The Daily Hailey

As per our family doctors advisement, we brought Dekker in to see an ophthalmologist today, aka eye specialist. Dr. Rubab, to be exact. We were instructed to arrive a few minutes before 8:00am. So last night, we slept Dekker in a tshirt and sweats. This way, we could wake him totally last minute, change his bum, and put him in the car so he could wake up a little before we started stuffing breakfast down his throat. Plus he could sleep as long as possible. I think we woke him at about 6:55 and we were on the road a couple of minutes after 7:00. Success! Brady and I hadn’t eaten anything ourselves, but how long could one appointment take?!

Long. We got in right away and Dekker was put through a few different vision tests. Twenty minutes of that and we were back out in the waiting room. He cooperated really nicely the whole time he was being tested. The only tears came when we had to give his toy back. That never goes especially smoothly.

It was 8:30 and we were told Dr. Rubab would only arrive around 9:00. So we played in the little playhouse and lots of other kids came and went. Dekker seemed pretty overwhelmed by a few of them, but so was I! Crazy, uncontrolled kids with no bubble whatsoever. Not that I was worried at all, but Dekker is pretty cautious of new places and people. He did surprisingly well though, and only cried once when an older kid kind of barricaded him inside the little house and stood right face to face with him for several minutes. I would have lost it too. But honestly, that whole family was crazy.

At about 9:15 Dr. Rubab called us in and started her tests. I was nervous about the appointment for the silly reason that I wanted all the information I could get, but I was scared I wouldn’t be able to understand everything. I know, it sounds racist and mean and stereotypical, but I just didn’t want to miss anything. Lucky for me, our doctor was easy to understand, a wealth of information, and so soft with Dekker. Little whistles and tongue clicks were all he needed to catch his attention, and he cooperated beautifully. She did several different tests that his eye doctor had not done, actually holding lenses up for him to look through. I was surprised he had the patience he did, but she was engaging and was also very patient back.

Once she finished her tests and Dekker had a toy to keep himself occupied, Dr. Rubab went over some general information with us. She said these kind of eye issues usually present themselves around ages two or three, so its really great that we caught it so quick. Kids like him can often be grouped into three or four different categories. Some are just born more farsighted than others (I guess everyone is born farsighted to a degree) but we don’t know because everything they need to see is within reach really, and the eyes start to turn in as their world gets bigger, basically. Kids can also have their eyes turn in from a virus or some kid of trauma, that would weaken a muscle or nerve. Makes sense. Sometimes, she says, the issue just shows up out of nowhere, and there’s no real explanation and thats ok. And of course the scary option, where the child has a brain tumor or something awful like that, and I’m not even going there in my head right now. We’re going to put him in glasses and come back in two months. If his eyes are getting way worse or something, we’ll talk brain scans, but not yet at all.

We were thrilled to leave the hospital with a much lower prescription! It was a little uncomfortable to go back to our eye doctors office and use a different prescription than what Dr. Patterson had given us, but they were very accommodating and worked it out. We also couldn’t get the glasses we had originally wanted for him, but the woman who helped us was very honest in saying they just weren’t fitting well. While we could get them anyway, his tiny little non-nose would barely hold them up, and it wouldn’t make it any easier to teach them to keep them on his face. We tried on a lot of glasses!!

 

So she rummaged around and suggested lots of pairs until we found one we were happy with! Not that we’re super picky or anything, but the selection wasn’t great in the brand we were looking at. Doesn’t matter. We found some great ones, and they should be here in about a week to ten days. And then the fun really begins!

We didn’t get home until… about 1pm? Yikes, that was a long morning!

But Dekker did awesome 🙂 We were and continue to be sooo proud of him! From sitting through many exams, to waiting in the waiting room with almost no toys, to more eye drops, to sensitivity to light, to MORE exams, to trying on 10+ pairs of glasses, he did wonderfully! So proud of my little boy 🙂