The Eyes Have It

 *Part one of what led us to glasses.

We had Lily's follow up eye appointment this week.  The glasses have been great and she has no issue wearing them at all! Patching is still a struggle some days and realistically we haven't patched every single day.  I'd say we average 4 days a week for 2 hours those days. I'm currently working on an incentive chart for her that will hopefully help her not struggle with it and for me to be more consistent.  We were originally to go back for a check up 6 months from her initial visit, which should have been March, but when I had finally called June 3, was the first we could get in.

George and I were again nervous because we had noticed some additional things happening with her eyes recently.  Her left eye was still crossing when she'd have her glasses off, more significantly still when she was tired.  We had both separately noticed that her right eye started doing the same.  My heart sank.

Yesterday morning when Lily was getting dressed and she didn't have her glasses on, I was walking toward her and she said laughing, "There's two of you!" Her eyes were crossed.  Again, heart sinking.

All this time, my suspicion growing that she'll need surgery.

We met up with Stef and her little ones for lunch and to play beforehand which turned out to be the best distraction for both of us, as her 14 year old cat died that morning and I was pretty anxious about this eye follow up. Yay for the best of friends!

When we walked into the new office --they were in a temporary office during our first visit-- Lily was thrilled to see Cars 2 playing on the tv!  She immediately made her way over to the toys and played with her familiar trucks and blocks.  The kid has an incredible memory and before we'd even gotten there she asked me about those toys!  Hanging on the wall was a Little Mermaid print which she immediately spotted and exclaimed joyfully about.  She was in heaven! One of her fave movies playing and Ariel on the wall.

We made our way to the exam room where she had her eyes checked again telling what pictures were on the cards shown to her.

After she did the initial exam, she had her eyes dilated and we had to wait 20 minutes for that to do its job, so we headed back out to the waiting area aka the trucks, blocks and movie.  Well, Cars 2 had ended, so a new movie was put on. Again, a dream come true for Lily...Frozen!  We moved back into an exam room after the dilation period was up and she was still able to watch her movie.

Nursing cover turned Elsa cape...

 Frozen was a great way for Dr. Cheng to have her focus on something far away.

Checking out her eyes when she's looking and focusing closer.

Because her eyes were dilated, she was having difficulty seeing and kept trying to adjust her eyes and saying, "Mommy, my eyes can't see right." 

I love this picture!

I expressed our observations about her other eye turning and Lily saying just that morning she could see two of me and Dr. Cheng was wonderfully reassuring that all of that were actually good things!  The other eye turning shows that her brain is still using both eyes to see and not just one. And the blurriness she experienced without her glasses on is the same thing--both of her eyes are working. I asked about swimming and how to handle that and he said she was perfectly fine to swim without glasses and just wear them if she were out of the pool playing, but in the water, she's fine to go without.

He said she's still far sighted and her eyes are perfectly straight wearing her glasses when she's looking far away, but wants to bump up her prescription a little because she's still turning on that original eye when she's focusing closer.  He also said this is all very normal and she's doing exactly as he'd hoped.

So we'll continue patching just 5 days a week 1 to 2 hours a day, get her some new glasses and see him again in about 4 months!

Lily was so good through this whole appointment! Polite, moved from waiting room to exam room to waiting room to exam room without issue, answered questions directly. I could not have been prouder of her!