Eye Doctor Revisted

And I mean that literally.

Yesterday, Kaylen's teacher caught me in the hall and asked when she was due for another check up on her eyes. I said "4-6 months". She said "Any chance that it could be sooner than that?"

I asked questions and discovered that little Miss has been squinting and complaining that she can't see. She's also been moving her glasses down her nose, looking over them and them pushing them back up.

It hasn't even been a month since she got her glasses!

I called and they got her in for a 2:45 appointment. I let the kids know we were going to leave school early. Kelton was excited, Kaylen was not. I told her we would talk about it later. :)

2:30 rolled around and they were both called from class. I could hear Kaylen coming down the hall first. I could tell by her walking that she was pissed. Then came Kelton just as Kaylen burst into tears and said I must hate her because I was making her leave school early! (Yes, you read that correctly. That's a whole other post.) Apparently her class had earned an extra recess and now she couldn't go. *sigh* I can't win. :)

So off we go, Kaylen crying and Kelton upset at me because I had upset his sister. Kaylen proceeds to cry all the way to the office...and as we entered the office.

I explained to the staff and doctor that she was upset because I pulled her from school early so they worked hard to give her a "recess" at the eye doctor. They gave her stickers, told jokes, etc. until she was happy and smiling again. I love this place!

Then it was exam time. Just from the eye test I could tell something was up. As it turned out, her eyes have doubled in the amount of correction they need.....in less than four weeks! And now that they are "corrected" to +1.25, they are showing that, right now, she is sitting at needing a +5 in one eye and a +7 in the other. HOLY COW. If you don't know how to figure that out, think "coke bottle glasses". The doctor suggested starting a medical savings account for her for her glasses because when we get up much higher, we will want to get the ultra light, ultra thin lenses so she doesn't have the huge magnified eyes. He says the teasing from that is inevitable and really hard for kids to ever overcome. He showed me on his eyes what the correct lenses would look like and ....wow. *sigh* He also said that since she is still growing there is a chance that her eyes will level out in a range not that high. Time will tell.

And the reason she has been pulling her glasses down her nose and then back up? She seemed to realize that by not using them for a few minutes and then pulling them back up, they made it a bit easier to see. So blurry with the glasses, supper blurry without and then only a little blurry when she put them back on.

So - new lenses have been ordered and hopefully when they arrive (in 10 days) they will pop right into her frames and we will be good to go for the predicted 4-6 months.

Have I mentioned how horribly guilty I feel about her eyes? If you have little ones, get them in for an exam. Especially, but not limited to, if they were on oxygen after birth, had any breath holding syndromes or under lights for jaundice. I now know that, in the US, there is a program that provides the under one set with a free exam. It's call Infant See

I know I can't change the past - but I do wish she wasn't struggling with her vision so much. I just never imagined the damage her eyes endured with the oxygen and the pallid breath holding. I was more concerned with keeping her alive and no one ever mentioned, and I never thought to ask, about how her little body was being impacted.

But.....we're doing what we can now. And now is all I can do.