Well, as most people are interested in Emily's progress, after leaving my house at 9:45am and making it back to church right at 6pm (when it starts) this Saturday, I have much to report. We drove the hour and a half to see her retinal specialist, waited two hours to see him and when he saw her glasses, his only question was, "Why doesn't she have bifocals yet?" (He had recommended it six months ago). When I told him that my ophthalmologist had talked me out of it but I couldn't remember why, he asked if I wanted a second opinion. After Emily, I take second, third, as many opinions as it takes to get things right.
So off we went to another specialist who works on Saturdays. She informed me and even showed me how Emily's eyes line up when she looks at things farther away but they cross when she looks at things up close. She was very disappointed that Em was this old and bifocals hadn't been tried yet. I guess the order of events is bifocals, if they correct the crossing, leave it, if not, surgery. According to her, she should already have had surgery by this age so we are behind. Not much we can do at this point except start where we are at so I'm trying not to let that bother me.
We also discovered that her prescription was off again, this time over-correcting for her eyesight. Her previous prescription was -17.5 and -20.5 and now we need -16 and -19. So, after all this, all we know is that we need new glasses, with bifocals and it should have happened a while ago.
That meant that I spent Tuesday driving her to a town 45min away to the only store where I would be able to find glasses that would be wide enough for her prescription and high enough to accommodate bifocals (they need to be bigger) while still staying on the head of a two year old who loves nothing more than wrestling with her sister, dad, mom and anyone else who will join in.
We ordered the glasses and although they won't be as cute as these, our hope is that they will fix her eye crossing issues so she doesn't need surgery. Honestly, what I am most nervous about is going back to our ophthalmologist, telling him we went behind his back and got new glasses but would he please keep seeing us since, if she needs surgery, he is the guy who has to do it. Gotta love second opinions. They can help immensely but they also seriously add to the politics (especially when you are talking about children's specialists of whom there are limited numbers and generally large egos).
I don't mean to gloss over that her eyes are technically better than before but as it was likely just a mistake, it is hard to be too happy over it. It does give me a little relief though. She is doing well and these new glasses should help her see better up close. And, I am genuinely thankful we have so many available specialists and even if we have to drive hours and spend entire days to get things done, at least we have that option. It is a huge blessing and probably why God moved us to this area in the first place.
Well, on to more fun stuff...it is summer...have you noticed yet? We have been doing a lot of swimming and learning to swim. Em is going to be a fish. K is too scared to do much of anything. :)
Have a great day and God Bless!!
