Just to catch you up on Adah's eyes, here is the story from the beginning. About a year ago the Lion's Club came to MOPS and took pictures of the kid's eyes. They send these pictures to the University of Iowa and they study the pictures and can find certain eye problems just from the picture. Crazy I know, something about how the flash reflects in the pupil/retna. So, Adah's came back with a recommendation to see a doctor, they had detected a possible astigmatism and far-sightedness. Smart people. Amazing.
Here is a little back story to the Lion's Club, when they contacted our MOPS group about coming for this vision screening, I, being on the steering team said, do these things ever come back that there is a problem? I mean is this really something we need to do? When I got the notice in the mail, I was a bit worried but glad that we had done it. A God thing, don't you think?
We took her to my eye doctor, who has little experience with children, much less infants, Adah was nearly one. After several frustrating visits, some of my great mom friends on the steering team with me suggested that I call the University of Iowa and get an appointment with them, they have a nationally known opthamology department. Amazingly, they were able to squeeze us in that next week, which I now know was a God thing, it normally takes months to get an appointment. We went for our first visit in June, the day after her 1st birthday. They did a thorough exam, I was amazed at the difference when you go to a doctor who specializes in children. She does have an astigmatism and was at the high end of normal for her farsightedness, but at that time glasses weren't needed.
Jump ahead to early January. Suddenly we began to notice that her eye was crossing, this is one of the warning signs that something had changed in her vision, so we called the U immediately. It was a two month wait to get in to see them. Her eye continued to cross and it was hard to wait, when you feel like something needs to happen now. Just wait 'til Obama care hits.
Finally it was March 1 and we went to our appointment, 2 hours later with dialated eyes we find that her farsightedness has increased dramatically which is causing the crossing. Basically when she wants to see something she has to focus really hard to see it, then her eye crosses, and then her brain shuts that eye off. The more she focuses the more she crosses and the more likely it will be that her brain will just decide not to use that eye. Scary, I know. The first step is glasses to determine if it is just the farsightedness or something more, then patching, then finally eye surgery. We left that appointment praying that the glasses would come in quickly, do you know how hard it is to find infant glasses and someone who actually knows how to fit them? Neither did I, but I do now. We were also praying that the glasses would do the trick and there would not be a next to worry about.
Today we went for our check up and our prayers were answered. Adah's eyes are doing well, she had the best case scenario. What a blessing, the glasses are working. We go back in September to check them again. But, until then we are so thankful for the discovery of her eye issues and the ability to help her with them. She likes her glasses, keeps them on pretty well, we are on our second pair, broken after 32 days, but she knows they help her see. Which has made her a much happier girl. I can't help but wonder, what she would be like if this hadn't been found so early in her life and how many times we will have to replace her glasses before September.
Sorry for any spelling errors, I can't seem to find the spell check.
