Okay, as a hairstylist, I hear stories. Something about brushing and scrubbing and messing with hair brings out the truth in most everyone. As suggested by a reader based on one of last week’s post, during her mother’s hair appointment the other day, I immediately inquired about her experiences dealing with childhood eye issues.
But – oh! – I got so much more than the answers to my questions! As a side note, she casually mentioned that there was a time when – long story short – a stream of super glue squirted into her toddler daughter’s eye and glued it shut!
SHUT!
AHHHHHHHHH!
Every ear perked up at the shampoo bowl, straining to find out what happened. Instantly, my voice jumped an octave as shock, awe and curiosity drove the conversation for the next several minutes.
Here’s the good news: I know her daughter and 1) I’d have never known her to have eye issues and 2) I’d have never known her to have experienced a couple weeks of an eye glued shut. Miracles abound all the time!
Bennett’s eye appointment last week went almost TOO smoothly, though I did like the doctor very much. The babe was his typical, happy self, completely alert with ZERO lazy eye to mention. But rather than waiting six weeks as suggested, I called yesterday and bumped up the appointment for the second opinion. Square Piece ain’t got time to waste. So far, with all the advice I’ve been given and the history that’s been shared, the one takeaway I have is that lazy eye has never gone away on its own. Some type of intervention is always required, so I’d like to get this show on the road.
In the meantime, I’m taking pictures and videos to bring to the next appointment and I’m playing an improvised game of peek-a-boo with Bennett, only exposing his weaker eye when I say, “Boo!” so that it has to focus and strengthen.
I’m no doctor, but common sense dictates that eye muscle exercises wouldn’t hurt anything.
Here’s my lovie-love in ignorant bliss, all sleepy and wonky (and likely refocused ten seconds later… it’s such a fleeting thing!).
Bless his heart.
I took that picture the day after his eye appointment. The lazy eye, on Bennett’s right, seemed to take longer to rebound from being dilated than the left eye did. If you look closely, not only is it clearly drifting outward, but the pupil is larger as well.
Don’t worry. That’s not the norm, but the exception. Here’s the babe being his normal self, where I intend to keep him:
You are wise to see this problem and address it early. My daughter was in first grade before we had any inkling of a lazy eye. The eye appointment left us with a diagnosis of 20/200 vision, instructions on what to do to correct the problem and guilt for scolding her for balking over school work she said she could not see. She is now 30 and still wears glasses, but successfully strengthened that eye and overcame that initial blindness.
You are such a good Momma. 🙂
I’m glad you’re able to “capture” these moments so that you have evidence of what’s happening, and don’t have to listen to a doctor say, “oh, he just sees what he wants to see.” :p
🙂
Hahaha I should have known my mom would bring up the “Super Glue Incident”! That story gets told to just about anyone who will listen!
I told Square Piece the super glue story because it is one (not very effective!) way you could treat lazy eye – just glue the good one shut!! But seriously, I’m glad you moved the appointment up – eye sight is nothing to mess around with. And Momma’s right – you are such a good momma!
See, I must’ve missed the connection about the effectiveness of gluing an eye shut. I was too busy picking my jaw up off the floor.
Chelsea, your mom is wonderful for casually sharing the horrors of parenting in such a way that the rest of us feel less afraid of messing up. Life throws curveballs and she’s a doll not to pretend that she’s perfect. Gives us all a break.
No such thing as ‘perfect’ parenting. Sorry!
But, your mom is right about your powers of observation. How many of us would have realized? and I’ve known several people with ‘lazy eye’. My cousin wore a patch for quite a while. He was around three, I think, when it was discovered. The main thing is to find out whether, although you believe otherwise, Bennett may improve in the next year. I’ve never known anyone who was diagnosed as young as he which makes me wonder if the eye muscles are still doing their thing.
I think that you are doing the right thing with the patch. I agree, doing the eye muscle exercises couldn’t hurt things. Oh and I did notice the pupil. Haven’t seen that on him before. I’m sure over due time it will all correct itself. If not, we will all still love him the same. 🙂