Yesterday was one of those days when I once again questioned God's wisdom in giving me children to care for. I took Miriam in to see a doctor for a bad cough she had, and after the doctor did the standard check and prescribed some medicine, we were packing up to leave the room. That's when the doctor said, "By the way, this is totally unrelated to why you came in, but have you noticed that Miriam has a tendency to cross one of her eyes?"
Say what?! "Uh....no?", was my brilliant reply.
"Really? Because I've seen her do it several times in just the short time she's been here. Look! She's doing it right now."
Sure enough, when I looked at her I could tell that her left eye was slightly crossed towards the center. "Huh, yeah I guess it does", was my even more brilliant comeback.
He asked the nurse to do a vision test and then wrote out a referral for the opthamologist, saying that he was pretty sure there was something wrong with her vision. And do you know what I discovered in the next hour between the nurses test and a visit to the opthamologist?
My poor little girl has really truly terrible vision in her left eye. Like her right eye is normal at .1, but her left eye is only .01. Maybe. Not even sure it's that good. She couldn't read the top letter on the eye chart with her left eye.
We went back out into the waiting room between a couple tests and I saw the pediatrician walk by. I said, "You were right, she does have vision problems. It looks like her left eye is pretty bad". I was feeling somewhat bad as I admitted this to him, but then I quickly dove into feeling like really bad mom when his reply was, "Yes, and it's really important to catch this as young as possible because she could lose the ability to see out of that eye if it's not corrected in time. Hopefully they can still do something."
Great. So my lack of observational skills might have permanently damaged my girl's vision. Well we are making a return trip later in the week to run some different tests and let them see behind her eye to make sure nothing is going wrong there. Other than glasses, not sure what else is in store for her at that point.
Now I know, I know, several people have told me that it's not surprising I would miss her problem seeing as how I live with her every day and might not notice changes as much. And I do know there is truth to that. But still. Not my finest day of motherhood.
Good thing we had a mama-daughter date that morning and we got to make raspberry chocolate chip cookies together. That might salvage my standing.
Lilah had no vision in her right eye when we got her (they called it brain blind) and so she got glasses and we did patching all but one hour per day... she has regained almost full vision in that eye and may not need glasses by the time she is about eight... I hope all goes just as well for your daughter and her vision.
ReplyDeleteAlso... those raspberry chocolate chip cookies sound amazing... can you post the recipe?!
hey, will be praying for miriam! wow... will also be praying for her visit to the doc's to do those tests. please let us know how it goes, friend. love and miss you!
ReplyDeleteOh friend, know you are not alone! Andrew had passed the pediatrician's eye chart, but his eye began turning all the way in at age 3. In older pictures I can see it more subtly (red eye in only one eye) but I didn't notice it at the time. Drew's turn is because of the difference in vision between the two eyes and it sounds the same for Miriam. We have patched which has helped Andrew gain depth perception and with glasses his vision in the weak eye has improved to 20/40.
ReplyDeleteThe eye doctor told us b/c of Drew, Virginia was at higher risk. Virginia's vision tests fine, but there are so many cute girls glasses that Virginia wishes she could wear them. :) Miriam will be precious in glasses!
totally know the pain. a strange rash has been on Asa's neck all winter. I almost brought him into see the Dr- when Joab commented- I think it us just dirt! And sure enough when I scrubbed him clean- it came off. I feel like he has looked so bad all winter- bc of me and my less than stellar cleaning job! Yikes. praying for you guys.
ReplyDeleteThanks for getting some more posts done. Love hearing updates on your family even if the updates have been struggles lately. Praying for you all!
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