Little Four Eyes

Over the past few months we have noticed that Stella’s eyes have become increasingly crossed.  Her right eye would drift towards her nose while her left eye would stay centered.

Last week we took her to the Pediatric Ophthalmology Specialists at Vanderbilt. She had her eyes dilated for the first time and had a series of vision screenings and light refraction tests.  We learned that Stella is like most toddlers in that she is farsighted….but she is very very very farsighted. +6.00 and +5.75 correction to be exact. 

The doctor put lenses over both Randy and I’s eyes to show us how she sees.  We were quite surprised to learn that she can’t really see much of anything beyond her fingertips.  At the doctors recommendation, we ordered her glasses.  Cute little pink all plastic glasses.

Stella’s glasses finally arrived yesterday.  She got to wear them for the first time last night.  Her response was both priceless and emotional.  To see her actually see for the first time was amazing.  She turned her head every which way as soon as those glasses were on and soaked it all in.  

The rest of the evening was of course an uphill battle in which she would take them off and we would put them back on and her sister would take them off and we would put them back on.  I think we have our work cut out for us in this house.

The next few weeks will be telling. We will follow-up with her doctor to see how she is progressing.  If things don’t progress then Stella will wear a patch over her good eye to help strengthen her weak eye.  The end of the line is surgery to bring the eye back to the center.  We of course are hoping and praying that the glasses will be the solution! We have found a great network of parents through a forum called “Little Four Eyes.” It’s a great resource for any parent going through the same thing.

More to come in the coming weeks, but here is our little glasses wearing baby genius (because let’s face it….glasses make you look smart: )

Little 4-eyes

My little 4-eyes

Hearing your kid isn’t “perfect” is something that no parent ever wants to hear.  So when I began to notice Stella’s eyes crossing about 3 months ago, I told myself it was all in my head.  I mentioned it to my husband and he sort of agreed that maybe they were “a little” crossed.  Over the next few weeks I thought it was getting worse (or I had just grown more sensitive to it).  About a month later a therapist that comes to the girl’s daycare to work with another little boy left me a hand written note saying she had noticed her eyes were crossed and she would be happy to do therapy with her.  Shit.  That meant that it was not all in my head.  My perfect daughter actually has crossed eyes.

Fast forward to yesterday. We had Stella's ophthalmology specialist appointment. They brought us back and dilated her eyes.  It was interesting because the doctor showed us how if you put your hand in front of her crossed eye she doesn’t even notice, but if you put your hand in front of her straight eye she swats your hand away.  We came to learn that she is cross eyed because she is so far sighted she is essentially using only one eye to see and the crossed eye is trying to compensate.

The doctor looked in her eyes and got a prescription.  She also placed two lenses over my eyes to show me how she sees.  It broke my heart.  She literally can only see large shapes.  Everything is so blurry.

We took her prescription and ordered her glasses.  The doctor says the vision loss she has experienced is reversible at this time.  We hope to see her eyes getting straighter over the course of a few weeks.  We have a follow-up appointment in 6 weeks.  At that time if her eye is still crossed she will have to wear a patch.  And at the end of the road if the patch cannot correct it she will need to have surgery.

Here are the glasses we ordered:

I know it seems so insignificant, but my heart is breaking.  My perfect little girl has never really seen my face.  She will never look just like her sister because she will have glasses.  People are going to stare at her. Kids are going to take her glasses from her. Her script is so strong that her eyes will look HUGE.

These all seem like such superficial things to be worried about, but as a parent I can’t help it.