An Eye Update

 

So the patch is actually not going too bad.  Scratch that, I should say it's going fabulous.  We got back from vacation the middle of January and started the patch from the get go.  #2 wakes up in the morning and the patch is put on within 30 minutes of waking up.  It's off at nap time, and then back on again when he wakes up until bed.  It's worn between 7 and 8 hours a day.  There are days that are a little less, but I feel we are avoiding something that does have the potential to blow his pupil, and that's all I care about.  The first couple of weeks were a little rough.  I took a page from my Mom's playbook and very matter-of-factly stated that it's something that has to be done and there's no room for arguing or negotiating.  The only time he takes the patch off during waking hours is when he's sitting in the car bored; and really even that's stopped since I got smart and put a box of reserve patches in the van.  I do let him take the patch off when we are at someone else's house and there are a lot of people/commotion around.  Because he doesn't have peripheral vision in the patched eye, he has a tendency to run into walls and such.  Poor guy :( 

 

I was hopeful this would only take a month or so, but now I'm not so sure.  I spoke with a father whose daughter had a severe farsighted eye and they did the atropine drops for an ENTIRE YEAR.  So the last time I bought patches I bought the place out, cause I think we're in it for the long haul.  At the very least, if this doesn't work, we can tell him when he is grown that we, he, did all the necessary things and that it's something that just wasn't going to be correctable.  But, let's hope it doesn't come to that.  Please think happy well wishes for this little guy.  I hope he doesn't have any memories of everybody constantly asking what's wrong with his eye.  I think we've pretty much explained it to just about every body we know and now all that's left are strangers.  And really that's not a bad thing because it has given us the opportunity to educate other parents the importance of paying attention to their child's eyes and to get them in early for a vision check.

 

And just because I can, here they all are enjoying each other's company.  I'd say this never happens but in a blue moon, but that wouldn't be true.  We have one or two of these moments a day :)