A few months ago, we had to take Ryan to the eye doctor to look into his "lazy eye". Like any new parent, any little thing worries you and we were no different. We made an appointment with one of the recommended doctor and had to wait a few weeks to take him.
Finally it was time to bring in Ryan and have the doctor check him out. How in the world is a doctor going to examine his eye sight? It is not like she can ask him questions. Fortunately, Ryan was an absolute trooper and gave the doctor his trademark stare, which was perfect for the examination. She covered each eye, held up toys and had Ryan look at them in each hand.
The end result was to use a patch for 3 months in order to strengthen the vision in the "lazy eye". The concept is to insure that the vision (think blood flow from eye to brain), not prescription, is healthy. When the eye turns in, it will not send signals to the brain and gradually lose vision. By applying the patch to the opposite eye, the brain is forced to use the eye and hence strengthen the eye. Unfortunately this will not actually correct the "lazy eye".
The cause of the "lazy eye" is essentially one of two things (it is actually more complex that this):
1. Muscle issues that causes the eye to turn in. Typically addressed through surgery.
2. Focal issues in one eye that does not allow the brain to focus and as a result the brain will turn the eye of aka turn the eye in.
We are still in the process of diagnosing the issue and part of this process is to introduce glasses to determine if it is a focal issue. Simply put, if it is a focal issue, the eye will remain straight with the glasses on. If not, it is a muscle issue.
When the doctor told us he would have to wear glasses, I was surprised how troubling it was for me. It was just glasses! But to know our little man was going to have to deal with the hassles of wearing glasses really weighed heavily on our mind and had us challenging the doctor's diagnosis.
Long story short, we did get a second opinion. The diagnosis was slightly different, but with similar outcome....glasses. Fortunately, Ryan has being doing very well with the patch and the glasses. He really is a happy little man and does not let a patch or glasses stop him from playing and laughing. So instead of focusing on the negative, we are focusing on the positive and having some fun with it. With Halloween coming up, what better costume than Superman (and Clark Kent) to incorporate the glasses. I have been having a ton of fun taking pictures of Ryan for Halloween and hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I have taking them.
Happy Halloween!!!
