Friday, November 12, 2010

Like Father, Like Son




I hate learning lessons the hard way.

About 3 weeks ago, the school nurse at North Bay sent home a note to tell us that Jeff didn't pass his vision screening and that we were then required to have him evaluated by an optometrist and return a signed form. Honestly, I was a little annoyed. Jeff had always passed his vision screenings at school and his well check-ups and I thought, maybe, he was just messing around. Now, Dustin is very serious about his glasses and his eye check-ups. He stays on top of things. I, on the other hand, haven't been to the eye doctor since 1994 and that was for an injury, not an eye exam. I have never taken my kids in for real eye exams. Boy, have I learned my lesson. We get one free a year per child. I should have been taking them in! Jeff has Amblyopia. It means one of his eyes is lazy and isn't working while the other eye is picking up all the slack. Someone should have caught it a long time ago, but it's been left unchecked. Now Jeff gets to wear a patch and glasses until he is 8 years old. He is excited about the patch, but about the glasses...not so much. The glasses came in yesterday and I think they are pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. We all fasted last week for Jeff's eyes and we are hopeful, while knowing the true limitations, that Jeff's eye will improve throughout this treatment. Lesson learned: use the free eye exam every year for every child! It's definitely worth your time!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oooo, good thing they found it when they did. My sister had a friend in HS that they found it too late that the patching didn't work and brain shut that eye off completly. Rick said to check out www.patchpals.com for some fun patches that he gets for kid/patients to make it a little more exciting. Hope it all works out well! As long as he/you are good about wearing the glasses and patching like they said it should though.