasses was hard to take at first.  I first started wearing glasses in 6th grade and I hated them.  They were ugly and I felt ugly.  I was so glad when I was able to start wearing contact lenses.  I am glad that she is young enough to not feel self conscious about her appearance, but it is still hard for me because of the bad association I had with my glasses.  (I hated how I looked in glasses so much that as soon as I was able to wear contacts, I NEVER wore my glasses again, never.  To this day, I do not even own a pair of glasses.) 

I will not pass on my insecurities to her, but I am also sad because glasses will change her appearance and look.  This is my baby!  She is already growing up so fast and this will only speed up the process.  I have no doubt that she will look adorable in glasses (I am on a mission to find the cutest glasses in Washington State- no Harry Potter or Dwight Schrute frames for her), but she just won't look the same.  Change has always been hard for me, and now this change will affect our little Chloe.

  I also worry that she will not want to wear her glasses not because of how she looks, but just because she doesn't want something on her face.  It might just be another thing we have to fight with her to do (we are struggling with obedience as it is).  That thought alone is exhausting.  Reward charts and positive reinforcement may be coming our way......    

But as long as she keeps this beautiful smile, we will be okay!

Here's to our new step in life- glasses and fighting bad vision genes! :)