Skip to main content

2016, April: Glasses for Declan

Declan and I visited the optometrist today. We've been noticing for a few months now that he has a tendency to cross his eyes. Both eyes occasionally slide to the center, but the right more than the left.

The doc said that this was caused either by overly tight eye muscles, which might require surgery, or by farsightedness. She put some drops into his eyes to relax the muscles, then used a retinoscope to shine a light in his eyes and take a look at the reflection off his retinas. She determined immediately that he is farsighted - severely in his right eye and moderately in his left. Farsightedness results from the eye being too short:
The good news is that as he grows, his eyes will grow too, and the problem will hopefully reduce. However, since the right eye is so much worse than the left, it is unlikely to go away completely (if the right eye grows enough to correct the problem, then his left eye will likely be too big and become nearsighted).

Long story short, the boy has to wear glasses! If we did nothing, then eventually his brain would stop paying attention to the right eye - giving him a permanent lazy eye. She was able to determine the exact prescription for each eye by holding up lenses while using the retinoscope and seeing which one neutralized the refractive error.

We pick up the glasses in a week or so. I'm to try to get him to wear them (ha!) for three days. If I fail, then I can take him back for some "magic drops" that will relax the muscles in his eyes and (I believe) blur his vision so that he has to wear the glasses to see.
Apparently this issue is genetic, though we haven't yet determined whether Goodlanders or Baths are to blame, since both Christian and I have perfect vision and there are no examples of farsightedness on either side that we know of. We wondered if it had anything to do with his torticollis/plagiocephaly, but she said not.

I'm struggling a lot - as I did with the helmet - that my child is not "perfect" (he also failed a hearing test in his right ear the other week, so we go back in for follow up on that soon). I'm particularly unhappy that the glasses may be something that he needs forever. However. I'm trying my very best to count our blessings; He's happy, he's healthy, he's freakin' adorable, and this is an issue that can be easily addressed. Plus, orange glasses are cool.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2015, September: Plagiocephaly, aka Declander the Amazing Helmet Boy

Declan started wearing a helmet last Friday. We knew he had a wonky head - for the first four months of his life he always slept in the exact same position - but we were hoping he would grow out of it. I knew I was supposed to be doing something about it (wedging him to sleep on the other side somehow), but it was enough of a celebration just to get the kid to sleep that I couldn't deal with anything else. At four months old he started rolling and would sleep in a variety of positions, but unfortunately the damage had been done. At his four month check-up the pediatrician said it wasn't too bad and that we should just keep an eye on it. At six months, however, a different pediatrician said "hmmm. We should probably have a specialist take a look." The specialist came from Salt Lake City and said that Declan had a moderate case of plagiocephaly (wonky head) due to slight torticollis (weak neck muscles on one side). Now that he's holding his head up fine and sitt...
Post a Comment
Read more

2016, November: "Winning" with a Toddler

I was complaining to a friend yesterday about Declan refusing to wear a bib. She said "you know you get to win sometimes, right?" That stuck with me. I like to win, but how do you really win with a toddler? Consider the following and tell me which are the winning scenarios...? (Now, if you're a good parent you will tell me that my relationship with my kid shouldn't be about winning or losing. Yeah yeah, you don't know me at all. Everything is about winning or losing.) One : Declan doesn't want to wear clothes. I could a) send him to school without a shirt in the middle of Idaho winter or b) force clothes on him which involves screaming, biting, kicking, and punching. Which is the win? Two : Declan doesn't want to eat anything other than muffins for any meal ever (except at daycare, where he eats almost anything, which is both reassuring and annoying). Do I a) try to get him to eat something else even though he might then scream and/or whine for at lea...
Post a Comment
Read more

2016, January: Who Should Pay for the Arts

Working for a small nonprofit after the Goliath that is the Smithsonian has been an eye-opening experience. We're constantly doing - as my boss likes to call it - "the hustle." A great deal of time, energy, and resources is spent (and stress, sleepless nights, and several tears are experienced) while chasing funding instead of working on the mission, while the mission remains crucial to bringing in the money as well as being the reason we're all here. It's difficult to maintain that balance while keeping the organization afloat and the staff (mostly) sane. It's made me think a great deal about who should pay for what we do. I believe the arts are critically important and I am incredibly proud that a town the size of Idaho Falls (serving a population of around 100,000 in the city and surrounding rural areas) has art galleries, a large, historic theater that brings in nationally touring productions, and the-first-of-its-kind interactive art and technology cent...
Post a Comment
Read more