Eye Update

Carli had her appointment this morning. It actually went pretty well as far as her behavior. She is a stubborn little one though. Once she knew they kept trying to look at her left eye, she put her hand over it the whole time. The doctors were all really great with her and you can tell they love kids. It was a fun clinic with tons of great toys, things to do in the waiting room, great ways to get a little one to do what they want her to do, and plenty of kids with glasses on - of which Carli will now be one.

So, after several tests and eye drops, the ophthamologist determined that Carli's left eye is extremely far-sighted while her right eye is perfectly normal. He believes this has caused her left eye to become lazy as well as crossed. So, we are getting her glasses immediately. In a few months we will begin patching her right eye (the good one) to force her left eye to work (fixing the laziness) and to focus (fixing the cross). Hopefully, it will also improve the vision in that eye. We will now be at the ophthamologist around once a month where he will determine how the patch is improving the left eye and if it is affecting the right eye negatively and we will adjust from there. Down the road, if the glasses and patch have not cured the crossed-eye, we will consider surgery.

Now, this is all pretty much what I anticipated. But, I hadn't taken the time to really think about what it means. First, I have to figure out ways to get my 18-month-old to keep her glasses on. ??? How am I going to do that? Then I have to make her keep a patch on all day everyday for who knows how long - could be years. And she'll have to wear glasses/contacts for the rest of her life. I realize that's the way it is for anyone who wears glasses, but I didn't think about it starting now for my 18-month-old daughter. :( It just makes me kind of sad.

So, any words of advice? I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about this over the coming months.