Eye Don't Like the Sound of This

I knew before I ever got married and had kids that my children would most likely have eye problems. Both of my parents and all 4 of my siblings and I wear glasses or contacts. My mom is legally blind in one eye and my dad and sister both had Lasik surgery done because their vision was so terrible. After I married Ben and found out about his eye problems and the history of eye problems in his family, I knew our kids did not stand a chance. I have made peace with that, but did not think (or I desperately hoped) it would not start this early.

Last week, Chloe had her 4 year well child check at the pediatrician's. She is very healthy and STILL in the 95+% for height and weight, for any of you wondering...... Yes, my 4 year old could beat up your 8 year old. Anyway- she passed all the tests except the eye test.

The nurse had her sit in a little chair and put an eye patch over her left eye and had Chloe look up at the little board with letters on it. Chloe could name off the biggest letters on the top row with ease, but even by the second line, she started to struggle. At first, both the nurse and I thought she just didn't want to do this. There were only 4 letters to name off and Chloe had the letters memorized and started guessing by reciting off the memorized letters. She seemed very distracted and I tried to help her focus by directing her to look at the board rather than at me or elsewhere. After many more attempts to get her to say the correct letter, she turned to me and whispered, "Mom, I can't see it. I can't see it." By this time, I knew something was off. I was still hoping that it was just Chloe being impatient and not wanting to play this "game," but I knew that most likely wasn't the case.

The nurse seemed to sense that something was off too and decided to switch the eye patch to the other eye. This time, Chloe blew through the test with ease and was perfect- she got every letter right and with astounding speed. The nurse and I both looked at each other- we knew something was wrong with the first eye. She switched the eye patch back to the "bad" eye to test it again and it had the same results- she could only read the biggest letters, and after that she started to squirm in her chair and get distracted and whisper, "I can't see it, I can't see it." She even asked at one point if she could take the patch off the other eye so she could see better.

So my pediatrician recommended that I take her to a pediatric ophthamologist. He recommended 2 different doctors and I went home to look up their information. Not being very familiar with our vision and eye care insurance coverage, I wasn't really sure what I was doing in the first place. I did find out that these doctors were not covered by our insurance and I was crushed. I had no idea who to pick now out of the 40 or 50 names I could now choose from in our insurance. I chose one close to our house, but had a bad feeling about them as soon as I got off the phone from making the appointment. When I asked if they did pediatric care, the receptionist said, "Um.... yeah, we can do that. Sure! How old is she? Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem...... yeah, yeah, that's fine." I should have called back and canceled right away, but I didn't know if it was fair to judge the whole office by an incompetent receptionist. But I was worried about it for the 4 days before the appointment.

Today came and off we went to the eye doctor. I could tell as soon as I walked in that this office was not geared towards small children at all, but tried to stay positive. Everyone was very nice and accommodating, but as soon as we were called back for the first test, the machine did not fit Chloe and the lady helping us seemed awkward as she tried to adjust her to it. When the doctor came in to see us, I could tell within seconds that she does not spend time around children and even wondered if this was the first 4 year old she had ever treated. She was very patient and kind to Chloe, but she seemed very awkward in her speech and terms with Chloe and I could tell she felt weird giving Chloe instructions, as if she had never had to give these kinds of instructions to a small child before. If Chloe didn't understand what she was supposed to do (which was often- these tests are much different than anything she has ever experienced before), the doctor would turn around and glance at Ben and I with a "why is she acting like this" glance?

The doctor was great to answer any and all questions Ben and I had and ran many tests on Chloe. She diagnosed her with a word that I do not remember and explained to us that Chloe has one good eye and one bad eye. Her good eye sees 20/20 and the bad eye is significantly worse. Chloe favors her good eye and is most likely not using the bad eye at all, since she can hardly see out of it. This seemed to make sense, due to how Chloe responded at the pediatricians office last week. While I do not doubt the Optometrist's diagnosis, I felt very weary of her "treatment." She simply said that Chloe needs glasses and perhaps some eye patch therapy. She gave no written instructions for us on how to do any at home therapy and no suggestions on how to get a 4 year old to wear an eye patch and glasses. At one point she said, "After she gets her glasses, put the eye patch on her bad eye, wearing her glasses, and have her sit down and draw pictures for 2 or 3 hours so she can strengthen her bad eye." 2 or 3 hours? How many 4 year olds does she know that will sit and draw for more than 20 minutes wearing an eye patch, looking out an eye that they can't even see out of?

I felt very weary and uncomfortable for the entire appointment, and especially after we got home. After talking to my all knowing and very wise mother, I found out that I should have been seeing an Ophthamologist instead of Optometrist (especially now that Chloe has been diagnosed with a condition) and that I really need to see a pediatric one, as I knew all along. My mom said that an Optometrist is not really equipped to handle this, but that she should have at least given me a plan- a list of things that need to be done to treat and help this- we got nothing.

I will now spend tomorrow researching Pediatric Ophthamologists in my insurance and find someone who will give me a second opinion and give me answers. I know that what Chloe has is not extremely common and that I need a little more than glasses and drawing paper and a pencil.

Next time, I will follow my instincts. I never felt good about going to this place. We are just hoping we can get Chloe the help she needs before things get worse.

Despite our bad news, Chloe was such a trooper!  She had many lights shined in her eyes, many covers over her face, and even had to have eye drops put in her eyes to dilate her pupils, which made her vision even more blurry than it already was.  She was ready to go by the end, but did great.