Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

Since she was three years old, Emily has worn eye glasses.  Infact, one of the ways I would tell people who was who with my twins is to say "Emily wears Eyeglasses.  E for Eyeglasses"  When she got her glasses her eye doctor explained that she does not have a vision problem, but that one of her eyes simply crosses and shuts off a certain part of her brain when it does.  This would happen often at that time.  He also explained that Emily had a 50% chance of outgrowing this problem when she as about 10 or 11 and a 50% chance that she would have to wear glasses or contacts for the remainder of her life.  She had to wear patches, drops in her strong eye to make it blurry so that her weak eye would get stronger.  She hated patches and the drops eventually started giving her headaches since it kept her eye dilated all the time.   

She started off with wire frames that had pieces that went behind her ears.  We hoped this would prevent an active 3 year old from them falling off her face and she step on them.  Mike and I have never worn glasses so we never really knew when to adjust her glasses (since she really didn't know how or when to tell us) until we would see her eyelashes curling up inside her lenses.  It was really bad!  A couple of years ago she decided she wanted a pair of plastic frames.  I had a good friend who wore the plastic frames and loved them.  We got her those and she was much happier.  She has her athletic glasses for softball and gymnastics and we don't know her without them. 

Two weeks ago she came home from her eye doctor appointment with a huge smile on her face.  Mike had taken her to the doctor.  She looked at me and Mike said something about "look at what is missing."  I looked at her and she was smiling just like this. The doctor told her she only has to wear glasses at school and when she is working on things that are up close.  If she is not focusing on something close up she does not have to wear them.  No more athletic glasses and no more glasses at home unless we are doing homework or working on the computer.  She is so excited!!  We go back again in a year and are hoping that at that point he will tell us that she does not have to wear them anymore.  Who knows--this may be something she will still always have to have, but at least it is not constant anymore.  Can't tell you how happy she is.  :)

Emily at three years old when she first got her glasses.

Emily's glasses

Since Emily was about 10 months old, we have noticed her left eye will cross from time to time. We brought this to the attention of our pediatrician and he said that it is something she may outgrow and not to worry about it until she turns 3. When she turned 2 we really stopped noticing it. Not sure if we were not as observant or if we were just not seeing things or what, but then when she turned 3 we started noticing it again. In bringing it to the attention of our pediatrician again, he referred us to a pediatric eye doctor in Charlottesville. Our appointment was yesterday. Dr. Carter was really great with her! Though I have been fortunate enough to never have visited an eye doctor he really seemed like he did a lot of different things since she is a small child. He showed her pictures, lights, animals . . . had her look though the eye machine, but while holding the "handle bars" of the "bike." She would not actually talk to him (a little shy), but answered his questions by nodding her head or pointing. She did a great job! He dilated her eyes and determined that she does have a small problem.

Emily is too farsighted. All children are farsighted, but Emily has to sometimes strain to see things that are close up. For a three year old, most of their day is spent with activities that are up close. Her eye crossing is actually her eye shutting down. Each time it crosses it shuts down and shuts down that part of her brain for that moment. He said her vision is good, but her eye needs aligning. If we do nothing, she could potentially go blind in that eye over several years.

As much as it broke my heart to think about having to put a three year old kid in glasses, we took her for her fitting when we returned from Charlottesville. She picked out her pink frames (pink at the ear piece) and they came with a little princess glasses case. It looks like a little purse and Emily refers to it as her suitcase:). She has not tried to take them off and she says she can see things better. We have made a very big deal about her new glasses! She looks very pretty in them and is so proud of them. We are a little concerned of jealousy with Lydia not needing glasses, but so far Lydia will put her sunglasses on and tell us she can see things better too:).