Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Avery's eye update
As mentioned in my previous post, the actual reason to go to Kelowna today was for Avery to have her appointment with the pediatric opthamologist, Dr. Yap. If you don't already know, Avery has a lazy eye and has been wearing glasses since September. In October we started a program of patching her strong eye to make the brain recognize the visual stimulus coming from the left eye. This is working and she has improved her vision in the left eye by quite a bit. Our appointment today consisted of waiting, seeing the assistant for a quick check, puting drops in to dilate the pupils, waiting another half an hour for them to work (Avery actually fell asleep on my lap believe it or not), and then getting to see Dr. Yap for a total of maybe 5-7 minutes. He is happy with the progress Avery is making and thinks things still will improve over the next year or two. In the meantime, he has increased the prescription in the right lense of her glasses and recommended that we patch for 2 hrs per day. Now he did say that Avery should do something like read, watch tv or play on the computer during this time which really won't be too difficult for her. As it is I have to pry her away from the tv and computer. I don't think she really heard him practically prescribe these favorite activities. She may still have to do this for the next year or two and by then the eye will probably be as good as it will get. I pray for perfection but will be happy with whatever will be.
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5 comments:
It is great that Avery is making strides with her vision. It is hard to see little ones go through any sort of thing like this. Aidan is getting used to his glasses but still (and probably always will) have double vision when he's not wearing them (which is tough at swimming lessons!)He doesnt have lazy eye, but we sure can empathize with you guys! Hope Avery continues to do well.
Sounds like encouraging news. It's great that Avery likes her glasses. I used to wish I could have some as a kid, because I thought they were so cool. I still do (although I need to wear mine more than I do).
I am so happy that the appointment went so good. You must be thrilled with the progress. Way to go Avery.
Hi. I'm a friend of Christy's. Perhaps you read my blog sometimes too. Anyways, when I was around 4 years old I developed a lazy eye from watching the TV too close. So, I had glasses too from a very young age. There was no prescription in the lense with my good eye but I did have to wear a patch over it for a couple of years. Then, maybe in grade three or so it turned out that my good eye was degressing because it wasn't really being used that much. (I probably wore the patch all day at school & then didn't have to wear it at home-I don't remember but the two hours at time thing will probably prevent it). However, my lazy eye had improved substantially & I went off glasses altogether until after I graduated when I was doing more tasks that strained my eyes (crocheting, computer, etc.). I remember being teased a bit growing up with that patch but there aren't any permanent scars & I actually liked going to see my specialist. He was funny looking & had the name Dr. Shuckett. That's funny for kids! Anyways, you can tell Avery that it will help her & having good eyesight is very important. It's good to take care of the problem when kids are young before any really bad wandering eye problems start. That's when kids really make fun of you. The patch is nothing compared to that, I imagine. It sounds like she doesn't mind going through all this. It makes it easier when you know that your family loves you despite the changes. Good luck & keep us posted.
I'm glad to hear things are going well with Avery's eyes. It's frustrating, though, isn't it, when you work in health care and know that side of it so well, then have to go and be a patient! Anyways, it was a strange experience for me when Ben was in the hospital -- I think I'd rather work!!
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