Eye exam, Glasses, Patching in the beginning...
They eye exam that you see older kids getting & the ones we get are not the same exams as little I mean really young or uncooperative kids get just an FYI.
Getting an eye exam for a young kid, 20 months; who has NO idea what is going on, is blind in 1 eye & does not like to be restrained; is NOT fun! Oh did I mention he was non verbal as well at this time he had a few words but not many.
I say this in case you ever have to go for an exam with a little one, so you can be prepared. I thought I was after our first attempt. WRONG! I was really wrong!
Going into the exam Declan was already unhappy & NOT cooperating, mind you this is before the drops. I had to restrain my son with every ounce of muscle I had. Legs over legs, cross armed over the chest & someone steadying his head, another to put the drops in. 3 people, it took 3 people just to get the drops in!
It 3 people to do the exam as well, Dr. T, his amazing tech & myself. I restrained him with my entire body while they administered the exam. Declan was screaming, I mean screaming like someone was killing him all the while this was happening. I felt like the worst Mom EVER! I was bruised after the exam & it took way longer than a "normal" exam. It was a traumatic experience for him & myself, but totally necessary! There are some things that have to just be done no matter how much they suck!
When we go to have our eyes checked we sit in the chair & look through the thing that drops different focus on our eyes until it is clear, right?
Well with babies & kids who won't cooperate that's not how it works, they dilate your eyes then hold the lenses over your eyes while very closely examining how your eyes change to the focus of the lens until they look the way they are supposed to.
Declan's diagnosis was he had accomodative esotropia, was severely farsighted & blind in his left eye.
Accomodative Esotropia is when your brain keeps adding focus to try to see; the issue is that your eyes need help so they end up putting so much focus on your eyes that they cross. What happened with Declan was that when his left eye wasn't responding the way his brain thought it should; it went into survival mode & turned it off. Declan's right eye turned in as well, it just wasn't as obvious.
The prescription fix the crossing was glasses to properly focus his eyes & patching his good eye to make his brain recognize his left eye.
Declan's first pair of glasses came in, they were so stinking cute! Soft plastic was a band in the back to keep them on him. I held them up to my hand to see what the magnification was like; my heart broke I could see every little line in my hand! I realized that Declan really was pretty much blind & had been like that for almost 2 years.
The challenge now was to get the glasses on his face & for him to keep them there. Dr. T said it could be short periods of time at first so could get used to them. It took 2 weeks for him to leave them on his face without freaking out!
He did it, he stopped screaming looked at the TV turned around looked at me questioningly said "Momma?"
We went back to see Dr. T to check on the progress of his eyes 6 weeks later & that is when the patching began. It was horrible in the beginning; there was lots of screaming & freaking out because he was back to being blind again. Slowly he got used to it, we sat down every evening put in the movie Cars got the patch on & it became routine.
Getting an eye exam for a young kid, 20 months; who has NO idea what is going on, is blind in 1 eye & does not like to be restrained; is NOT fun! Oh did I mention he was non verbal as well at this time he had a few words but not many.
I say this in case you ever have to go for an exam with a little one, so you can be prepared. I thought I was after our first attempt. WRONG! I was really wrong!
Going into the exam Declan was already unhappy & NOT cooperating, mind you this is before the drops. I had to restrain my son with every ounce of muscle I had. Legs over legs, cross armed over the chest & someone steadying his head, another to put the drops in. 3 people, it took 3 people just to get the drops in!
It 3 people to do the exam as well, Dr. T, his amazing tech & myself. I restrained him with my entire body while they administered the exam. Declan was screaming, I mean screaming like someone was killing him all the while this was happening. I felt like the worst Mom EVER! I was bruised after the exam & it took way longer than a "normal" exam. It was a traumatic experience for him & myself, but totally necessary! There are some things that have to just be done no matter how much they suck!
When we go to have our eyes checked we sit in the chair & look through the thing that drops different focus on our eyes until it is clear, right?
Well with babies & kids who won't cooperate that's not how it works, they dilate your eyes then hold the lenses over your eyes while very closely examining how your eyes change to the focus of the lens until they look the way they are supposed to.
Declan's diagnosis was he had accomodative esotropia, was severely farsighted & blind in his left eye.
Accomodative Esotropia is when your brain keeps adding focus to try to see; the issue is that your eyes need help so they end up putting so much focus on your eyes that they cross. What happened with Declan was that when his left eye wasn't responding the way his brain thought it should; it went into survival mode & turned it off. Declan's right eye turned in as well, it just wasn't as obvious.
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| See the way his eyes cross?Iit's not the angle of how the picture was taken |
The prescription fix the crossing was glasses to properly focus his eyes & patching his good eye to make his brain recognize his left eye.
Declan's first pair of glasses came in, they were so stinking cute! Soft plastic was a band in the back to keep them on him. I held them up to my hand to see what the magnification was like; my heart broke I could see every little line in my hand! I realized that Declan really was pretty much blind & had been like that for almost 2 years.
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| This was a month into patching & wearing his glasses |
The magical day when he understood what his glasses were.I sat down with him one evening on the floor told him what we were doing I put on his favorite movie, slide his glasses over his head, then the screaming began, I grabbed the remote jacked up the sound & said "Bubba just open up your eyes, please look at the movie!"
He did it, he stopped screaming looked at the TV turned around looked at me questioningly said "Momma?"
That is when it really hit me; my son had NO idea what I really looked like! After that Declan didn't want to take his glasses off!
We went back to see Dr. T to check on the progress of his eyes 6 weeks later & that is when the patching began. It was horrible in the beginning; there was lots of screaming & freaking out because he was back to being blind again. Slowly he got used to it, we sat down every evening put in the movie Cars got the patch on & it became routine.
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