Last September when the girls had their four year well check we found out that Elizabeth could not see very well out of one eye. COMPLETE shock. Just a sinking feeling as mom to walk in for a well check and find out she couldn't see. She has what's known as amblyopia of her right eye. Her left eye is perfect and at the time we had her checked she could not clearly see the largest letter on the eye chart with her right eye. She also had a weak reflection in that same eye that scared us because it meant she may have something behind her eye making her vision impaired. We saw a pediatric opthamologist the very next day to rule that out several concerns and thankfully no cataract or issue was found. Her eye itself was anatomically perfect, it was just the concern for vision. The way it was explained to me back then was that when one eye doesn't see as well as they other the brain will start to turn off those visual signals to the "bad" eye so that she doesn't see double. How could I not know?? That was the hardest thing. But the reality was with two eyes she could see just fine (in her mind) because one eye was doing all the work. She was put into full time glasses and we were told to patch her good eye 5 days a week for 3-4 hours a day. She took to it like a trooper with very little complaints. We had been through several different types of patches until we finally found one that was perfect and we get very little complaint with it. We talk about how her eyes and brain need to "exercise" to be healthy and strong and it's a good enough explanation for her. My sweet little Elizabeth!
One year later, we continue to patch 5 days a week for up to 4 hours a day. At our most recent visit her vision has corrected to 20/60 in her right eye (previously 20/>200). yahoo!!! Her right eye may never be perfect and worst case would be that she would be able to wear one contact in that eye. At this point, it's hard to see her without her pretty pink glasses. This past summer we upgraded her glasses to the transition lenses and they have really been fantastic! Of course the older she gets the crazier play time gets with friends and these poor glasses do take a beating. Just hoping that each pair can make it a year. That's always our goal at least.
Elizabeth at Disney's Animal Kingdom last year (2012)
(yes it's been ANOTHER year since I originally wrote this post!)
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