Being a Mom is hard. There's no question about that. However, I had no idea just how hard it was until this last week when we realized Brychan had a problem with his eyes. Long story short, he has the begining stages of lazy eye due to extreme farsightedness. Because we caught it so early, it only happens occasionally. Most of the time you'd never notice, and sometimes he goes for days without the eye drifting.
We've seen the pediatrician and the pediatric opthamologist. His opthamologist said it was great that we caught it so soon and that with glasses, the eye drifting should completely stop. If need be we will also do some patching therapy down the road. He also said that Brychan's vision will start to improve over time. He'll probably always need glasses, but it should get better. We ordered his first pair of glasses on Monday and are waiting rather impatiently to get them. As hard as it is for me to know my little boy has to wear glasses already, I can see now how he's struggling and I want the glasses to make things easier for him. And, as much as it breaks my heart to see his little eye crossing, I'm glad we noticed it. Otherwise we would have NEVER realized he had a problem. Watching him you'd think he has perfect vision. And not noticing until it was too late could have led to blindness in his right eye.
I can't figure out why this is so hard. David and I both knew that our children would eventually end up with glasses. All family members on both sides (with the exception of Grandma Davis) wear glasses. We just never imagined it would start so early. And after all, it's just glasses...not anything life threatening or altering. It could be 500 times worse. People wear glasses all the time! So this shouldn't be so hard, right? It is getting easier, but it is still hard. I'm sure this is just one of many bumps in the road that we will get to face as parents. We're just getting more experience early on!
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4 comments:
Alyssa - hang in there! I somewhat understand what you are going through. When Gavin was in Kindergarten, he failed the vision test and the nurse told us to take him to the eye dr. We found out he was extremely farsighted as well. I sobbed for days that he had to wear glasses. Like you, I figured that day would come since Mike and I both wear them and I got mine at that age too. I just felt bad something was wrong with my child and I felt responsible. In August, we found out Gavin has the lazy eye - amblyopia - and he needs to wear a patch. We were furious because he had been seen by two previous doctors the past two years and they never caught it. His eye doesn't wander so I never would have known. This ophthalmologist was surprised the other doctors never caught the problem before. They said by age 8 it is difficult to get any correction in that eye...and he turned 7 in July - not much time to improve his eye now. Anyhow, I was shocked he couldn't even see the big "E" on the vision chart with his glasses on from his left eye. We have become patch-making pros. We have made a ton out of craft foam and I have sewed a few with felt. He patches as soon as he is home from school and then all weekend. It breaks my heart but he handles it so well! I am glad you caught Brychan's so early! If you need anyone to talk to, let me know!
Wow, this sounds exactly like what I wrote nearly 2 years ago when I learned our daughter, Zoe needed glasses (http://tragicoptimist.wordpress.com/2007/12/26/four-eyes-are-better-than-two/). I wear glasses and actually love them, my husband wears glasses, we knew she'd eventually need them, but yeah, it was extremely hard at first. Just know that it does get better and soon you'll feel like he looks a little funny without his glasses.
Best of luck to you!
Ann (from Little Four Eyes)
Alyssa- my niece had the same issue and the patches helped lots! she had glasses by the time she was 3, but it is so adorable when they are little it will only make him more popular!! Just be prepared for the arm 'braces' they may have you use on himi so that he can't bend his arms and doesn't pull the patch off, now that is hard!
Be prepared to laugh hysterically when someone asks, "Are they REAL?" It's my favorite question we're asked ;)
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